Reza Alirezaei’s Blog

Recently I’ve came across another strange issue with reporting serivces.I’m hopping that all these stuff are well addressed in Yukon version ,or else 🙂 .I didn’t make the database case sensitive collation in the setup and case sensitive collation was not also activated in any of the columns throughout the database. In one of my tables, there is a column called “Client_Type” which is of type Varchar and unfortunately there are some bad data sitting there (might be because of wrong UI validations or data conversion or whatever).Below is different chunks of data in that column.

PRIMARY

PRIMARY MAKER

SECONDARY

Primary

Primary Maker

Secondary

From database standpoint, there is no difference between “Primary” and “PRIMARY” (which is obvious as I didn’t activate “case sensitive collation”),but when it comes to Reporting services it DOSE matter!! specifically in formulas and string manipulation functions. How come it is case sensitive in reporting services whilst is not in its backend database ?!!!

There is a possible workaround for this. Add ToString().ToUpper() to all field values used in comparisons. Of course changing the collation of the database is another possibility,but Just for your reference, specifying collation is usually done for the whole server in the installation of sql server and changing one database collation afterward is a bit tricky ,because if you have one database on a server which has a different collation to the server default, it will also have a different collation to TEMPDB. This can cause unexpected problems with sorting of results, and handling of #temp table data. Better, if you can, to get the whole server at the right collation.

Let’s assume that you are going to interview someone for a supervision position. Like any other tasks, you have to define a strategy in advance to manage a successful interview and to achieve what you want to get the most out of  that particular person for whom you have arranged the interview. Here are some questions /suggestions that I’m aware of.Just go ahead and pick the ones which best suit your case. They are a bit tricky, so you may want to ask them in a way that he doesn’t think you are trying to make him look silly or bringing him down. Nodding your head to signal approval and smiling are very effective ways to get him in the mood and to get him breathless with your level of professionalism as well.

The first important thing to be considered is that instead of asking direct questions like what is your favorite…? Or how do like ……? ; try to ask scenario-based questions. For instance throw him one of your everyday hassles or challenges at work and then ask him what his plan is to approach or probably solve it. This also implies that you know your business bottom lines. Well, these scenarios should not be very difficult to be contextualized or realized .People normally start with very simple ones and make it harder as they go deeper.

Now, let’s have a look at the questions:

Scenario-based questions:

  1)what have you done to prepare yourself to be a supervisor? >>I personally like this one!! It reveals a lot.

  2)We don’t have a facility to do bluh bluh bluh (archiving the tickets or recording the feature requests or etc)? Can you think about a solution?

  3)There is a customer on the line complaining about one of us. Could you please walk me through, exactly what you usually do in these circumstances? 

  4)How do you manage client’s requests with your team’s ability and availability? How do you reprioritize the tasks?

General questions:

  1)What aspect of supervision do you find the most difficult?

  2)How do you decide what to delegate and to whom?

  3)In what kind of work environment are you most comfortable?

  4)What is the most important quality a supervisor should have?

The last and the most important thing to remember is that if you feel that he is not an able person; don’t make him awkward by asking difficult questions. It is not fare. 

Happy interviewing and good luck!