Interview Questions?

I have a 20-30 minute interview for a large book publishing company. The position is for an IT help desk job. I have a 4 year computer science degree and Cisco CCENT certification so far. I am currently working on A+ and will go for my CCNA after. I eventually want to get into networking, but have no professional experience right now, so I can only get interviews for help desk jobs as of now.

I was wondering if anyone has some advice on what questions to be ready for? Are there any sites or anything to help prepare for this?

Thanks in advance.

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Comments

markulous

They will likely ask you about a few help desk related issues, but if it's an entry-level job, most of it will be about your customer service skills and what kind of person you are. Have a positive attitude, preach your reliability, and have a customer-first attitude and you should get the job.

bankintheroll

Thanks. I have a good amount of experience with customers, but it was as a cash register / delivery job. I'm not sure how they will look at that, since it has nothing to do with IT.

puertorico1985

As far as entry level jobs go, they will most likely care more for your willingness to learn and grow more than anything. Customer service skills, no matter where they were acquired, will play the largest role since it will be a customer facing role. Just show your desire to listen, desire to learn, and why you are the best candidate for the job.

Chitownjedi

Popular trash interview question that get's thrown out. "What's your biggest weakness?" make sure you tuck that one away... you will see it a lot, usually from unimaginative places.

Work on your presence, being confident, displaying enthusiasm, ambition, and a team attitude.

Technical deficiencies can be taught, learned.
Personality ones, well you will have a hardtime getting them to Okay you, if you don't sale yourself as a decent person.
Everything else said here is spot on. This forum is the "Bee's Knees" as an old school colleague use to say.

Danielm7

Chitownjedi wrote: »

Popular trash interview question that get's thrown out. "What's your biggest weakness?" make sure you tuck that one away... you will see it a lot, usually from unimaginative places.

I got that one a few weeks ago, asked me for my top 3 good qualities, then a bad one. I even joked with them how everyone tries to twist a good quality into a "bad" one, and it's obvious. Oh I'm tooo caring and work tooo hard! Hah, sure.

Chitownjedi

Saw this on LinkedIn a few months back.. Had me cracking up... I can relate!

honesty.jpg

bankintheroll

Thanks everyone! My interview is tomorrow. I have been preparing for a few hours tonight over a bunch of different questions, and will do so for a couple hours tomorrow just before as well.

As for the "weakness" question, if I am forced to answer, I will say that lack of professional experience, as they already know. What do other people say for that?

markulous

bankintheroll wrote: »

Thanks everyone! My interview is tomorrow. I have been preparing for a few hours tonight over a bunch of different questions, and will do so for a couple hours tomorrow just before as well.

As for the "weakness" question, if I am forced to answer, I will say that lack of professional experience, as they already know. What do other people say for that?

No, I wouldn't say that. Say something like I'm a bit of a perfectionist and have a tough time letting go of a mistake until I can redeem myself. Something similar to that where you are giving them almost another strength. It's a dumb question that really should not be asked. If someone's asking it, either they have to ask it or they are a weak interviewer.

Nemowolf

markulous wrote: »

No, I wouldn't say that. Say something like I'm a bit of a perfectionist and have a tough time letting go of a mistake until I can redeem myself. Something similar to that where you are giving them almost another strength. It's a dumb question that really should not be asked. If someone's asking it, either they have to ask it or they are a weak interviewer.

I would have to disagree. This is a great question for you to turn a seemingly obvious negative into a positive.

URL="http://lifehacker.com/5971473/how-to-tackle-three-of-the-toughest-interview-questions"]Reference: Life Hacker[/URL

You should reference the fact that you have a weakness and how you overcome this weakness. "Being a perfectionist" isn't a weakness so its like the safe answer to avoid really answering. Your real weakness is that you lack experience BUT your looking for entry level positions to build on your education that has prepared you for several certifications to get your the real world experience to validate. This answers their weakness questions but shows that your not just listing out bullet points of reasons not to higher you.

If your interested in really insightful answers to you unasked questions, look up Rammit Sethi and his blog.

markulous

Nemowolf wrote: »

I would have to disagree. This is a great question for you to turn a seemingly obvious negative into a positive.

URL="http://lifehacker.com/5971473/how-to-tackle-three-of-the-toughest-interview-questions"]Reference: Life Hacker[/URL

You should reference the fact that you have a weakness and how you overcome this weakness. "Being a perfectionist" isn't a weakness so its like the safe answer to avoid really answering. Your real weakness is that you lack experience BUT your looking for entry level positions to build on your education that has prepared you for several certifications to get your the real world experience to validate. This answers their weakness questions but shows that your not just listing out bullet points of reasons not to higher you.

If your interested in really insightful answers to you unasked questions, look up Rammit Sethi and his blog.

We are agreeing on the same principle, just disagreeing on the details.

Being OCD and thinking about every tiny mistake you made can definitely be a weakness.

Nemowolf

markulous wrote: »

We are agreeing on the same principle, just disagreeing on the details.

Being OCD and thinking about every tiny mistake you made can definitely be a weakness.

We could split hairs but the only person it matters to is the OP and the interviewer.

Mr. Meeseeks

Now you guys are just being ants at a picnic.

How'd you do OP?