Interview Questions

christopher6322 · 2018-01-26T12:25:08.000Z

Hi Everyone

As some of you know, I started a new job a few month ago shaping the minds of prospective IT personnel. I am obviously concerned about my students getting jobs in the field when they are done, and I was hoping you could give me some tips on interview questions that would be asked.

The topics that I am covering with the students include:
A+
Network+
Windows 10
Windows Server 2012 (aligning to 410,411 and 412)
CCNA

What interview questions have your heard? What interview questions would you ask (if you were in a position to ask questions)?

Thank you!

lewandowski · 2018-01-26T13:03:29.000Z

How do you prioritize tasks?

How do you work in a group? What role do you typically find yourself fitting into?

Can you describe a project you have been a part of and the results? Learning opportunities from the project? Successes and failures?

How do you stay current in technology?

Do you have a home lab?

How do you handle stressful situations? How do you react in high pressure situations? Examples?

The technical questions are important, but the foundations for tech have been learned in school and they will learn more on the job. The soft skills would be my focus on the interview. Anyone can get a cert, but skills will be proven on the job.

They should be able to explain and answer questions about updating procedures. What is DNS how does it work?

How do DNS, DHCP and active directory function together?

What’s the pin out for CAT5e 568B?
What’s the command for getting a MAC from an IP and the other way?

Explain VLANs and when they should be used.

Cisco commands for showing running config. How to configure an interface and trouble issues.

ich · 2018-01-26T13:14:38.000Z

When I am interviewing, I am looking for someone who will speak up for themselves, and challenge what they thing is wrong.I want someone who is open to learning and keen to develop themselves. I frequently throw out an incorrect statement like “Of course the webserver is outside the firewall”, and see how the candidate reacts. What I am looking for is for the statement to be questioned. A polite" excuse me, but why is that?" or “That is not usual, could you tell me why?” or similar. Someone who just smiles and nods goes down in my estimation, and later I may try again.I am not trying to trick them, but I want to see if they can question things in an appropriate way. Of course if they over react and call me an idiot for doing that, it is also a black mark.

It will not be at the beginning of the interview that I would do this, as that would not be fair. I wait until the ice has been broken, and the candidate has relaxed a bit. I would first ask them about themselves and their past experience, to try to get them talking about things that they know and understand. when they have warmed up a bit, I would explain what the job entailed, and ask them about how they saw themselves fitting the requirement. I would then probe a bit on their technical knowledge. I would try to find some edges, where their knowledge ran out. I would be looking for a reasonable question that they did not know the answer to. I am looking for the candidate to admit that they don’t know, and tell me what they would do about it. I may challenge something that they have said, to try to get them to defend their statement or view

Then I would explain the environment in more detail, partly to make sure the candidate knows about the environment they would be working in, and also to help me assess how much of it they understand. That is when I would slip in a statement that goes against conventional best practice, or is clearly wrong. As I said above, I am looking to see how they react to this, and see if they are prepared to question or challenge what I have said. The particular statement would depend on the vacancy I was looking to fill, and may relate to the network, as in my example above, or a server config, or some such that was relevant, and that the candidate should know about and have a view on.

I would give the candidate a chance to ask their own questions, and I would expect there to be some. I may deliberately not tell the candidate something important that they should be looking to find out, to give them an obvious first question (and if they did not pick up on it, I would tell them what they need to know later anyway).

I try to be fair. I am not looking to catch anybody out. I do however want to give the candidate the opportunity to show that they would fit in. To show that they can think on their feet. To show that they are prepared to ask questions. To show that they are able, and prepared to debate things.

I know this is not a specific answer to the topics that you mentioned, but I am sure others will give you that. I thought I would try to give an insight into how an experienced hiring manager may go about structuring an interview, and what they might be looking for outside particular skills.

I always take the view that skills can be learnt, but attitude is much harder to change. I would hire someone lacking a key skill, but had the right attitude over someone with all the skills, but a poor attitude every day of the week and twice on Sunday. I can send the new hire on a training course to cover the missing skill. Hiring someone with a bad attitude can end up costing far more than the price of a good course.

I hope this is of help.

christopher6322 · 2018-01-26T13:15:48.000Z

Thank you JeffLew07. I like that you’ve included soft skills into that, and maybe I’ll design some projects for the students to configure as a group and get them to evaluate their own work. That’s a great idea!

@lewandowski

lahimakonem · 2018-01-26T13:16:24.000Z

Do you have a home lab? Yes–proceed

No - So, you have 10 years experience?

rachelwhite6630 · 2018-01-26T13:40:22.000Z

I had logic questions for my last sys admin job. I like to use it occasionally to see how people think.

You have 8 pool balls and a set of balance scales, one of the pool balls is minutely heavier than the other 7. How would you use the scales to figure out which one it is in the smallest amount of moves…

rachelwhite6630 · 2018-01-26T13:43:44.000Z

lahimakonem:

Do you have a home lab? Yes–proceed

No - So, you have 10 years experience?

I dunno, I’ve worked in IT for 10 years (as has my husband) and I don’t have a home lab. I refuse to take my work home, everything I do stays at the office. I can remote in from home if I need to do stuff, but otherwise home is an almost entirely IT free space.

christopher6322 · 2018-01-26T13:46:15.000Z

Thank you @justin5198-spiceworks ! There is a lot of great information in that post! I am planning on posing some architectural questions to the students such as why have a DMZ, or what is wrong with some architecture designs and how they would go about fixing it. I’d love to hear any additional suggestions you would have on this if you have time!

@ich

christopher6322 · 2018-01-26T13:48:20.000Z

Ratchit99:

I dunno, I’ve worked in IT for 10 years (as has my husband) and I don’t have a home lab. I refuse to take my work home, everything I do stays at the office. I can remote in from home if I need to do stuff, but otherwise home is an almost entirely IT free space.

Everyone works in their own way. In my job, I can’t afford to only work at work; I have to bring stuff home (marking, etc). But also, I have to find time to study. I can’t study at work when I teach two classes (8-12 and 1-5), so I end up doing a lot of my studying and prep work at home and on weekends.

rachelwhite6630 · 2018-01-26T13:50:58.000Z

Christopher6322:

Everyone works in their own way. In my job, I can’t afford to only work at work; I have to bring stuff home (marking, etc). But also, I have to find time to study. I can’t study at work when I teach two classes (8-12 and 1-5), so I end up doing a lot of my studying and prep work at home and on weekends.

true, I trained as a teacher but couldn’t deal with the amount I had to bring home in terms of planning/marking etc. so preferred going back to my quiet role where I could step away at the end of the day and not worry about anything until I walked back in the next morning. I’ve done my time in 1st line where I could be working on Christmas eve remotely because there were issues even when I’d booked a day off, I’m appreciating my out of work ignorance now

joerademacher3424 · 2018-01-26T17:15:18.000Z

Common Interview Questions IT & Tech Careers

What are the common questions asked during an interview for an IT job (mainly for a system admin position)?

Good interview questions for a junior network admin IT & Tech Careers

I thought I would toss this one out to the community... What are some good interview questions to ask a junior network admin? @Google

hermanwong2 · 2018-01-26T17:19:22.000Z

Best advice I got here wasn’t so much a specific interview question so much as it was a reminder not to discuss my career hopes and dreams, but rather focus on the skills that I can bring to the company. Hence try to talk more about what I can offer my employer instead of what I expect the employer to give me, and try to emphasize that in your cover letter.

I generally found it more valuable to try to get the interview to begin with, since everything else flows more naturally from then on as far as staying calm, answering questions naturally, and trying to sell yourself. Any actual interview I did went further to prep me for the next interview than any mock interview I’ve ever done.

larryshanahan · 2018-01-26T17:23:00.000Z

Ratchit99:

lahimakonem:

Do you have a home lab? Yes–proceed

No - So, you have 10 years experience?

I dunno, I’ve worked in IT for 10 years (as has my husband) and I don’t have a home lab. I refuse to take my work home, everything I do stays at the office. I can remote in from home if I need to do stuff, but otherwise home is an almost entirely IT free space.

A hearty AMEN to that…and I’ve been in the business far longer.

Having a home lab doesn’t mean squat to me one way or the other as far as hiring goes. I’m looking for a good attitude, professional and willing to learn instead of being a know-it-all. Someone who understands what good customer service is. Although they should have some basic troubleshooting skills, I’ll teach them the tech.

I’m more inclined to hire someone who is willing to say “I don’t know but here’s how I would go about figuring it out” than giving me a BS answer to a technical question.

hkdudues · 2018-01-27T10:01:46.000Z

Ratchit99:

lahimakonem:

Do you have a home lab? Yes–proceed

No - So, you have 10 years experience?

I dunno, I’ve worked in IT for 10 years (as has my husband) and I don’t have a home lab. I refuse to take my work home, everything I do stays at the office. I can remote in from home if I need to do stuff, but otherwise home is an almost entirely IT free space.

Agreed. Though now I’m being forced to learn something completely outside my realm of knowledge, so it’s back to home-learning and tinkering :(.

christopher6322 · 2018-01-29T21:48:46.000Z

Hi everyone, sorry for not replying all weekend; I got slammed prepping for a new course that started today.

Thank you for all the wonderful suggestions! I’m compiling all of them and making notes in my slides to mention and do simple interview scenarios right in the lectures.

mrg3 · 2018-01-30T17:42:11.000Z

What is the T56b cable order (Starting with O/W) - this shows if they know the basics on making a standard Ethernet cable.

What is EUFI? - How do you get to it?

What is the maximum cable drop length of a CAT6A cable (no repeaters etc)

How do you tell if your CMOS battery is dead?

What is a CAL?

What kind of Application is SQL?

What is Hyper-V

What is the difference between a HOST vs a VM?

What is AD?

What is a OU?

What is a group Policy?

What is the difference between a managed and un managed switch.

What is subnetting versus VLANing?

What is VOIP?

What is QoS?

What is Reverse DNS lookup /resolution (rDNS)?

What port is https? What port is http?

Why is beer the most widely used currency in IT?

ich · 2018-02-05T13:08:03.000Z

Christopher6322:

Thank you ICH! There is a lot of great information in that post! I am planning on posing some architectural questions to the students such as why have a DMZ, or what is wrong with some architecture designs and how they would go about fixing it. I’d love to hear any additional suggestions you would have on this if you have time!

Christopher,

It is great to teach about those things, but please prepare your students for the fact that they will frequently find things that are not as the textbook says they should be, There are many reasons for this, and finding the reason is the first part of any correction.

Moving into a new position, the first thing the newbie should do is find out WHO they are working with and what do they do. This will a) tell them who to ask for help on any particular topic and b) stop them treading on someone else’s toes.

Then WHAT the current setup is, network, hardware and software.

Next is WHY it is that way. The setup may appear to be less than optimal for a number of reasons. It may just be to outdated standards. It may have been implemented by someone who either did not know what they were doing, or had a strong preference for doing things a particular way. It could also be due to the strange requirements of a software package that is essential for the business. It could have been due to a severe limitation on what could be spent.

Having gone through all that, learnt why things the way they are, and then deciding things should be changed, the next consideration is WHEN. That could be easy. If the new hire has been given the remit of clearing up a mess that has been left by someone who has gone, then it will be expected that they will be proposing changes. If, on the other hand, Senior Management think that things are OK, and everything seems to be ticking along, they will not be open to a new hire wanting to make major changes. In this scenario, the new hire will have to take the time to become established and trusted before they have the credibility to suggest major changes to software or infrastructure.

weirdfish · 2018-02-06T23:16:47.000Z

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.