Network Engineer Phone Screen

SteveO86

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

Really? CCNA Wireless worthless? Interesting. I do plan to mention that I want to have my CCDA before I start the job. I think that will help some.

Worthless might have been a little harsh, or maybe it was just how how I went about it. When I start working with WLC's and LWAPs I went off nothing but the config guides and going through Cisco's site (Not to mention the TAC calls resulting in finding bugs... old controller versions were very buggy in my opinoin) so when I tackled the CCNA Wireless I really didn't learn anything new.

Plus in my opinion the biggest hurtle with WLAN's is getting acquainted with 802.11 & RF (Which is where CWNP material comes in), and the CCNA Wireless primary focused Cisco stuff and not so much the 802.11/RF portion. (or at least not as in depth as CWNP goes)

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

So how did you guys make your break into Network Engineering?

After I had passed my CCNA exam (some time ago at this point) my supervisor started dropping routers/switches/AP's in my lap, so I just kind of ran with it and went from there. It's been a fun learning curve from there, as Forsaken_GA mentioned many issues I've ran into can't be found in a book, but it lays a good foundation concerning how to get to the problem.

Forsaken_GA

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

So how did you guys make your break into Network Engineering?

I went to school, and got a job with a Cisco reseller based off a recommendation with a teacher. Didn't get to do any field work, as my job mostly consisted of auditing incoming equipment, putting outgoing orders together to the customers specification before it got shipped. Occasionally there was some preconfiguration involved. So not alot of practical hands on experience, but got plenty of experience with all kinds of different hardware, including quite a bit of non Cisco.

Since we were allowed to go pull anything in stock that hadn't already been sold to customers, I could build some pretty impressive labs, with some seriously badass gear.

Ended up getting laid off from that job, unfortunately. Put in a call with a friend who worked for a web hosting company, and he got me a job as a linux admin, since they were looking for an admin with a networking background. Over the first year, I helped out with light admin duties and minor changes, and took the time to learn from the official network engineer the ins and outs of running a network on the enterprise side. My big chance came when we were in the middle of a data center move, and the network engineer had a family emergency that required him to be absent for the rest of the move.

The powers that were offered me the chance to step up and handle the rest of the migration, and I brought it off without a hitch. After that, I was transferred to neteng full time, though I still helped out the sysads when they got backed up.

After a couple years of that, and realizing that my opportunities for growth were limited with my then current employer, I started putting out feelers to folks I knew, and a former co-worker let me know there was an opportunity with his current company. I applied, they offered, I accepted.

And then the company was acquired by a Fortune 500 company. Still not sure how I feel about that

Bl8ckr0uter

Did the phone screen today. Its a 300 node shop that is almost 100% cisco (with some juniper ssl gateways). They seem to ask me some basic questions (ever worked with acls, which protocols have you used). The job is weighted in this order Routing>Switching>Firewalls>Wireless. Very much a CCNP job with some basic MPLS duties. They mentioned packet captures and I did say I am going to do the WCNA in the summer. They are looking to move pretty quickly and I should know something about it by the end of the week.

Thoughts?

shodown

Congrads, send follow ups telling them how much you enjoyed the interview.

millworx

shodown wrote: »

I look for sound fundementals
Does network 10.0.0.0 255.255.2555 255 area 1. Add the 10 network into OSPF?

I like this question, it is kind of loaded actually.
Under normal circumstances no it would not add that network. But there is an exception (which you would never see in a real world scenario now a days since the demise of classes) and that is if the address is supernetted.

So lets say lo0 has ip: 10.0.0.0 252.0.0.0

and you go into ospf and put in the 10.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 it will be in the routing process

Nice trick question

phoeneous

shodown wrote: »

I look for sound fundementals

1. OSI model
2. TCP Handshake


Now on to CCNA Stuff

1. Vlans, Trunks, Sub netting skills, Basic Campus Design
2. Basic EIGRP(Know distance vector), OSPF(know they are link state),
3. Spanning Tree Basics

If they can do very well here answering 90 percent I will look at there prior job and start to dig into how well the know the protocols if they used them at the last job

IE they were on a OSPF network

I will ask about LSA types, differnt OSPF areas,
Give me 2 ways to enable OSPF
What does "router ospf 1" do for me
what is the importance of having a loopback
Does network 10.0.0.0 255.255.2555 255 area 1. Add the 10 network into OSPF?


IF the were working a lot with switching?

When you create a new Vlan how many spanning tree instance do you get if you pulled a cisco switch out of the box?

Where would you use portfast on a switch?

How many ports can you have in a ether channel?

If you have multiple ether channel links on one switch in the same vlan would they be affect by spanning tree? If so what options do you have to get around it?


And so on. I usually go until they are broken.

Wow, I can actually answer all of these.

I've had a bad day so that makes me feel better.

Bl8ckr0uter

shodown wrote: »

Congrads, send follow ups telling them how much you enjoyed the interview.

I'll let you know. I honestly feel like I really need to brush up on my R/S stuff. The jobs I have been working at have used static routes (actually reminds me of a post you made on your blog ).



I didn't know the answer to number 3 so thanks for the good trivia

shodown

millworx wrote: »

I like this question, it is kind of loaded actually.
Under normal circumstances no it would not add that network. But there is an exception (which you would never see in a real world scenario now a days since the demise of classes) and that is if the address is supernetted.

So lets say lo0 has ip: 10.0.0.0 252.0.0.0

and you go into ospf and put in the 10.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 it will be in the routing process

Nice trick question

Yes this question if full of fail. It checks to see that you understand the use of the wild card mask versus subnet mask, it checks for understanding that when you put a network statement it doesn't advertise the route. Most guys that get this question right usually get offers from us(well this was the old job)

millworx

shodown wrote: »

Yes this question if full of fail. It checks to see that you understand the use of the wild card mask versus subnet mask, it checks for understanding that when you put a network statement it doesn't advertise the route. Most guys that get this question right usually get offers from us(well this was the old job)

So by expanding upon your original question and showing the exception to the rule instance in which it would add a route I woulda got the job huh?

shodown

millworx wrote: »

So by expanding upon your original question and showing the exception to the rule instance in which it would add a route I woulda got the job huh?

anybody that called me out for such a stupid question would get the job.

SteveO86

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

Did the phone screen today. Its a 300 node shop that is almost 100% cisco (with some juniper ssl gateways). They seem to ask me some basic questions (ever worked with acls, which protocols have you used). The job is weighted in this order Routing>Switching>Firewalls>Wireless. Very much a CCNP job with some basic MPLS duties. They mentioned packet captures and I did say I am going to do the WCNA in the summer. They are looking to move pretty quickly and I should know something about it by the end of the week.

Thoughts?

Great news man! Sounds like a very nice environment all. Definitely looks like your going to get your fill of Networking on multiple levels. (R/S, Security, WLAN, Packet Analysis)

Just make sure the pay enough because it also sounds like challenge.

(And of course go through the pros/cons in your head to see if the jump is worth it)

Bl8ckr0uter

SteveO86 wrote: »

Great news man! Sounds like a very nice environment all. Definitely looks like your going to get your fill of Networking on multiple levels. (R/S, Security, WLAN, Packet Analysis)

Just make sure the pay enough because it also sounds like challenge.

(And of course go through the pros/cons in your head to see if the jump is worth it)

They must have liked me. We are setting up the face to face for Monday (they wanted to do it tomorrow but I can't get time off in that short of a notice).

ehnde

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

I do plan to mention that I want to have my CCDA before I start the job. I think that will help some.

How's that working out for ya? Guess I don't pay enough attention, I didn't know you were studying for the CCDA. Don't know much about your background/work history, I was just wondering if this is too tough for a newly minted CCNA to tackle. Seen several people say it would be best to do SWITCH first. Personally I'd rather get an associate level exam out of the way before going on to professional level exams.

Bl8ckr0uter

Ccda is um boring as heck but its good info. I'm not done with the book yet but I can tell that it will be different than the ccda. I have almost a year working in a noc and almost a year working in a smb environment that uses Cisco gear. I would say that a fresh ccna could do it but it might not make much sense. An experience ccna could do it no problem. You could do it.

Bl8ckr0uter

Interview on Monday for 2 1/2 hours

ehnde

Wow...I hope you're the only one in the running for it. That's a big time commitment for just an interview! Dress sharp, good luck

Bl8ckr0uter

ehnde wrote: »

Wow...I hope you're the only one in the running for it. That's a big time commitment for just an interview! Dress sharp, good luck

Lol thanks! I am trying to decide if I am going to cut my afro or not.

Forsaken_GA

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

Lol thanks! I am trying to decide if I am going to cut my afro or not.

Hair can grow back If this is the opportunity you think it is, they don't come along very often. Err on the side of caution.

Bl8ckr0uter

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

Hair can grow back If this is the opportunity you think it is, they don't come along very often. Err on the side of caution.

Man my fro is pretty epic. Plus I'm trying to get dreeds and all......


Yea. More than likely I will be clean shaven. I actually need to do it tonight so I don't tip off my current employer

Bl8ckr0uter

Did the face to face today. This was my longest interview ever (almost 3 hours). Met with the Sr network engineer. Dude is a gandoff. We went over configs. I think I did pretty well. The asa parts were tricky since they are using 7.0 and we are using 6.3 ( can you say wtf). I also met with the exchange and server guys. Seems like a cool group. Also seems like a cool environment. I met with the director. Idk what to think about that part. He asked me what did I hate to do and I said term people in ad (there is just something so final about it). I should know something by the end of the week.

ehnde

3 hours huh? You might just have something there. Best of luck

Bl8ckr0uter

Idk. It didnt seem like that long until I looked at my watch.

SteveO86

Sounds like it went really well, it was a long interview and you met a lot personnel.

Zartanasaurus

Afro or no afro?

Bl8ckr0uter

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

Afro or no afro?

No Afro. I went with a skin tight fade (courtesy of my wife).


It is a really cool shop. If I recall, you started doing some serious cisco work as well. How is that going?

Zartanasaurus

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

No Afro. I went with a skin tight fade (courtesy of my wife).


It is a really cool shop. If I recall, you started doing some serious cisco work as well. How is that going?

Since October. It's great. There's not a week that goes by (sometimes a day) where I don't feel like I've learned something. We don't do much on the routing side, but I do get to manage all the core equipment, and we're looking at moving towards VoIP in the near future.

Bl8ckr0uter

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

Since October. It's great. There's not a week that goes by (sometimes a day) where I don't feel like I've learned something. We don't do much on the routing side, but I do get to manage all the core equipment, and we're looking at moving towards VoIP in the near future.

Awesome. Glad to hear it is going well for you.

phoeneous

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

Idk. It didnt seem like that long until I looked at my watch.

What sort of company is it?

Bl8ckr0uter

Utilities

Bl8ckr0uter

Found out they went with someone else with more experience. Pretty pissed and depressed. I mean how the hell am I suppose to get experience if no one will cussing hiring me for a net engineer job? WTF I don't know what I am going to do. It just pisses me off that I guess its hard to break into a real career position when you are a "jr". I mean does my experience mean nothing? Have I done nothing for the last few years? Does it not even matter because I haven't touched x, y, or z? IDK I am pretty depressed right now. Wish I could get a beer.