The Spotlight is on Jeffrey Garbus. Mr. Garbus wrote some of our SQL Server DBA and Developer content.

RN: Please tell us a little about yourself.

GARBUS: I have a B.S.C.S. Degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and work experience from PC's to Mainframes and back again. I got started with MS SQL Server & Sybase a bit over 10 years ago, and have watched the technologies evolve over time. I've worked as developer, designer, architect, DBA, project lead, technical trainer... just about everything. I've also done alot with what used to be called very large databases; now, 300 gig databases are almost routine. I've spoken at conferences, written articles and columns for many magazines nationally and internationally, and have written over a dozen books.

RN: How did you first get involved in writing technical books?

GARBUS:I've like to write ever since I got out of high school and was no longer forced to. I started writing technical magazine articles in 1991. Then, in 1994 I was on a CompuServe forum, and somebody posted a request: "Can anybody write a Sybase Systems Administration book?" I had just finished writing a class on the subject for my own company, so responded to the request with an outline, and a list of the magazine articles I'd already written. After this book came the Unleashed Books for Sybase & Microsoft. From there, it was just a matter of investing lots of evenings and weekends. My current publisher is Wordware.

RN: Outside of working with ReviewNet, what do you feel is your biggest professional accomplishment?

GARBUS: I think finishing my first book was the one thing I was most proud to complete; but I enjoy doing anything that "people" think can't be done.

RN: Tell us about your latest book?

GARBUS: My latest Microsoft SQL Server book is "SQL Server 2000 Administration", which is targeted towards folks who know nothing about either SQL Server or Adminsitration, particularly folks who have bought a 3rd-party product and find that they suddenly have more work to do than bringing a floppy disk-backup home on fridays. My latest book is Sybase 12.5 Performance and Tuning, the latest in the new Sybase Library. Both are available from www.wordware.com

RN: PPlease share your thoughts with us on the role that ReviewNet evaluations play in hiring IT professionals.

GARBUS: I think this is a fantastic idea. Every time I've worked as a lead DBA, there's been a trial when attempting to find new talent. Typically, I don't have time to qualify every candidate myself, and I have to make a list of questions for an HR person. Unfortunatley, without a tool like ReviewNet, this has limited use unless I take the time to write somthing this sophisticated; and I'm well aware that writing the questions is very different from building and impleneting an interviewing application. This enables the hiring groups to prequalify individuals, and rate them, prior to bringing them in for the personal interview.

RN: How did you design your ReviewNet test to help eliminate IT hiring mistakes?

GARBUS: This was easy. Most "online" tests look in the books, and ask basic technical questions. I took practical examples of the types of problems people encounter in real life at different phases of expereince level, and pose those questions. If candidates have been working for a period of time, and know the ropes, they'll have an easy time with the questions, and have some fun. Candidates with book knowledge only will have to be pretty sharp to figure out what's behind the questions (which is also OK!).