Desktop Support Interview Thursday

I know this has been a topic in many threads before but most of those threads got very few usful answers in them.

What are some of the questions I may get asked?
In the initial phone interview with the recruiter she asked how comfortable I would be about being asked break/fix questions. What are some break/fix questions others have been asked or asked of others in interviews.
Most of my experience has been in straight hardware repair/upgrades, cleaning out viruses, finding out what is causing slowdowns in HD performance (most cases just required a defrag or something as simple as that) and basic slowdowns in PC performance. Mostly really basic things.
Any help would be appreciated.

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I have 2 phone screenings scheduled for tomorrow. Does it just take them that long to get back to us when we submit a resume? I didn't recognize the name of either compny because I had submitted so many resumes to so many places.

Just completed 1 phone screening. The place has 10 IT people supporting all offices in North America. I may have lost points referring to help desk as entry level as the interviewer vehemently disagreed that it was entry level. She went on to say that a lot of people just prefer to do help desk. She even said that there was a more senior job open there and that no one internally had expressed interest in the position. I don't see myself making helpdesk a career as I want to get into something higher up. If I get this job it would be a step in the right direction not a destination.

Yes, I have seen and dealt with the self-important help desk personnel....every job has at least one of those, and it's rarely a help desk boss.

If you have any desire of moving up from the desk, this person will do all she can to discourage your growth, as she believes the help desk is the end-all-be-all. Most help desk bosses that I've dealt with are at a minimum understanding of wanting to move on. I understand that a job's a job, but this one I might suggest you say no too. Otherwise, there will certainly be headaches of a different variety up ahead.

Second phone interview went better than first. Bigger shop and I didn't let the dreaded "entry-level" phrase slip this time. I rechecked on the ad and the first one did say entry level in the ad but wanted experience and that's what I had mentioned to her, About having a hard time getting a job since entry level jobs were requiring 2-3 years experience. She was not pleasant after that.
She seemed to think that helpdesk was the end all best thing in the world. Like none of the current help desk people wanted to go further than that. Me, I want it to be my little stepping stone to something bigger, not sure what yet.

That will be the place that will snicker at you for having a CCNA, MCITP:EA, etc. You're going to be seen as overqualifed after awhile. Other desks won't care what you have, as long as you just do the work and not try to overstep your bounds. That is definitely a drawback with starting at the help desk when breaking into IT. But with at least 2-3 years of experience there, you can definitely move on and out. Some places see that and don't like it, which is why you'll get the attitude. My whole thing is, if I was going to start at the desk, I would have no problem doing it (and I was quite good at it), as long as there were opportunities for advancement later on. Ideally, you want to get a job that will transition into a career, and that your job will let you obtain the career you want. If it's going to make you miserable because of your ambition, you're going to see that it might not have been worth that paycheck.

Well I thought I had 2 interviews today but I actually had 1 job interview for helpdesk (nailed it, I think) and the other was just meeting with a recruiter. Thanfully they weren't very far apart in distance and time so it was only one trip.
The helpdesk job would mean 1-1/2 hours driving every day and not very good pay in a 6 month contract to hire job. Around here it seems as if the temp agencies and recruiters handle all the helpdesk and desktop support type job openings. The interview came through a recruiter who I've yet to meet but spoken to on the phone many times.
The meeting with the recruiter lasted about 10 minutes as she acted too busy to be bothered. Gave her the application I filled out there and a copy of my resume and cover letter (which I wasted 2 pages of good paper on for a recruiter) and answered a few questions.

earweed wrote: »

The meeting with the recruiter lasted about 10 minutes as she acted too busy to be bothered. Gave her the application I filled out there and a copy of my resume and cover letter (which I wasted 2 pages of good paper on for a recruiter) and answered a few questions.

Oh my god I hate that! I hate dressing up, printing off my resume on good resume paper, driving out to meet with the recruiter only to be greeted like I am a distraction by some less than attractive blond. That burns me up!

Well I guess you won't know until she gets back in contact with you. Good luck on both of them!

Actually an attractive brunette but that's beyond the point..lol

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

attractive blond.

WHERE??!

All that matters is if they can find you work. If I get dressed up and go to my interview and walked in to hear "You're hired" and 30 seconds later was walking back to my car, that would be ok.

Best of luck earweed. I recently left my Tier I NOC job for a Tier II NOC job. Or so I was told it would be. Guess where I'm at? Tier II, but spending all day in the Tier I phone queue. Can't wait to finish my CCNP and then make some moves to get off the damn floor, I'm sick of it.

Well I didn't get the helpdesk position I interviewed for. I did have a phone screening which went very well. One thing I will say is that all people seeking to get that entry level job should always be ready for that 1 question that gets asked (usually first) in every phone screening. "Tell us a little bit about yourself."
Have a response to this question ready. I think I'll start a thread asking IT managers here what they want to hear in response to this question and what would make me stick out, positively, in my response.

earweed wrote: »

Well I didn't get the helpdesk position I interviewed for. I did have a phone screening which went very well. One thing I will say is that all people seeking to get that entry level job should always be ready for that 1 question that gets asked (usually first) in every phone screening. "Tell us a little bit about yourself."
Have a response to this question ready. I think I'll start a thread asking IT managers here what they want to hear in response to this question and what would make me stick out, positively, in my response.

I tend to keep that brief 1-3 sentence answer. (I like chess, bike riding and reading. Some stuff I read is technical, others is good stories like The DaVinci Code, Angels and Demons and certain Star Trek:TNG-era novelizations. [Haven't read Lost Symbol yet....but I do have it.]...stuff like that).

My other interview question that I really like is "Name one of your weaknesses." This is a question many people f' up on. What people want to hear when they ask this question is something that you are weak on, but how you turn that into a strength.

For example, one of my standard answers (I do have others) is that I say "I am too eager." Eagerness, if not contained, can lead to carelessness and can have you mess up on every task you're working on. But how that gets handled is you will tame that eagerness by setting priorities on your tasks and work on all of them one at a time and then work on the next one, while still maintaining SLAs/deadlines. Managers seem to like that answer, because they want to see if you are not only improvable, but how you address shortcomings and minimize/eliminate them. They don't want to hear stuff like "I'm afraid of the dark..." lol.

One of my weaknesses is that I tend to overanalyze things. While that can easily be transformed into a strength it hasn't helped me so far.

I got 2 offers today!!!!
First is for a 4 day rollout really simple going to have to backup old PC and restore on new PCs. Has potential for being a recurring thing. Pay is crap-$12/hr but it is IT work and experience on the old resume.
Second is for a part time gig being a vacation/personal/sick day replacement as desktop support. 2-3 weeks training and then when needed. Pay is better for this one $16/hr. MORE resume filler..YEAH
Also have another interview for desktop support next Friday which would definitely overrule either of these locals.

congrats

earweed wrote: »

I got 2 offers today!!!!
First is for a 4 day rollout really simple going to have to backup old PC and restore on new PCs. Has potential for being a recurring thing. Pay is crap-$12/hr but it is IT work and experience on the old resume.
Second is for a part time gig being a vacation/personal/sick day replacement as desktop support. 2-3 weeks training and then when needed. Pay is better for this one $16/hr. MORE resume filler..YEAH
Also have another interview for desktop support next Friday which would definitely overrule either of these locals.

Giddy yup!!!

Yeah, the experience will be all you need before you get to admin.....

Congratulations!!

First day of work on the rollout. It went good. Felt like work with a little tech stuff thrown in. Five of us unpacked new PCs, backed up old pcs on a network server using USMT and then restored the new PCs (preimaged or it would have been more interesting). We got 80 PCs done and could have done more if they had used more than one server for doing backup of system data or if the PCs being backed up were better maintained. The backups were the stopgap, definitely.
A lot of the actual work was the physical work of unpacking, toting the new PCs and putting the old PCs in a staging area to be wiped later.

Sounds like a cool gig for you, earweed. And sets you up for better positions in the not too distant future. Congrats mate!

Hi earweed, how are you getting all these job interviews? Are they found through your recruiter?

Or are you searching for these jobs on your own time? if so, how are you searching for these jobs?

Thanks

A lot are through applying through different boards. Careerbuilder.com has been the best one so keep a good resume there and update it frequently (even if no changes made) as fresh resumes are checked more often. I have a huge list of company websites that I go to frequently also. Third on some job boards you can set up searches and get alerts sent to you when that job board gets a new job matching your search criteria.
One word of caution when using a recruiter...An offer letter doesn't mean you have the job. I just learned this the hard way. Until the recruiter has the purchase order for your job IN HAND the job is not yours yet.

Had an interview yesterday for a desktop support position. It was a very last minute thing as the manager called me at 8 P.m. wanting to interview me at 10 AM the next morning. The job is listed as part-time but according to the manager I would be working 40+ hours most weeks as they have a crew which is basically stretched to the limits. It's part time because it's basically entry level and non-benefit. The manager said that if I was a good fit then I could get rolled into full time within 3 months (if I get the job)
I'm supposed to find out later today if I got it or not. There were 3 applicants for 2 positions so I'm hopeful.
To start out I was not prepared for the interview as I didn't have a clean dress shirt that fit so I couldn't wear a tie, just suit coat and dress shirt but the manager didn't seem to notice (hopefully) and I basically went in not expecting it to pan out. If it was only partr-time then I would probably spend a lot of my off-time looking for a new gig if I got the job. From how the intervew went I think I may get it as there were very few really technical questions. I probably asked more technical questions than he did(What OSs they use and Server system etc.) and the technical questions they asked I answered to their satisfaction.
For the job I'll be covering 4 different locations and sometimes be tarveling back and forth across town to resolve problems if I can't fix them remotely. No helpdesk type duties at all.

earweed wrote: »

Had an interview yesterday for a desktop support position. It was a very last minute thing as the manager called me at 8 P.m. wanting to interview me at 10 AM the next morning. The job is listed as part-time but according to the manager I would be working 40+ hours most weeks as they have a crew which is basically stretched to the limits. It's part time because it's basically entry level and non-benefit. The manager said that if I was a good fit then I could get rolled into full time within 3 months (if I get the job)
I'm supposed to find out later today if I got it or not. There were 3 applicants for 2 positions so I'm hopeful.
To start out I was not prepared for the interview as I didn't have a clean dress shirt that fit so I couldn't wear a tie, just suit coat and dress shirt but the manager didn't seem to notice (hopefully) and I basically went in not expecting it to pan out. If it was only partr-time then I would probably spend a lot of my off-time looking for a new gig if I got the job. From how the intervew went I think I may get it as there were very few really technical questions. I probably asked more technical questions than he did(What OSs they use and Server system etc.) and the technical questions they asked I answered to their satisfaction.
For the job I'll be covering 4 different locations and sometimes be tarveling back and forth across town to resolve problems if I can't fix them remotely. No helpdesk type duties at all.

Awesome sounds hopeful! Hope you get it.

Didn't get it and have had 2 interviews since then. It's gotten to the point that I can't even blame being nervous as I'm so used to interviews now that my nerves don't bother me anymore. It just seems that my lack of enterprise experience is hurting me. Doing a few short term projects and doing PC repair and virus removal just isn't enough it seems. How to get the experience without getting a job will be kind of hard.
Latest interview today I was told I would hear something by the end of business today. Believe me no news is usually bad news. Nobody wants to call you or even email you to tell you that you didn't make the cut.

Thats harsh man. Hope the second interview turns out better for ya. I can relate to the pain you feel, I took me about a year to find me first IT job.

Flood your resume all over, but try to tailor a resume to the job posting. That way you'll get noticed more by the HR duds. And you'll end up with multiple versions of your resume which in itself is a good thing.

Essendon wrote: »

Thats harsh man. Hope the second interview turns out better for ya. I can relate to the pain you feel, I took me about a year to find me first IT job.

Flood your resume all over, but try to tailor a resume to the job posting. That way you'll get noticed more by the HR duds. And you'll end up with multiple versions of your resume which in itself is a good thing.

+1

You have to literally spend hours customizing your resume for each job. I created 3 resumes one for SAP, one for tier 3 type deskside work and one supervisor. Even that wasn't enough now I have over 20 resumes lol. It's gotten rediculous to be honest.

Hang in their you'll get a gig.

Didn't get this one either. At least I am getting a lot of interview experience.
I'll have at least one more interview coming up soon but don't have a date set for it yet. It's with the state and just got the letter last week saying I was eligible for an opening and sent in my response that I'm still interested. I should get a phone call this week or next to set up the appointment.
One good thing about this last job interview is that the hiring manager did tell me that she will be having a project coming up in January if I'm still available that I would be at the top of her stack for that.
She said the person she hired already has VOIP experience so that sort of makes sense even though the job was only doing the final hook up at all the sites (changing out the actual phones, no configuring or anything)
I'm gonna try this onforce thing for a while and see how that goes. I signed up for it yesterday but they have so many techs from my area that it's doubtful I will get anything out of it but it can be something to possibly get some more IT experience on the resume.
I've been averaging about 2 interviews every 3 weeks so I think that my resumes must be getting some attention. One thing I think is important is to not leave a stale resume on careerbuilder or monster.com. Ecery time I've refreshed my resume, even if not changing anything, it has gotten more looks and a few phone calls.

Make sure you're checking out Craigslist for jobs too. Careerbuilder/Monster cost employers A LOT of money (which many smaller ones don't have right now) to list jobs. I've seen IT jobs grow on CL even out here in the quiet midwest a lot over the last 2 years.

Interview experience is great. It's funny how you think you've nailed every one but the more you do, the more you realize a few mistakes you might have made in the older ones. I once missed a job because the guy asked me on the spot to tell him a joke. I froze for several seconds, caught off guard and what I could come up with was crappy at best. Oh well.

The one thing I hated was that I only had 1 suit and too many interviews in a short amount of time. I don't like suits, but I really don't like stinky ones or making several trips to the cleaners.

I only have 2 suits but I avoid the cleaners by using Dryel and doing my suits at home.
Craigs list so far has been a total bust for me. I haven't gotten 1 single interview through Craigs list so far. Very few jobs listed on CL here in my area anyway. I've gotten more action from daily checks of the job boards and from visiting company websites.

I've got an interview wednesday for a level I helpdesk position at a bank. Took me two hours to do the application and their funky pre-employment test. Three parter first was vocabulary, second was logic, and the third resembled one of those personality type tests.
Two hours i should have been studying for my test tomorrow but it actually relaxed me and I got right back into studying.
Speaking of studying, time to get off here and get back to it.

strike em dead tomorrow man!

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