If I was looking to hire a kid fresh out of school, it would not be for a position that has control over the firewall, content filter, or anything that mission-critical. That would only be entrusted to someone with actual work experience because of the risks involved if managed incorrectly, or, as ICH remarked, by the book and ONLY by the book.
They might earn that in a year or two once they exhibit trustworthiness and technical ability. Not right out the gate, though.
So one thing I would suggest is to rein back the expectations of job prospects. I talk about this often, but having spent many years in school while having been in the field for years, I saw the unreasonable expectations students had for tech jobs upon graduation.
As for what I would ask in the interview, I was very light on actual technology questions. I gleaned their abilities and experience from their resumes and would tailor questions during the interview to ask those technical questions. I asked one candidate to explain how a network works if I was a regular user. I was expecting a brief, high level illustration. I was hoping for analogies. I was also interested in seeing if the candidate deliberately avoided the technical details.
I skipped asking that question of another candidate because it was obvious that he could do so.
I’m more interested in creativity when devising solutions. Do they have the flexibility of mind to deviate from The Book when needed? To find this out, I ask them to describe a situation where they did have to be creative. It doesn’t even have to be technology-related.
I can teach technology, as it specifically relates to our organization.
I’m also more interested in whether the person can be nice to our users.
I’d know more about how and what they’re capable of learning after about 1-2 months.
I also am not interested in whether they’ve memorized the right answers to some questions, because we’re in 2018 and anyone can look up those answers from the Internet machines attached to our hips. I’m more interested in learning how one would ask the questions to formulate the search criteria (also, to MrG: OW, O, GW, Bl, BlW, G, BrW, Br 
)
But I only know that off the top of my head because for almost 10 years, I was the resident cable maker and punch-down guy. It was in my lap because I just happened to be the fastest and cleanest with wiring. The other guys all had their skills and specialties (the network admin could run circles around me with Cisco CLI and firewall tweaking. One of the other sysadmins knew AD like the back of his hand).
If they had to run cable, they could, but they’d have to look up the order. It doesn’t mean they’re disqualified from IT, however.
To me, not knowing that isn’t a deal breaker because if they’re in a position to need to run cable, we’ll address it at that time, including reference guides and applicable networking theories.
To that end, something else I might ask is what the candidate learned over the last year, what prompted it, and how they went about it. I’d be looking for some nonverbal cues at that point, seeing if their eyes light up with pride, if their voice rises or speeds up with excitement, and just generally seeing what level of passion they show for learning in general or that specific topic.
I want to see how a candidate carries him or herself in interacting with people (with the understanding that they’re going to be nervous anyway). I’m not going to throw gotchas at a person just to see how they react to pressure. I’m not going through a litany of technical multiple-choice quizzes. I want to know what their passions in technology are, and how they behave. What drives and motivates them.
