The interview process was very relaxed and informal. Initially I had a half hour phone call with the company director, Dave Henderson, for a bit of Q&A on both sides and for each to get a sense of the other, what we are looking for and whether we each match the others expectations. I remember the conversation as being fairly positive, freeform and relaxed.
I was contacted afterwards by the agent to confirm that I was through to the next stage, which would be a verbal technical test of about 30 minutes, also over the phone, with the same person who spoke to me in the first. The test was also fairly relaxed and informal, where each question would lead into a brief discussion around the answer. The focus was not so much as to prove my technical excellence but more I felt to demonstrate breadth of experience and talk credibly about it.
Pro DBA require all candidates to have professional certifications for their business model, as a way to assure their clients that all Pro DBA workers will be qualified non-junior professionals. Despite not having any professional certifications, I was somehow accepted as a candidate for interview where normally I would have been filtered out. I was upfront with the agent from the beginning about my lack of certifications so I'm not completely sure where the confusion arose.
My lack of certifications was only noted after the second phone interview, and I heard from the agent that Dave was apologetic that he had missed this detail from my resume but that it was an important requirement which ruled me out (paraphrasing, not a quote). I'd like to add that I fully understand that requirement for this company's business model, and have no problem with it.
Overall, I felt the interview process was a positive one, where I walked away with some positive feedback (I had been successful up to this point) but was ultimately unsuccessful due to me not meeting understandably required criteria.
