Job interview rant (against myself)

Have you ever had an easy interview question where you know the answer, but your brain or your nerves don't let you answer it? And you know that you should ask for clarification but instead you start blabbing on and on and you make it more complicated and you just keep digging a hole?

That's basically what happened to me yesterday. Questions were not difficult, basic CCNA stuff, but I just couldn't answer them in a strong concise manner and I keep beating myself up over it.

On the other hand, the interviewer was really good. He made me feel at ease and even prodded me into answering one of them correctly. He also filled out any answers that I didn't give enough details on which was really nice. I'm going to keep on practicing and refreshing my CCNA knowledge just in case I get a 2nd interview but I'll be really surprised if I do.

Biggest takeaway for me though, is to practice explaining these concepts to another human being. My day to day job is mostly Citrix, Vmware, Extreme networks and system admin tasks so I don't practice my Cisco skills very often and I don't normally talk about my job with my wife when I get home, but I probably should to solidify all the concepts that I learn at work.

Just had to write all this to get it off my chest. Thanks for listening to me ramble again

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Comments

markulous

Yeah that's happened to me quite a bit. I suck at interviews and can't formulate answers as well as I would like to. I'll often times be unable to answer questions I should absolutely know the answers to.

Kreken

My advice is to just answer the question you are being asked. For example, if you are asked what is a vlan? Just say it is a broadcast domain. Don't start talking about what it used for, how to secure it and etc. If an interviewer has more questions, (s)he will ask.

ITBot

Hmm that's interesting. I'd be curious to hear how job interviewers feel about that. Do they usually want you to expand on a topic on your own or do they prefer to ask deeper questions themselves?

yellowpad

It happened to all of us. You did your best during the time. All you can do now, send a great thank you letter and hope for the best.

DatabaseHead

It's been a long time to be honest, but yes it has happened on several occasions. Move on is all I got, oh you'll get better as time goes on.

NotHackingYou

It happens, and most interviewers understand nerves. It's OK. The important thing is that you learned. Being able to articulate what we do in a way that a layperson can understand is as much of a skill as being able to do the technical aspect. Keep practicing, you will get it!

You may find it helpful to practice explaining things in non-technical terms. I find that if I can't explain it in non-technical terms, I don't know it well enough and need to keep learning about something.

networker050184

When I interview people I don't mind a bit of expanding on the question into some personal experience or something. Don't babble for 5 minutes though. I really can't stand when I'm interviewing someone and I can't get a word in. I get it people are nervous, happens to all of us, but know when to stop.

I also like to ask open ended questions that can turn into a conversation rather than very specific questions with a short answer. Really helps me understand someone's line of thinking. That is way more important than rote memorization of tech trivia.

ITBot

I appreciate the feedback everyone! I will definitely practice explaining these concepts in a non-technical way.

@networker050184 I was kind of surprised that the interview was 100% technical, no behavioral questions. I guess it's how they get a baseline for a person and then they ask all those questions in the 2nd interview maybe?

networker050184

From my experience that's usually a different interview in the process than the tech screen. Some companies do something with the manager first then onto the tech screen if you pass that and others vice versa.

joemysterio

That happened to me recently with an interview. I blanked out and straight up told him, "I'm sorry, I'm not sure, I need to come back to his question" and later on, he brought the question up and gave me a small hint. It jogged my memory and I was able to effectively answer it. They called me back for a second interview with two of their engineers. Ultimately declined because I didn't like the help desk / call center portion of it.

scaredoftests

That is why you need to bring a notebook with you. It calms me down and questions and answers are in there.

tmtex

Just this week I was asked where do programs get installed on 64 bit PC's. I said in program files. He said ok but what folder, I was like program files....silence then I said IDK

UGH Program files 86, what an idiot I am

Mishra

Happens to the best of us. Go look at Gary Johnson's gaffe this week for a televised example.

Practice and experience is what imprints these concepts.

No_Nerd

If it makes you feel any better, I was interviewing with Amazon while I was doing some field training with the Army. I was in a conference room which I thought was going to be unoccupied according to the schedule. Five min into the interview our Brigade Commander who is a Full bird colonel walked into the room and without thinking I jumped up put the phone down and just called the room to attention and said " good morning sir" . The interviewer on the phone was saying " Hello, Hello, are you still there , what just appended " Needless to say I was super embarrassed

TLeTourneau

Don't feel bad, it happens. I got stuck on FSMO roles once, I was embarrassed but made it through.

EnderWiggin

It's nothing to stress over. I have a difficult time with interviews, as I'm a stereotypical awkward IT person. I've still been offered jobs, despite being terrible at the interviews. I think managers understand that there needs to be some understanding when an interviewee isn't super articulate in the IT field. At least, that's what I tell myself to feel better

dhay13

ha...i think i got you beat. i was asked what a VLAN was and i described a VPN. luckily i realized my error and corrected myself a few seconds later but felt pretty dumb. i didn't get the job anyway

anfearr

To be honest I wouldn't worry about it, when I perform technical interviews, I am checking for three things:

1. You know the basic concepts so the VLAN vs VPN would raise an eyebrow because that knowledge you should have enshrined in your mind but I would pass it as nerves. It's not expected that you know everything. I once had someone call IP Addresses, "The numbers".
2. You can admit you don't know something. This is a big one for me, if shows someone is willing to admit their weakness and look for help and is a plus.
3. The big no no is when people chance their arm and / or over confidence. To me they signal a character trait that is not desirable in a technical environment and will likely at some stage cause an outage.

Dojiscalper

EnderWiggin wrote: »

It's nothing to stress over. I have a difficult time with interviews, as I'm a stereotypical awkward IT person. I've still been offered jobs, despite being terrible at the interviews. I think managers understand that there needs to be some understanding when an interviewee isn't super articulate in the IT field. At least, that's what I tell myself to feel better

This is my problem too.

fmitawaps

I've had varying amounts of this in job interviews. They ask a question and I answer it by saying something like "It's in the file you click on to make the thing do the thing, you know what I mean".

I've had the opposite of interview nervousness happen too, like the time I was interviewing for a good NOC job, then 2/3 of the way through they asked me about money and I said 40-50K, and they said this job pays 35.

I instantly relaxed and all nervousness disappeared, because in my head I was like "LOL, are you crazy? I made more than that 3 years ago doing desktop support and you have the nerve to offer me $35K for a NOC role?".

Mishra

anfearr wrote: »

I once had someone call IP Addresses, "The numbers".

My buddy and I were interviewing someone a few years back and asked him what the global catalog is. He stumbled a bit and said "Well you see, it's like the mothership of active directory." LOL

ITBot

Quick update: I made it to the 2nd round! Who knows what happens now? At least I know what to work on.

GeekyChick

Been there, done that. I was interviewing at Apple for a job and the manager asked how I would describe a good manager and I was thinking what I would do as a manager and I said a servant-leader. Right after it came out of my mouth I realized he was referring to himself as my manager. I never recovered after that and didn't get the job. Glad you got a second interview!

Techytach

tmtex wrote: »

Just this week I was asked where do programs get installed on 64 bit PC's. I said in program files. He said ok but what folder, I was like program files....silence then I said IDK

UGH Program files 86, what an idiot I am

I hate questions like that. I'm sure I would have gotten it wrong as well even though I am typing this on my 64 bit PC and have seen that folder 10 thousand times. It's like asking how many characters are on a license plate? I don't know but I can easily check when I see one...

GeekyChick

Oh, and I may or may not have said leader at the end of servant-leader. Lol.

ITBot

Ha ha! Okay note to self: do not copy GeekyChick.

GeekyChick

Yes, definitely don't follow my example. haha I still cringe when I think of it.

nisti2

Happens to me all the time!!

tmtex

I just had another thought, I was asked what does a router do ? I said it routes traffic and stopped there. I laughed as I got in the car after that interview, saying you IDIOT.

In a way I was not wrong

E Double U

tmtex wrote: »

I was asked what does a router do ? I said it routes traffic and stopped there.

Routers do routing, switches do switching, scanners do scanning. Your answer made sense lol.