Job Interview via Video Conference This Friday - Need Opinions!

ViLeNT

Hey Fellow TE Members,

I have great news, I've managed to land a job interview for a new position at my current company. I am currently a Support Specialist (Helpdesk Level I) I guess you could say. I've been here for 3 years, this new position is for System Admin / Configuration Admin job, exactly what i'm looking for. The interview is via Video Conference. I took a peak at the hiring managers calendar for the week, it looks like its myself competing against 3 other individuals, two of which I know the other I do not. The other individuals are much older by 10-20 years, however they do not have Bachelors Degrees in the field of computing. They have a range of certifications, One has MCSE, another MCITP, A+, and Network+ however all of these certifications according to their profile are very old, the MCSE was certified about 10 years ago.

I want this position badly, I'm ready for the next step in the career ladder, I honestly and truly believe I have these guys beat out in education and sheer desire to learn and enthusiasm, I'm young and eager. They just have me beat in the experience department becuase they are older then me. They really do not do anything day-to-day at their positions that I do not do. If anything I have done more. I need to win the hiring manager over and connect with them via Video Conference so that i'm memorable and stand out.

Any tips you guys can give me or any boost of confidence would be appreciated it. I know I can beat these guys, I know I can.

I'm just not sure what to expect, I dont know if they are going to quiz me on certain topics..or just try to get a better feel for my background at the company so far....or if they are formal or more laid back..or what.

ViLeNT

Tough crowed

Zartanasaurus

My advice would be to not try so hard. If you're someone that humor comes to naturally, let it come out in the interview at an appropriate point. If not, don't sit here trying to think of jokes to tell to start the interview. Why are you so nervous anyway? It's a video interview, so you don't even have to wear pants!

You know your strengths, you know your weaknesses. Emphasize your strengths. Don't be negative. Just be the guy that the interviewers would like to work with on a daily basis. Sometimes that has nothing to do with experience, certs or degrees, just personality.

DigitalZeroOne

If the screen for the video conference is a good size, I would talk about how this would make a great monitor for Nintendo Wii bowling ("I" would).

As for the actual interview, I would look up commonly asked questions in interviews: Why do you want this position? What do you bring to the table? How do you handle pressure? Do you prefer to work alone or with others?

Those are just a few questions that I know I have been asked over the years, there is also the technical questions but those will depend on what OS and hardware your company uses. I would sit down with a list of questions and answers, and go over them. If you get asked a question that you have gone over, then your answer will flow naturally to the interviewer.

Also, if they ask you to tell them about yourself, keep it short and reference work, say I like to read technology news (Have actual websites or publication names), don't go off on a tangent about how you like to train cats to use Microsoft Kinect, or how much you bench. Keep it short and sweet.

Good luck.

ViLeNT

Thank yiou guys for the responses, you're right I dont actually need to wear pants! haha! I believe on their end my big old head is going to show up on a 60 inch screen. Anyway i'm working on making a list of talking points based off the job description, coming up with questions to ask and things like that. We'll see how it goes

Cisco Inferno

why is it via video conference? kinda cool though.

ViLeNT

This is for an internal position within the company, and we're both in two different states

Cisco Inferno

nice. i would do it pantsless. just to be comfortable. but thats just me.
good luck. aint it nice being the young guy?

LoMo

How do you figure you have them beat out on desire to learn and eagerness?

RouteThisWay

LoMo wrote: »

How do you figure you have them beat out on desire to learn and eagerness?

I was wondering that too. I am not sure how you assume or assess the other candidates intangibles like desire to learn and eagerness unless you manage them or work with them on a daily basis.

Also you said all of their certifications are "old according to their profile". Clearly that is not the case of the guy with the MCITP. That is obviously one assumption you made that was wrong. And how do you know their experience? They are 10-15 years older you stated. Do you have knowledge of both candidates entire work history, job responsibilities at each position, performance reviews, formal training attended, etc all memorized? Another assumption.

Also, you are right.. a degree is valuable. However, Experience > All. Experience is king. A company is more willing to give out higher access to someone with proven a track record over someone who sat in classes theorizing about it.

All in all.. my advice to you is.. forget about ever "peeking" at the calendar. Focus on yourself, what you bring, how you can contribute, etc. Don't worry about the others. If all you have is your degree to fall back on, then sell that. But don't think just because you have a degree makes you a more viable candidate than the others. They have interviews setup too.. without the degree. Right now, they have just as much chance as you. If the employer felt a degree was the end-all-be-all for a position, they wouldn't be interviewing eithe of the other two "less educated".

Don't confuse someone without a degree as "less educated" as you. I know some very educated people without a degree working high end engineering roles at Fortune 100 companies. Education does not equal a degree. Education is knowledge. And knowledge my friend, is free if you really want it.


Good luck and hope it works out!

Zartanasaurus

So did you go pants or no pants?

ViLeNT

Interview went okay, I flubbed some areas and nailed others. Technical questions I handled quite well. It was the "give an example of when you showed leadership BS" that I didnt do well on. Anyway, the Job description and actual Job duties according the hiring manager were two different things. After the interview I said to myself "yuck" I dont want to work that.....Anyway...this fellow is apparently a CISSP and on his sharepoint site for his business group he has a document labeled "usernames and passwords" that has all the major passwords to our monitoring systems etc corporate wide. What a joke. Who wants to work with someone like that?