4 hours Lab technical interview

nethacker

As the above stated, i have interviewed with a cisco gold partner twice which involved a brief theoretically technical interview and a cultural in-person interview. I was called by the hiring manager of network engineering department that i have scaled through to the 3rd & final interview which will be a core technical lab interview and will last for at least 4 hours. Has anyone ever been in this kind of situation? Just curious if anyone has gone through this before, kindly share your experience.

down77

When it comes to working for a partner, they will ensure they are hiring the top talent to justify the billable rates that they charge. Who wants to spend $200-500/hr on a CCxP with entry level knowledge/skills when they can go with another partner who has a CCNA on staff with CCIE level delivery.

When I was hired into my current position I went through both theory and hands on interviews before being offered the position. Most, not all, but most partners have decent pay, great bonuses, and some fun perks that make the trouble worth it in the long run.

Take a deep breath and enjoy the process!

ptilsen

My first job was helpdesk supporting customers of a line of optical disc duplicators and printers. During the 2nd and final interview, the helpdesk manager handed me the manual and told me to make to copies of a disc.

Other than that, I've had a couple employers give me technical exams. I've never been given a lab exam.

nethacker

down77 wrote: »

When it comes to working for a partner, they will ensure they are hiring the top talent to justify the billable rates that they charge. Who wants to spend $200-500/hr on a CCxP with entry level knowledge/skills when they can go with another partner who has a CCNA on staff with CCIE level delivery.

When I was hired into my current position I went through both theory and hands on interviews before being offered the position. Most, not all, but most partners have decent pay, great bonuses, and some fun perks that make the trouble worth it in the long run.

Take a deep breath and enjoy the process!

ofcourse i am ready for whatever they may bring. I am just surprised that a lab interview will take that long

shodown

Who are you interviewing with if you don't mind me asking. I work for a Partner in the DC area.

nhpr

Think of it as an opportunity to show what you really know and impress them. It's a positive more than anything. You might also get some interesting problems you haven't thought about before.

lac

Sounds like a great opportunity. Good luck, looking forward to hearing how it went.

keenon

sounds like fun. I have a TS step for the next engineer that may apply to work with us.

cisco_trooper

In my current position I went through four interviews but the first interview was the technical practical lab. The lab portion of the interview process took a full eight hours split into two session. The first session was simple configuration based on requirements that were handed to me. The second session was break fix where they randomly broke stuff and I had to find, correct, and document the issues.

The second interview was a group cultural interview by the team members of the IT department. I was drilled with technical questions as well as cultural questions which lasted a couple hours.

The third interview was a one on one interview with the IT department manager where I was asked design questions and salary questions and also questions to guage my general interest and participation in technology as a whole including industry news, trends, break throughs, recent internet related outages to determine if I had my finger on the pulse of technology.

The fourth interview was with the CTO and executive management where the CTO asked me a single question he remembered from when he took the CCNA which I obviously nailed and then he went on to try to low-ball the hell out of the salary. This position had been posted on the internet for $85K and he seriously tried for a second to see if I would bite at $45K. I almost walked out but I managed to keep my cool and got the job at full price.

It was a long process but it was worth it in the end.

nethacker

cisco_trooper wrote: »

In my current position I went through four interviews but the first interview was the technical practical lab. The lab portion of the interview process took a full eight hours split into two session. The first session was simple configuration based on requirements that were handed to me. The second session was break fix where they randomly broke stuff and I had to find, correct, and document the issues.

The second interview was a group cultural interview by the team members of the IT department. I was drilled with technical questions as well as cultural questions which lasted a couple hours.

The third interview was a one on one interview with the IT department manager where I was asked design questions and salary questions and also questions to guage my general interest and participation in technology as a whole including industry news, trends, break throughs, recent internet related outages to determine if I had my finger on the pulse of technology.

The fourth interview was with the CTO and executive management where the CTO asked me a single question he remembered from when he took the CCNA which I obviously nailed and then he went on to try to low-ball the hell out of the salary. This position had been posted on the internet for $85K and he seriously tried for a second to see if I would bite at $45K. I almost walked out but I managed to keep my cool and got the job at full price.

It was a long process but it was worth it in the end.

Interesting. Now I know what to look out for during my lab interview.

nethacker

shodown wrote: »

Who are you interviewing with if you don't mind me asking. I work for a Partner in the DC area.

the company is somewhere around BWI airport

shodown

Well there are 2 in the area that fit that and actually 3 if you move a bit further south. I have no idea why they are making you do a 4 hour tech interview thats insane, but oh well good luck. We are only a premier partner. I've worked with a gold before the big difference is the type of work you get. The gold guys usually get companies like Best Buy, and large school systems to do where the smaller partners get a lot of the local small/medium business to work with. I'm actually looking to go Internal IT the in the next few months and return to a partner within 24-36 months after I have a IE number

nethacker

i have finally done the anticipated lab interview and it all went pretty well and was told i surpassed their expectation because my lab and troubleshooting skills was more than theoretical skills based on their assessment. Flexible hours, lesser commute,opportunity to grow,can come in on a weekend to work in the lab if i have any certification i am preparing for, lots of training for field engineers. Waiting for the offer letter to see what is contained in it

snokerpoker

Good job!

nethacker

snokerpoker wrote: »

Good job!

thanks mate

malcybood

nethacker wrote: »

i have finally done the anticipated lab interview and it all went pretty well and was told i surpassed their expectation because my lab and troubleshooting skills was more than theoretical skills based on their assessment. Flexible hours, lesser commute,opportunity to grow,can come in on a weekend to work in the lab if i have any certification i am preparing for, lots of training for field engineers. Waiting for the offer letter to see what is contained in it

Great news congratulations.

For info on your initial post, I work for a Cisco gold partner (amongst other vendor partners) but never had anything like a 4 hour interview. I had an hour meeting / interview with the Professional Services Director, then an approx 45 min tech phone interview with a CCIE, although it was across Cisco & Avaya (Data/IPT/Firewalls), Checkpoint firewalls, HP & Dell Blade Centres and Riverbed.

I work in a consultancy design & implementation role so I guess it kind of depends on what job you're going for. I think if I was going for a job in the NOC i.e. 2nd or 3rd line they may have grilled me more on specific technologies depending on what it was I was going in there to do. I did have an interview at an ISP a few years ago where I had to configure a 4 router + 2 switch BGP / OSPF lab, but it was only about an hour after an approx 45 min interview with the boss man and one tech manager.

Nevertheless, congrats once again, brilliant news and good luck with the new role!

nethacker

malcybood wrote: »

Great news congratulations.

For info on your initial post, I work for a Cisco gold partner (amongst other vendor partners) but never had anything like a 4 hour interview. I had an hour meeting / interview with the Professional Services Director, then an approx 45 min tech phone interview with a CCIE, although it was across Cisco & Avaya (Data/IPT/Firewalls), Checkpoint firewalls, HP & Dell Blade Centres and Riverbed.

I work in a consultancy design & implementation role so I guess it kind of depends on what job you're going for. I think if I was going for a job in the NOC i.e. 2nd or 3rd line they may have grilled me more on specific technologies depending on what it was I was going in there to do. I did have an interview at an ISP a few years ago where I had to configure a 4 router + 2 switch BGP / OSPF lab, but it was only about an hour after an approx 45 min interview with the boss man and one tech manager.
Nevertheless, congrats once again, brilliant news and good luck with the new role!

My lab is similar to the above but before the lab, we had a technical interview for 45mins. first part was configuration based on business requirements while the second part was troubleshooting (Break & fix) with OSPF & BGP.
Thanks mate

FloOz

awesome congrats! sounds like a great oppurtunity!

cyberguypr

Sounds like a win. Now tell them to hurry up with that offer letter.

nethacker

cyberguypr wrote: »

Sounds like a win. Now tell them to hurry up with that offer letter.

i already did and they are packaging the benefits according to the HR person

ColbyG

Congrats! I'm with a Gold partner as well. It can be a lot of work. PM me who you signed on with. I'm curious if it's my company, I know we have a big office up there.