Interview tips

Dojiscalper

I've been applying and doing interviews with recruiting agencies for awhile now and finally I'm going to an interview for a Network/systems administrator position. I've been in IT for 20yrs and haven't held this title yet though I do probably 80-85%
of the positions duties. I'm very excited and hoping I get through this, but what kind of questions will I get asked? As I
said I do the work daily, but I've been doing this stuff since before the internet and never really use the "lingo" I just know how
it works.

Any help is appreciated.

Kreken

1. Try to search the company on glassdoor.com.
2. Brush up on the network/system terms. Terms like "that thing", "this thing", "whatchamacallit" will take you only so far.

I once did relatively poorly on an interview which involved Checkpoint firewalls. I wasn't familiar with the Checkpoint features/configuration terms even though I had experience building and managing FW's with all their features plus Smart-1 appliances. Ultimately, it costed me that opportunity.

markulous

If it was me interviewing someone for a network/sysadmin position (assuming you're kind of a jack of all trades?), I'd probably throw out some terms for hardware and software my company uses and ask if you're familiar with it and what experience you have with it. Then I'd probably throw some basic scenarios for you. I.e. "You get notified by the help desk that users aren't able to connect to their computers, what do you do?", "Describe to me the process of how to do a basic configuration on a Cisco switch to put it into production.", etc.

If they throw out a term you are not familiar with, don't be afraid to ask what they mean. You can't know everything and it's likely just a term for something you already know.

kohr-ah

1. Research the company and know a bit about them
2. Brush up on things they are going to interview you over
3. Be Honest - You dont know something dont BS be honest and let them know you'd fine the answer
4. Show passion

Dojiscalper

Thanks guys. I've been studying for more certs and getting familiar with the main stream terminology and learning a ton. Great example, the OSI model. In twenty years I've never given it much thought, but work with 90% of the technologies daily. It was pretty easy to go back and actually read/watch some videos and pick up the layer names, terminologies, etc.