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I am trying to get some extra help in my department. Being a couple years in to the sysadmin role I have never interviewed anyone. I want to make sure the questions I am asking are not to much for a new helpdesk position we are trying to fill. Also any suggestions for my first time would be a great help. Please keep in mind I can’t trust management to hire me a competent employee, should I be concerned about this as well?

Scenario 1:Summary: Shasta’s Computer

Description: Shasta’s computer is running extremely slow.

Questions:Knowing that this location is 45 minutes, in Andrews, how would you handle it?

What tools would you use to clean it up? Feel free to ask for suggestions.

After running tools what would you do next?

If this happened again what would you do next?

Scenario 2: Summary: HELP PLEASE

Description: Hello,

Shelby here, I need to see if someone can please help me with my screen. For some reason it is pink i tried everything but i am bad at it apparently. Also i am bringing a printer from home after lunch, if you would please help me set that up also. I will be gone from 12-1

Questions:What are your initial thoughts on what the problem is with her screen?

What is the first step you would take when handling this scenario?

If you fixed the screen problem, what is your next step with this request?

How do you install a printer?

Scenario 3: Summary: No internet connection

Description: karla doesn’t have internet on her computer but everyone in the finance building does

Questions:What would you do first to troubleshoot the issue?

What do you think the problem is?

How would you go about fixing the problem?

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Those are some good questions. I would also ask questions like “what is your biggest failure” it makes them honest with you.

Add some character type questions in there as well

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I like the one you suggested, I am also adding “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” and I am still trying to come up with a third.

For the third I found some suggestions on the net: “Why do you want this job?” I believe this will also help determine if they are willing to learn the inner workings of IT.

My last question is formatting, should I ask the character questions first or last? Currently I have them at the end but I am thinking from a flow perspective to ask them first? Anyways thanks for your help this is exactly what I needed.

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No. Just … no. Cliched questions like this don’t help anybody, and certainly don’t help an employer get a feel for whether a prospect will be a good fit for the position. Instead they turn the interview into a pointless shell game of bland questions and meaningless answers.

I like the open-ended practical questions listed in the OP.

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Back up a bit.

Lawyers always say, “Never ask a question you don’t know the answer to.” The point of that, of course, is to ask questions that provide useful information for their case. In your case, what useful information do you want to extract from your candidates? Ask those questions instead of the typical empty crap like the one above. Because, honestly, do you really want to hear something other than, “Working my ass off for this company”? Do you think you’ll actually get an answer that’s not on that theme? Does it matter if you do?

You already have the candidate’s resume. If you’re interviewing them, you feel the resume shows a promising fit - at least on paper. Ask questions that confirm or refute this assumption. Ask questions that highlight whether the candidate would be a good cultural fit.

And for the love of all that’s good and right, ask at least one of the following:

  • Crunchy or creamy?
  • Kirk or Picard?
  • Who shot first?
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Thank you fixing to do this. I will eliminate the extra crap discussed above. I agree i didn’t like those questions when i was asked.

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given it is very difficult to accurately judge anyone’s technical ability in an interview.
you are far better off looking at their personality and asking if its someone who fits your team and someone you would want to work with.

You can teach someone to recite the FMSO roles from memory.
But you cant un-teach someone for being a dick.

Not understandings what a vlan is will never cause as much damage as a toxic member of the team.

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someone calls and says they can’t print…what do you do?

someone calls and says they can’t get on the wifi…what do you do?

someone calls and says their computer won’t turn on…what do you do?

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I appreciate everything, it will be a learning process even with your help. It is a a great learning experience either way.

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I completely agree here, and disagree some with Bryan Katz. I think the open ended 5 year question is a useless question. I like the biggest failure question. Specifically I ask what your biggest mistake was and what did you take away from that experience. Remember, it’s a helpdesk position. It’s public facing, and the prospective employee’s interpersonal skills are as important as their technological knowledge. I ask the mistake question as it helps me judge their honesty/integrity (we’ve all made mistakes), their level of arrogance (toxic for helpdesk) and their ability for introspection. You don’t get that knowledge from asking what a VLAN is or how they would fix a printer problem.

Agree with Colin. A toxic personality can destroy your entire department. I’ve seen it before. Additionally a toxic person in a public facing role can harm the company’s opinion of your department.

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I agree with the toxic personality very much, when I started here we had a Senior IT Specialist. He didn’t know jack squat and was over paid to manage printers and office supplies. This IT Specialist was a very soar person and always blamed everyone else for IT related problems. In fact it got to be so much of a problem that I had to set him up to do his job and let him fail. I simple asked him to complete an office move by installing the printers. I physically moved them and all he had to do was change IP and configure through PC and terminal server. He could not complete this before he had to leave. The main reason he was fired though is because he was talking about me to the wrong people.

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  1. Cashew - peanuts upset my stomach.

  2. No Star Trek.

  3. Han, you monster.

As for OP, ask questions for stuff that you have real problems with.

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I’ve found that you will get more use from questions like- “Do you work on your own vehicle / home / plumbing etc?” , “Turn your back to us and, just with words, tell me how to tie a shoe”, “What has been your biggest professional mistake? Would you put yourself in that situation again?” than questions like- “User says computer is running slow, what do?”. There isn’t a good answer to that without knowing a lot about your specific environment and power structure.

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I like the questions that reveal trouble shooting skill and thought process. If you take the examples from the OP and condense them down a bit like j rad suggested then you can engage and hopefully observe what the candidate would go through on the job.

Some of the answers to the original questions may not go the way you intended. For example, what to do with a users home equipment can vary greatly depending on the policies at a particular employer. Here i can tell the user to keep their equipment at home because we do not deal with employee owned hardware but at other shops it may be policy to try and do what you can for them.

I hate the fluffy no right answer questions.

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Agreed on the home hardware issue. Here, we are not allowed or urged to help with home hardware issues. It’s company policy, so unless they know your company policy, they can’t answer that to the extent you’re hoping. Unless of course the answer you’re looking for is “I’d would consult company policy, and help as needed based on that.” Too many variables that the hire prospect isn’t aware of.

Biggest failure is a good one, it does kind of force them to be honest. Then ask how they overcame that failure.

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