Phone Interview

myUsrNme

Hello all, long time reader, first time poster. I've been checking out the forums for quite a while, Ratbuddy actually inspired me to start my journey with WGU over a year ago and that's been going great. Though no where near as well as his journey, that dude was on fire!

Anyways, I was just contacted for a phone interview and was hoping someone could tell me a bit about what I could expect. I haven't had an interview in almost 5 years so I'm a bit rusty at it. And I've never done a phone interview. It's for a Level 1 Service Desk Technician, so I'm assuming it'll be some basic questions and mostly the "What is your greatest weakness" type of questions, but would like some of your opinions on the subject so that I'm not forgetting anything. Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks!

Job description:
General Purpose

The Level 1 Service Desk technician provides user support and customer service on company-supported computer applications and platforms. The primary purpose is to diagnose, troubleshoot and resolve incidents or service requests reported by the Client (via call, email or through a web portal).

Primary Responsibilities
Main Job Tasks and Responsibilities
Respond to requests for technical assistance
Research reported incidents using available information resources
Appropriate use of available tools (remote takeover, knowledge base, ticketing tool, communication tools)
Diagnose troubleshoot & resolve resolve technical issues
Incidents reported are related to:
PC Hardware
Printer
Software
Application (SAP, Office, etc)
Email
Internet / Intranet
LAN/WAN
Phone
Create/Modify/Delete user accounts
Log all service desk contacts within the incident management tool
Document all troubleshooting steps and resolution activities within the incident management tool
Follow standard help desk procedures
Assign non-resolved incidents or service requests to the appropriate support team
Proper assignment of tickets (ticket coding and 'assign to' groups)
Ticket Follow-Up: Daily monitoring and action of individual queues
Identify and escalate incidents requiring urgent attention and action
Stay current with system information, changes and updates
Adherence to schedule / compliance for attendance

myUsrNme

Well I just had the phone interview. Mostly just personal question as I had expected. What I didn't expect was to become completely tongue-tied and fumble over my words. The interviewer asked what my 3-4 biggest qualities that I would bring with me where. My response "Uh...well, I love to learn new things and am always excited to learn as much as I can. And...uh...hmm...well...I'm sorry I'm really nervous...(45 seconds of dead air)..." He then took over and started telling me about the company and what the role looks like in a typical day. I calmed down a bit after that and was actually able to articulate my responses. I really thought I bombed it once it was over and felt like a moron.

So imagine my surprise when I received another email about 10 minutes later saying that they'd like to schedule the second interview. Say whaaaaattt?!?!? So now we wait and see.

scaredoftests

Good luck. Research the company. Write down questions to ask them in a notebook. BRING the Notebook! Employers love that. Practice interviewing.

Chadius

This. Do yourself a huge favor and do what he said. lol

My first couple of interviews, I didn't have much to ask at the end besides how much pay and do you like working here.

scaredoftests

What 'she' said.

myUsrNme

I definitely need to practice interviewing more. I did ask him to elaborate on what a typical day would look like and what types of issues would be the most common. Another question I found while looking around and thought it was perfect "Say that I am chosen for this position, and after 1 year I received a perfect performance evaluation. What will I have done to earn that evaluation?" He really seemed to like that one.

But yeah, I totally need to have more prepared for the second interview. Thanks guys.

cyberguypr

Confidence is a big thing. A scared/nervous/unable to articulate person make me wonder if they are just bad communicators. As scaredoftests said, work hard on your interview skills. The "strongest/weakest" whatever question is textbook. You should be prepared for those. Kudos on asking good questions.

Chadius

Oh, I'm sorry scaredoftests. My bad.

What she said!

myUsrNme

Second interview scheduled for 8 am Monday morning. Got to start off this next week right. I will be spending the next few days doing a couple practice interviews with a couple friends to go over the more personal questions, I'm not too worried about the technical portion of it but could anyone give me an idea as to the type of technical questions they may ask? Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks!

scaredoftests

If someone calls regarding not able to get their email, what do you check first?
How do you check a IP address?
If someone calls regarding not being able to print, what do you do?
What do you think customer service means?
Various Windows questions.
Smile alot..have a firm handshake...

myUsrNme

Update:

I just got home from the interview. It went like this, I interviewed with the Service Desk Manager. He asked the obligatory "Tell me about yourself" question. Which I nailed so hard that he then talked for about 10 minutes about their upcoming projects and offered me the job right then and there. Unfortunately, he also said how much the position pays which was less than I was hoping and much less than I'm making now. So I had to turn it down. I was really thinking this could be my "foot in the door" position, but with where I am right now in life I just can't take that type of pay decrease. Though I was offered the position it wasn't really an interview so I didn't even get any good practice. Oh well, I'll just have to keep looking.

Thanks to everyone for their help.

nascar_paul

Great Job! Bummer about the low pay, but consider that you may have to deal with that for a year while you build up your experience in IT. I'm sure that you can break through at a higher level, but it will take time so be patient and keep your head on a swivel! You'll be an EXPERT interviewer by the time that this process is done! And hopefully have the job of your dreams!

scaredoftests

I hate when that happens.

bpenn

myUsrNme wrote: »

Update:

I just got home from the interview. It went like this, I interviewed with the Service Desk Manager. He asked the obligatory "Tell me about yourself" question. Which I nailed so hard that he then talked for about 10 minutes about their upcoming projects and offered me the job right then and there. Unfortunately, he also said how much the position pays which was less than I was hoping and much less than I'm making now. So I had to turn it down. I was really thinking this could be my "foot in the door" position, but with where I am right now in life I just can't take that type of pay decrease. Though I was offered the position it wasn't really an interview so I didn't even get any good practice. Oh well, I'll just have to keep looking.

Thanks to everyone for their help.

I have been victim to this. If HR or the employer cannot tell me straight up what the salary is, then I am no interested. I have been drug through the mud on a few occasions now and wasted so much time with employers about a job just to have them offer it with a lower salary than what I currently make. I love it when HR will tell me straight up what the salary is so my time isnt wasted and neither is the potential employer's.