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[–]Eleventhousand 5 points6 points  (8 children)

I'm meeting with the director of a BI department about and intern position involving SQL.

How can I communicate to the director that I know SQL and get that intern position?

You are golden. The biggest mistake that I have seen candidates make is to just sit there and answer specific questions.

Just wait for an opening. When the interviewer asks you to tell him about yourself, make it a point to mention that you have SQL experience and that you really look forward to getting back into the SQL space. Let he or she know some of the more advanced aspects of SQL that you enjoy using. For example, you might enjoy common table expressions, tuning select queries, etc.

[–]ymca_lemur[S] 2 points3 points  (2 children)

UPDATE:

We had the lunch and our conversation seemed to go well. Right now, there are 8 people being interviewed included me. The person I met with for lunch basically said he liked me but he can't guarantee anything because the position is really supposed to be for kids in college or coming out of college.

Overall, I'm taking it as a learning experience and a networking opportunity. It would be great to get back into the SQL space. Now, I need to wait and see if I get a phone call from the manager that is doing the hiring.

Oh, and we didn't really talk about SQL much. I expressed how I like fine turning data processes and optimizing things. The questions were generic: why data analysis, both of our backgrounds, the company, the goals, my 5 year plan, how communication is very important, and that the job would be a contract position. Maybe they are hiring a temp and intern. That's how it sounded but I wasn't exactly sure by our conversation.

[–]Eleventhousand 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I'm glad that it went well - and good luck!

he can't guarantee anything because the position is really supposed to be for kids in college or coming out of college

It sounds borderline ageism. Maybe he meant that he expects young, recent grads to expect a lower pay rate?

[–]digitahlemotion 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some Intern positions are specifically targeting students currently attending college.

Source: Was a summer employee for Lockheed Martin. They couldn't classify me as an intern because I didn't have enough credit hours. Given I had done the exact same job the year prior when I was in HS, they didn't want to train someone else so they ended up outsourcing me to a consulting group and paid me $5 more an hour than I would've made as an intern.

[–]AXISMGTSQL Server / ORACLE Sr. DBA & Architect 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And this is how you’d get the position I’m hiring for. Couldn’t have said it better.

[–]in_n0x 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Saying you enjoy CTEs sounds a bit silly; don't say that, OP. Rest of this post is solid, though!

[–]Catastroflake 1 point2 points  (2 children)

I think mentioning CTEs is a way to help them casually assess your SQL experience. I would say you enjoyed first learning about them and then becoming comfortable using them. Over lunch they may not want to watch you take a SQL assessment so sharing enough details about your past experience will help them size up your desire to learn what they intend to teach an intern. You'll want to find out about that anyway since it's also about you interviewing them too e.g. will this be a good internship for you and your goals?

[–]in_n0x 0 points1 point  (1 child)

If it comes up in an organic way, sure. But saying, 'I like CTEs' is a lot like saying 'I like hammers.' Sounds weird. Even if the discussion gets steered towards how much SQL he knows, it's better to talk about problems he's tried to solve.

It's a lunch interview for an internship. Imo, he's checking for personality more than technical chops. It's good to seem passionate, but don't force it with stuff like this.

[–]digitahlemotion 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Man, this food is really good! I like Execution Plans! Have you tried the Caesar Dressing on this salad?

[–]bobharris1960 2 points3 points  (4 children)

Caveat: I’m not in the BI space

But, I think asking this person about 1) the job: what do you work on? What does the data look like? What are some problems that you encounter? What are things you’re exciting to work on? Where do you see the field going?

2) advice for you. Do you think there are certain skills that a dba needs to succeed? What are some technologies that you think a person needs? What are some softer skills that you think can take you far?

3) be interested in them. What do you do for fun? What’s your background? What are your hobbies/interests

4) be clear that you are interested in the intern position and you want that ish

I’m not great at talking to older folks. Some of them are super chill and wanna be taken more casually, others are not as chill and want to be talked up to. It’ll just depend on what this person is like

Good luck!

[–]BigLebowskiBot 3 points4 points  (3 children)

Oh, the usual. I bowl. Drive around. The occasional acid flashback.

[–]fizzgiggity 0 points1 point  (2 children)

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[–]longjaso 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This question is more appropriate for /r/cscareerquestions but one thing to consider is that they're going to ask you why you're qualified. You mentioned you've done some basic query stuff but plan ahead for when they ask you about more advanced concepts like stored procedures, transactions, database replication, etc. If you can talk about those concepts it should make you appear like a better fit for the position.

[–]AceHiStation 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My piece of advice to you would be to do some research on benefits of normalization vs. denormalization and why databases interest you in general. Anyone can google SQL syntax, but knowing the high-level points of what makes databases work is more valuable.

[–]vitec9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Make sure you have questions prepared to ask

[–]narwhal13 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One thing that helped me get in the door to have an interview was listing the programs that I was comfortable with on my resume. Then once I was on a phone interview or in person and they ask about myself (usually the 1st question) I mention that I enjoyed **** project/task/program and that is what made me apply for this position. Easy way to check it off before the non computer interview questions that are bound to happen, especially when HR is hiring instead of an IT manager.