Interview Questions

fredmoogie

why is that sometimes i freeze up during the technical phone interview questions? deep down, i knew the answers but just didn't think of it right away....and moments after i hung up, i realize i missed some.

ie. why does 2 hosts on same network unable to communicate with each other? they are able to reach internet.

my response:

a) check physical connection
b) ip configuration such as subnet
c) check for connectivity via ping

i forgot to mention to check switch configuration.

have u froze during the phone questions? if so, please share your experience and how to improve on this.

thanks.

lac

I think everyone has made mistakes during a technical interview either on the phone or in person at one point or another.

I've been on both sides. I interviewed at a place once where the company did not even use Cisco PIX firewalls, however I had it listed on my resume (had been CQS-CSPFA at that point) and the interviewer (who was a Cisco guy) said "so you know PIX huh?" I said yes and he proceeded to white board a network with multiple security zones and servers and then asked me to write out configuration (NATs, ACLs, etc) as well as solve a couple problems that he had wrote in the drawing. My config was fine, and I solved a couple of the issues, however I missed one easy one. I can't remember what it was now (this was 6 years ago), but it was something easy. After that portion was complete he said "wow, you really do know it, I know CCIE's who couldn't have done that." I didn't get the job, however I do not think it was because of that. Seemed during the interview that it was just process that we were going through and that his mind was already made up on someone else.

I do the interviews for my company and I don't think I've ever had someone answer or perform all troubleshooting steps correctly. It's one thing to miss a couple steps, it's another to come in saying you know something and not have a clue. I had a guy come in last year who just completely lied about stuff that was on his resume and was helpless when I put him on a GNS3 router session. This was after he confirmed he knew Cisco routers and switches and that he could do basic operations on them (ip interfaces, setup point to point connections, static routes, etc). He didn't get hired, however, he got most of the stuff wrong or didn't have a clue on how to even start on the problems or questions he was presented in the interview.

On the other hand, the last two engineers we hired each got a few questions wrong during their interview. They were able to at least logically approach the questions and start down the right path. The main thing is to just try and be calm. It's tough to do during an interview, but everyone's been there, so don't sweat it too much. The other piece of advice I would give is do not put things down on your resume for which you have no experience or don't feel comfortable talking about. If you're watched someone do it, but haven't performed the task yourself or are not comfortable performing the task or working with technology, it shouldn't be on your resume.

Good luck on your job search and just keep at it, you'll land something soon.