Interview Help/Questions - Jr. Network Engineer

DasMoosh

I have a job interview coming up and was doing a bit of research on questions to expect during the interview and ended up on this site. The position is for a jr. network engineer for a company called preferred unlimited but from the job description it sounds more like a network admin type position to me.

First, I'd like to clarify if this is a network engineer position or more network admin. When searching for questions under "jr network engineer" i received different questions i didn't feel I was qualified to answer. I'd also like to know what type of questions to expect during this interview so i can better prepare myself for it.

Here is a summary of the duties required of this position:

"Provides technology infrastructure and application support to all Preferred employees. Initial point of contact and first line technical support for corporate headquarters and remote sites in addressing/resolving questions concerning Information Technology issues. Required to respond to a large volume of calls in an interrupt-driven environment while also providing a high degree of user satisfaction. Generate daily status logs. Produce daily and weekly reports as scheduled and perform planned and approved maintenance tasks. Maintain equipment inventory. Responsible for providing coverage in support of a 24 hour by 7 days per week business."

[FONT=&quot]And for required skills it says:

[/FONT]"To perform this job successfully, an individual should have knowledge of the Microsoft suite of products, Office, Exchange, Active Directory, and networking infrastructure."

cyberguypr

What bothers me is that sometime HR prepares position descriptions without really knowing what's expected from the candidate. "Networking infrastructure" could mean anything from basic Cisco stuff to complex CCNP/CCIE scenarios across multiple branch offices.

Having said that, "Initial point of contact and first line technical support for corporate headquarters " and "Required to respond to a large volume of calls in an interrupt-driven environment while also providing a high degree of user satisfaction" doesn't really sound like something a Network Engineer does. I am thinking the position may be a hybrid help desk, Windows admin with some networking.

As Dennis Miller would say: of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

Hypntick

DasMoosh wrote: »

"Provides technology infrastructure and application support to all Preferred employees. Initial point of contact and first line technical support for corporate headquarters and remote sites in addressing/resolving questions concerning Information Technology issues. Required to respond to a large volume of calls in an interrupt-driven environment while also providing a high degree of user satisfaction. Generate daily status logs. Produce daily and weekly reports as scheduled and perform planned and approved maintenance tasks. Maintain equipment inventory. Responsible for providing coverage in support of a 24 hour by 7 days per week business."

If it smells like a help desk and looks like a help desk, it might be a help desk. It could be a very tecnical help desk, but it still seems to be a L1 help desk spot.

down77

Hypntick wrote: »

If it smells like a help desk and looks like a help desk, it might be a help desk. It could be a very tecnical help desk, but it still seems to be a L1 help desk spot.

+1... Many organizations use the prefix "jr" as a designation for tier 1 incident management (service desk) roles. The upside to this position is that you won't have to ask "Would you like fries with that?"

RouteThisWay

Here is a line a friend/coworker told me that I am going to pass on to you. It will make interview prep stress free, enable you to sleep well at night, and generally have an overall sense of well-being...

You know what you know, and what you don't know you don't know.

It is really that simple. If you know it, you know it. If you don't, you don't. In almost any interview, you are going to be asked questions you don't know the answer to. They want to gauge exactly where you are at and how you handle something foreign to you.

The worst thing you can do is fumble around trying to answer something you obviously don't know. Even rattling off verbiage that you just learned the night before can be picked up pretty quickly by an interviewer.

The key is be confident with what you know, and don't be afraid to admit the things you don't know. Many employers will gladly hire someone who isn't trained up on all the tech in the job description, but has the desire and ability to learn. Make sure this comes across in your interview. Because that is how you get progressively better jobs. If you go into a job you already know how to do, you are not challenging yourself and not progressing yourself. The key is getting into a job you don't know everything about and learning it. You will be getting marketable experience and taking that next big step of career progression. Trust me, I know.. coming from a guy who in the beginning of 2007 was washing cars at a car dealership and working in a warehouse in 2008.

So don't fret about questions they will ask. I promise they will ask questions you don't know. Just remain calm, and answer the questions you do know confidently Good luck and more importantly, Welcome to TE!

DasMoosh

Thank you all very much for ur input. It does sound like a help desk position but I will go in with a mindset that I only know what I know and explain how I am eager and willing to learn as much as possible. Again.. Thank you.