Would you hire this guy for helpdesk?

snokerpoker

The company I work for recently interviewed a candidate for a helpdesk position. He just graduated from a local tech school with good grades and a some certifications (A+, N+, & MCP).

My manager asked me to arrange a mock helpdesk call with him. Below are the details and results of how it went.

Issue #1- Internet/Network connectivity is not working.

I wanted the candidate to verify the cable was plugged in and if I had a valid ip adress (ipconfig). Once it was discovered that I did not have an ip address, I was looking for him to walk me through renewing it.

Phone call result: He did ask if the cable was plugged in but once I answered yes, he froze up and did not know what to do.

Issue #2- All my printers are gone!

The print spooler service is stopped. I wanted the candidate to first verify all the printers were not being listed in the printers and faxes menu and then check the service.

Phone call result: He totally did not know what to do or what the print spooler service is.

At that point I did not continue with the "issues". I informed my manager of the results and voiced my concerns about the phone call. In my opinion he bombed the phone call and I was under the impression that we were not going to hire him. Just last week I found out we hired him.

I was wondering based on the mock phone call and the results, would you hire this person?

NOC-Ninja

This would depend on the pay.
less pay due to low budget = less skilled tech

Different reasons why your boss hired him:

• Someone he knew
• The best out of all the candidates at that amount of time
• The only tech that took that certain pay
• He wants to give him a chance

elTorito

I definitely wouldn't. Even when very nervous, someone with the listed certs should've been able to answer those basic questions. There's just no excuse.

Perhaps he was acquainted with someone higher up in the chain of management? Just a guess.

networker050184

Depends on other factors. In that kind of role you can train someone for these relatively simple tasks. Most companies are looking for someone with a good head on their shoulders, customer service skills and a willingness to learn. These are things you can't really train in a 10 minute class or put in a troubleshooting flow chart. Much less emphasis would be put on what someone already knows tecnical wise for a helpdesk position.

lsud00d

N+ and couldn't reach through the cobwebs for ipconfig commands?

Brain dumper

it_consultant

Maybe, the print spooler service is actually kind of advanced. He could probably troubleshoot the network connectivity but under pressure from you he was probably not confident in his answers. I froze when I asked how to migrate from Exchange 2003 to 2010, a process I have done no fewer than 10 times. The problem was, there are a flood of possibilities and things to do, it can be hard to regurgitate them under pressure in a way that makes sense.

VAHokie56

lsud00d wrote: »

N+ and couldn't reach through the cobwebs for ipconfig commands?

Brain dumper

Could be or he just froze up and perhaps after the call was kicking himself because he really knew it. Did you try and steer him towards the correct answers to see if maybe he was just nervous and needed to relax a little ? sometimes if they get a little encouragement they loosen up and can answer the questions easier...IMO

cyberguypr

Those things are super basic. The fact that he has the certs you mentioned just makes it worse. If the position is VERY entry level and I really want to give a chance to someone who shows disposition, maybe. If the expectation is to hit the ground running, then I'll have to pass.

When I was responsible for hiring helpdesk personnel I used to give candidates a scenario where the DHCP server went down so no one turning on their PCs could get a lease. I never expected them to trace down the root cause of the issue, given the position didn't require server experience. I just wanted to see their thought process and how they approach the issue. Amazingly enough a considerable percentage of the people who made it part HR froze right after checking the physical connection.

darkerz

My first job out of college I had a similar mock interview, I ended up spending 2 hours at the interview and even went through theoretical best practices for LAN switching using Cisco Catalyst devices, including what my preference for a L3 switch would be and what protocol I would utilize on a stub network versus core, how to figure out user issues from VTP prunning gone wrong...

I don't want to be "that guy" but if you come out of a 2 year tech school and that's the reaction WITH certs, you have someone who skid by for 2 years or a brain dumper. Plenty of internship opportunities at CC/Tech schools these days... Most of the time its required to have 1-2 quarters where you do pseudo tech support to students on campus.

Akaricloud

No I wouldn't have hired him. Not because he didn't know the anwers to those questions but because of how he handled not knowing the answers.

For example, in Q1 had he asked you to hold while he took a look into it or refered you to a network tech that would have still been acceptable. In Q2, instead of doing nothing he could have questioned you on what you've recently changed, when you were last able to print, if you've tried restarting (simple way to restart the print spooler service), ect.

Not only did he not know the answers which he should have but he completely failed to troubleshoot the issues at hand.

snokerpoker

VAHokie56 wrote: »

Could be or he just froze up and perhaps after the call was kicking himself because he really knew it. Did you try and steer him towards the correct answers to see if maybe he was just nervous and needed to relax a little ? sometimes if they get a little encouragement they loosen up and can answer the questions easier...IMO

I helped him + steered him in the right direction and also made a point to be very friendly to make him comfortable.

The main issue I had with the decision to hire him is that we didn't even look at many other candidates. It was almost as if he already had the job at time of the phone call. I am starting to think that he knows someone higher up in the company somehow.

hackman2007

That is a tricky one.

How did he respond to the steering? Did he seem to know what he was talking about after being steered?

Interviews can make you nervous, especially right after school.

I would lean towards no if he completely froze up and knew nothing else to try though.

cshkuru

Honestly if I was the manager and I got a good vibe off the guy I would still hire him. Yeah the questions you gave him weren't particularly difficult but when you are sitting on the other side of that interview table and some guy is asking you about troubleshooting a network connectivity problem all of a sudden everything is important. It's much more important to me that he show an ability to fit in with the team and be adaptable and able to learn. If he takes a couple extra minutes to solve a problem his first couple weeks that's a fairly small price to pay for the other three attributes.

PC509

Akaricloud wrote: »

No I wouldn't have hired him. Not because he didn't know the anwers to those questions but because of how he handled not knowing the answers.

For example, in Q1 had he asked you to hold while he took a look into it or refered you to a network tech that would have still been acceptable. In Q2, instead of doing nothing he could have questioned you on what you've recently changed, when you were last able to print, if you've tried restarting (simple way to restart the print spooler service), ect.

Not only did he not know the answers which he should have but he completely failed to troubleshoot the issues at hand.

This. No one will ever know all the answers. NO ONE. The best quality to have in this field is the troubleshooting skill. Ok, you don't know how to fix it. That's fine. Do you have the skills to find out what needs fixing? Can you narrow it down enough to where you can Google it to find an answer? A lot of times when you are looking for clues as to what is wrong, you find the answer to fix it. There have been times when I just didn't know what the heck was wrong. After digging around at things (Event log, etc.), I found that a certain tiny little thing was not working. Fixed that little thing and BAM! Everything else started working just fine. Could be a dependency on something else, could be a checkmark that shouldn't be checked, could be a bad config... You don't know unless you look around. Just saying "I don't know" or if you don't know is the wrong answer. I don't know a lot of stuff. But, that's not the end answer. Look for clues. Find out what is wrong. You may not have the skills to fix it, but you'll learn and know how after this time.

N2IT

cyberguypr wrote: »

Those things are super basic. The fact that he has the certs you mentioned just makes it worse. If the position is VERY entry level and I really want to give a chance to someone who shows disposition, maybe. If the expectation is to hit the ground running, then I'll have to pass.

When I was responsible for hiring helpdesk personnel I used to give candidates a scenario where the DHCP server went down so no one turning on their PCs could get a lease. I never expected them to trace down the root cause of the issue, given the position didn't require server experience. I just wanted to see their thought process and how they approach the issue. Amazingly enough a considerable percentage of the people who made it part HR froze right after checking the physical connection.

When I was hiring technicians for deployments, break/fix, and testing I had a few guys who listed A+ on their resume and really knew their stuff. I was actually shocked I really grew to appreciate the A+ certification (no lie). So this really shocked me that a guy with those certifications would really hose up those questions. Obviously there is more to it than just the questions, but those are a big part of the technical side of things. The first question is very basic and should have provided at least 3 troubleshooting ideas. Network cable and 2 others imo. Check to see if the network card was receiving and sending packets? That would be a very A+ hardware answer. You also have Ping which is extremely basic and ipconfig. You wern't asking the guy to release the dns or identify active ports. Which isn't very challenging either, but with a rookie could be.

NetworkingStudent

networker050184 wrote: »

Depends on other factors. In that kind of role you can train someone for these relatively simple tasks. Most companies are looking for someone with a good head on their shoulders, customer service skills and a willingness to learn. These are things you can't really train in a 10 minute class or put in a troubleshooting flow chart. Much less emphasis would be put on what someone already knows tecnical wise for a helpdesk position.

I agree… In his defense, he was probably nervous taking these mock calls.
I have applied for help desk jobs, and more often than not they’re looking for customer service skills more than technical skills. The exception to this rule is if the company is big on SLA agreements. Those jobs seem to focus heavily on technical skills.

Yes, technical skills are important, but no school or cert teaches you everything you need to know to handle a support call. In fact, I never remember taking a class that taught me how to handle a support call.( I have read some good articles and posts on TE and HDI on how to handle support calls ) Most certs cram a whole bunch of material in one book/video ect. How can anyone remember everything from one certification?

A lot of companies hire for fit. There is an old saying that goes “I can train people to do “xyxyxz skill”, but I can’t train people/customer service skills.

tpatt100

I would hire him and would give him a cubicle right next to yours.

cshkuru

In fact, I never remember taking a class that taught me how to handle a support call.

Nintendo does it in their Tech Support classes, the first week and a half is review of procedures, using the different call logging systems etc. Then you start practicing on each other with scenarios that you are given with techs in one room and callers in another then the last day you do that and take real calls with a supervisor or intsructor with you. Then for the next two weeks they come around and plug into calls with you every couple days. Seems to work well.

the_Grinch

I understand that he has certifications and some tech school training, but that doesn't mean he has any real experience. Experience definitely comes into play and if he were fresh out of school he might have no type of experience behind him. At the time I was getting started, I pretty much half hazarded my way through most calls/issues. Eventually, he'll get to the point where you know exactly where something is or what a problem is, but it does take time. I agree he might have been nervous and one thing I always hated about those types of interviews is there isn't anything for me to touch. Getting that tech support mindframe is something they don't and really can't teach, you learn it, eventually. That being said, I would have had to hear him speak to make the 100% decision, but given the context I would probably hire him. Having never took a Microsoft exam, do they cover the print spooler?

drkat

meh I'd hire him. He was probably just nervous - he probably didn't feel comfy asking you to reboot. He was probably "deer in the headlights" trying to figure out if his response was right or not. Bring em on a 30day probation period and see how he does. Things seem to become easier when you're not under pressure and you can go through the "oh let me try a few things" approach is Joe User. Besides... if someone told me all their printers were gone I'd ask em if they deleted em He'll know right away the spooler service isn't started if he walks you through adding it and BAM! found the problem.

I would say he didnt go too far with the connectivity issue but..... nerves? lack of experience? It does take some time even going through a school or book to really "put together your tools" - You can talk about OSI up the wazoo but until you're in the trenches doing it all day physical becomes data and packets become applications...(hell if it still doesnt happen to this day lol) just my $0.02

baseball1988

I would probably hire him.

Sometimes people suck at phone interviews and he might be able to troubleshoot those issues through hands-on.

I applied for a job that requires SQL query knowledge. The interviewer asked me immediately to tell him over the phone how to query tables, then pick certain columns and rows, then order it, and stuff. Although it is very simple, I prefer to visualize the tables and write those queries on paper, then give them the answer...but you get a bit of pressure when the interviewer is waiting for a quick response...people get nervous and blank out sometimes.

ptilsen

Unless he somehow otherwise convinced me that he did have the knowledge and skills indicated by his certs and degree, I would not hire him. A+ and Net+ is a great combo for an entry-level guy, but if you can't remotely troubleshoot a printer you really can't do the job.

CodeBlox

This is my first IT job and its a helpdesk job. Tts now my sixth month here. When I first started, I thought I knew a lot and when came time for the "technical interview" I froze up and couldn't even tell the interviewer how to create a PST file... I knew how, but couldn't gather my thoughts. Fortunately, I was able to pass that test regardless of that. Even when I first started this job, things I knew seemed to have just disappeared and I couldn't think clearly due to the "nervousness" of finally getting an IT job that I didn't want to blow. Fast forward six months... Today, I came in to work and what do you know, they had the metrics posted for last week and guess who had top stats for all but one metric? ME! I was surprised to see that my performance stats were the highest on the team. Even thought it didn't get me a pay raise or an advancement, yet, it made me really happy today. I hadn't noticed it on the board but everyone else sure did and pointed it out to me. "Your names all over the board!!" someone says to me when I came in today haha. In your case, I would give the guy a chance, I mean, it IS entry level helpdesk I assume. It will come to light sooner or later about if he brain dumped or was just nervous.

Budzy

+1 to the first reply; depends on what pay grade he's on etc. I have an apprentice who's pretty new to the world of IT Support, I would say his weakest skill is telephone support - and that’s down to a lack of confidence more than anything.

Does he make a good cup of tea or coffee?

colemic

I probably would hire him, or at least consider it. The fact that he just completed a technical school, means that he should at least know something, but probably doesn't have experience or exposure to actual, real-world troubleshooting. Having the technical background knowledge would make me think that he can probably pick it up. JMO though and it's probably a good thing I'm not a hiring manager, LOL

effekted

Like some others have mentioned, the main thing to look for when hiring someone at an entry level position is attidude, soft skills, and their aptitude. You can always train someone in a certain technology, but trying to train someone to have a good attitude and customer service is where a line should be drawn. It will only hurt the image of the dept. since most end users base their opinion on the IT team with how the Helpdesk performs (since these are the folks the end users are going to talk to 90% of the time).

I got my break in IT 2 years ago because I had a good attitude, got along with the IT team, an aptitude for technology.

Turgon

snokerpoker wrote: »

The company I work for recently interviewed a candidate for a helpdesk position. He just graduated from a local tech school with good grades and a some certifications (A+, N+, & MCP).

My manager asked me to arrange a mock helpdesk call with him. Below are the details and results of how it went.

Issue #1- Internet/Network connectivity is not working.

I wanted the candidate to verify the cable was plugged in and if I had a valid ip adress (ipconfig). Once it was discovered that I did not have an ip address, I was looking for him to walk me through renewing it.

Phone call result: He did ask if the cable was plugged in but once I answered yes, he froze up and did not know what to do.

Issue #2- All my printers are gone!

The print spooler service is stopped. I wanted the candidate to first verify all the printers were not being listed in the printers and faxes menu and then check the service.

Phone call result: He totally did not know what to do or what the print spooler service is.

At that point I did not continue with the "issues". I informed my manager of the results and voiced my concerns about the phone call. In my opinion he bombed the phone call and I was under the impression that we were not going to hire him. Just last week I found out we hired him.

I was wondering based on the mock phone call and the results, would you hire this person?

The dude could be a complete lemon, or he simply maybe totally inexperienced at resolving end user issues. A lot of these things are actually learned on the job. By way of an example, when I started I would have struggled with both of these issues. After a few years of experience I would have these and thousands of others down. Today after being away from PC support for so many years I would answer no 1 correctly but not no 2.

People have to learn things and it's an entry level job. If he has aptitude for learning and wants to do so he may be worth a shot.

Rappeller

I would, depending on how he took the corrections. A+, Security+, and all the other certifications give you knowledge but not the experience to apply that knowledge. It takes time to make learned knowledge applied knowledge. If he is asking questions to learn that is a good thing, if he is asking the same question more than twice that isn't good. Conundrum - Everyone wants experienced help how do you get experienced? Getting that first manager willing to work with you and teach you. I bet we all have fond memories of someone who mentored us at one time or another.

MAC_Addy

A lot of problems are resolved by experience, not taking tests. Plus, everyone has to start somewhere. I have mixed feelings about this topic, I can see why you wouldn't hire him and why you would. If I were put in the situation - purely based on what I do, I wouldn't have hired him due to me being busy a lot of the time. I wouldn't want to spend 2 or 3 weeks training.

It also depends on whether he really has these certs or not. I don't know if you can legally ask someone in an interview what their certification ID's are - not that anyone knows theirs off by heart.

And if he really DOES have those certs, he may have dumped them. Then we get on to the topic of why people shouldn't **** their way through certs, especially on something so basic, like A+.

snokerpoker

I agree that most, if not all troubleshooting comes from real world experience but I still think that these items were very basic and should have been resolved. With that being said, I believe it is ok and understandable to not get everything 100% correct with these types of "mock" phone calls or interviews, but I would have liked to see him ask more questions and at least try to troubleshoot the issue. This guy didn't ask the right questions or even try. I attempted to "break the ice" by talking to him and gave him hints/examples, but he just said "I don't really know".

On the other side of things, he is a nice guy and definitely seems motivated to do a good job. His starting salary is $15.00/hr.

I guess I'm being too harsh, but I would have interviewed more candidates and probably not hired him.

cyberguypr

Is this for an entry level position as we are assuming?