Interview Tomorrow

j86cici

I have an interview tomorrow for an entry level NOC position. Is there anything in particular I should expect?

Thanks in advance!

Sponx

Never worked in a NOC; however, I have heard it's usually not a tough job once you obtain the position.

Good luck!! Let us know how it goes.

j86cici

So I had my interview today. I was asked about my ability to prioritize, the five attributes I believe are most important when it comes to communication, what accomplishment I'm most proud of, how I decided to go the tech route after being in finance, etc. One of the people who sat in during part of the interview kept dropping names of people she works with and at the end of the interview I was asked if I remembered any of the names. We'll see how things go. I have a pretty strong corporate background and this position is very entry level. Hopefully I get the position and can start moving forward.

RouteThisWay

Just out of curiosity, why did you switch from Finance to IT?

j86cici

RouteThisWay wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, why did you switch from Finance to IT?

I wasn't satisfied with the content of the work I was doing and needed to make a change. Technology has always been a passion of mine - I took a lot of programming classes when I was younger, toyed around with hardware and did a bit of web design throughout college. I can say that I'm happy I decided to take the risk and make a career change. I picked up my Net+ and Sec+ certifications over the past few months and within the year I intend to obtain my first real IT job, earn a vendor specific certification or two and continue to build my hard skills. My goal right now is to lay a solid foundation for a successful IT career.

Essendon

I hope you nailed the interview, give us some good news, will ya?!

Sett

j86cici wrote: »

So I had my interview today. I was asked about my ability to prioritize, the five attributes I believe are most important when it comes to communication, what accomplishment I'm most proud of, how I decided to go the tech route after being in finance, etc. One of the people who sat in during part of the interview kept dropping names of people she works with and at the end of the interview I was asked if I remembered any of the names. We'll see how things go. I have a pretty strong corporate background and this position is very entry level. Hopefully I get the position and can start moving forward.

I would have failed that. I am just terrible at remembering names. Good luck to you !

greenerek

Sett wrote: »

I would have failed that. I am just terrible at remembering names. Good luck to you !

Yeah I have a problems with names as well, interesting interview ..:).Good luck!

jibbajabba

Sett wrote: »

I would have failed that. I am just terrible at remembering names. Good luck to you !

Was just thinking that ... I can get a call, he says his name and at the end of the conversation I'd already forgotten

Sponx

I am good with names once I have put a name with a face... But even when someone says "Hi this is John Doe from Department" at the beginning of a phone call.. I have forgotten after my reply "Hello John Doe, this is Brian Lowell", haha.

Thank god cisco phones display the name, haha.

N2IT

Hope you bring home a winner!

j86cici

Sett wrote: »

I would have failed that. I am just terrible at remembering names. Good luck to you !

You know what was funny? So I was mainly interviewed by one guy, but his manager came into the interview for a bit to talk with us/to me and she was dropping a name about every other sentence. While that was going on I found myself wondering why she was talking about all these people I've never met. She ended up heading out to a meeting after 10 or 15 minutes, so I didn't think much of it after that until an hour later when the interview was wrapping up and I was being asked about names. Luckily I did remember a few, but not as many as I would have liked.

j86cici

And disappointment ensues:

I just heard from the staffing company. They said the people who interviewed me felt that I was overqualified for the position. The job would have been 12am to 12pm working in a NOC for a software company. They said the company felt I was too well-polished for this type of entry level gig and believed it to be "beneath me" (exact words).

How are you supposed to get an entry level job that requires 1-2 years of experience without that experience or an entry level job that requires minimal training when people think you'd get bored with the position?

ptilsen

If you have no professional experience and are being marked as overqualified for positions, your resume might be padded. Make sure you're not overstating.

As an anecdote, I was once told the same thing for a helpdesk position that would have been a pay and responsibility raise from the position I had at the time. The problem was that I had been studying AD for years and had AD and server skills listed on my resume even though I had almost no professional experience with servers and AD.

Granted, I ended up getting a better job anyway, but my point stands. If you are going for entry-level, make sure your resume makes you look like a strong, entry-level candidate.

Keener

j86cici wrote: »

And disappointment ensues:

I just heard from the staffing company. They said the people who interviewed me felt that I was overqualified for the position. The job would have been 12am to 12pm working in a NOC for a software company. They said the company felt I was too well-polished for this type of entry level gig and believed it to be "beneath me" (exact words).

How are you supposed to get an entry level job that requires 1-2 years of experience without that experience or an entry level job that requires minimal training when people think you'd get bored with the position?

WOW! That's rough. I hope things pick up for you in your next interview. It may be a blessing in disguise, though.

Reminds me of a fellow Marine who wanted a job at Hardee's while going to college. They told him he was over qualified and asked if he wanted to be a full time manager! Go figure.

j86cici

Ptilsen, you may be right in a way. It's not that my resume is padded, it's just that I worked in finance before this and my role was management facing. All of my work was to allow for increased management oversight of the bank so that they could make the right business decisions. I just think that companies don't want a person sitting in a room doing what might be considered menial tasks to some when they've already been in a role that interfaces heavily with internal and external customers. My tech certifications are really all that I have on my resume related to IT...maybe I'll post it for a critique.

cyberguypr

That sucks, but remember that one man's trash is another man's treasure (don't take it literally). Keep trying and you'll find someone down the road who will appreciate your experience and put it to good use.

djfunz

ptilsen wrote: »

If you have no professional experience and are being marked as overqualified for positions, your resume might be padded. Make sure you're not overstating.

This is an interesting perspective I've been hearing more frequently. I recently watched a series from RouteHub that mentioned this very topic.

I Want to be a Network Engineer - Part 1 - YouTube

He advises to not just add letters to your resume because you read a few pages about it.

I had an interview a few days ago where the interviewer asked me very detailed questions about DNS because I listed it on my resume. Sure, I know what DNS is and how to set it up and add entries in AD. But he asked for more. He wanted to know if I knew the inner workings of how DNS really worked. The stuff you'd probably find in this book for instance:

Amazon.com: DNS and BIND (5th Edition) (9780596100575): Cricket Liu, Paul Albitz: Books

It probably depends on the position and how comfortable one really is with said topic, but I wouldn't put every protocol that you can think of on your resume just because you configured it a few times in Packet Tracer or Active Directory.

j86cici

So I just wanted to let you all know that the company I interviewed with a few weeks ago had some reorganization within their department which has created an open position which I'm being offered. I'm accepting the position and unless anything crazy happens, I'll be completing some paperwork tomorrow morning and starting on Monday!

I can't even describe how happy I am to have made a successful transition from finance to IT!

MrBishop

j86cici wrote: »

So I just wanted to let you all know that the company I interviewed with a few weeks ago had some reorganization within their department which has created an open position which I'm being offered. I'm accepting the position and unless anything crazy happens, I'll be completing some paperwork tomorrow morning and starting on Monday!

I can't even describe how happy I am to have made a successful transition from finance to IT!

Excellent! Get that experience!

j86cici

MrBishop wrote: »

Excellent! Get that experience!

Thanks! I filled out the paperwork at the staffing company's office this morning and I am happy to say that I am now employed!

pizzaboy

So what are the job duties, is it similar to the post you would have originally applied for?

ChickenNuggetz

Awesome! As a fellow career-switcher, your story gives me hope!