First interview ever - Junior Network Analyst

Hello

That's my first post in this forum; I've been lurking here for quite a while, only reading. Now I need some advice from you, gyus.
My story short - I'm 27, have CCNA and CCENT, hopofully in the end of this month I will pass CCNA Voice. I have a degree in PR and almost none technical experience, excluding maintaining the network for one of the companies I worked in back in my home country. I'm in UK now. Currently I'm doing HND in Electronic Engineering and I hope to get to university next year.

When I came here I decided to change my job, got CCNA and by the way applied for some jobs. Now I have this interview for Junior Network Operations Analyst. It came as a giant surprice for me. I've been working in construction almost all my life, so I have zero experience with tech interviews. And I am looking for part-time due to college, so you would understand why I don't expect many interviews.

Can you please give me a brief of how these interviews are conducted? How to dress for it? Well, I am sure a lot of people have been in this situation. Would be nice if you share some experience, gyus. I can post the description of the job here, if this would help.

Please excuse the lame question

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

networker050184

Usually interviews are conducted in a simple question and answer format. They will ask you technical and non technical questions to see if you are a good fit for the position. Just relax and be confident and show a willingness to learn. You won't be expected to know everything as a junior, but you ability to learn will be important.

As far as what to wear you can never go wrong with a suit.

Good luck!

Otnesen

Thanks

I will try not to be nervious.

GOZCU

http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/84734-had-technical-interview-feeling-myself-so-stupid.html

Iristheangel

Hello there and welcome to the forum! In order to prep for your interview, I would recommend studying your CCNA notes or study guide. There will be a lot of questions based on the content of those exams. There will be questions you don't know either. The most important thing is to be 100% about your skill set. If you get to a question or area of study you don't know, don't spend 20 minutes trying to BS your way through or let the interviewer ask question after question that you know you won't be able to answer. Simply say something along the lines of "I don't have experience with that yet but I'm very interested in learning about it and I would love it if this position would allow me to learn more about it."

As far as dress, this is a no-brainer: You're selling yourself so you should come dressed your best and most professional. I understand that no one really enjoys wearing business suits but given how important an interview is, I never why anyone would want to cut corners.

Good luck!

Otnesen

GOCZU, your topic was awesome. Now at least I know what to expect to some degree. I am definetely going to review all mu CCNA notes for this interview. It is amazing how fast you can forget some things, but that's how human brain works. I won't try to be a macho man and pretend not to be nervious about it, since the first time of whatever you do is, at best, a little scary, but I'll give my best. Honestly, I am going to this interview only for the sake of seeing what an interview is like. I would hardly call myself a great communicator with a broad variety of social skills, but at least I can be technically prepared (of course, in the borders of the CCNA level).

Iris, I would remember the ready answer for when I don't know anything. Sounds good and reasonable to me. I really appreciate your answers, guys.

Thanks

southside

Relax its a junior role, they expect you to know next to nothing, just show that you are keen to learn thats all

kurosaki00

nice man, gratz!
Personally I want to be a network analyst at some point
so please do share your experience with the interview (and hopefully the job!)

sieff

Knowing some background info about the company, the business - how they make revenue and how you fit in with contributing to that is always a good thing. As far as tech question, just relax - definitely don't try cramming for interview questions. For attire, I've alternated between a full business suit and tie - depending on how much I was really interested in the job and the reputation of the company. Interviewing for Cisco for instance, I wore black suit, white shirt, classic tie. Another company that I had little interest I wore khaki's, collared-shirt, blue blazer. Also, be able to speak to what's on your resume.

instant000

Also, just rehearse the interview.

Rehearse a few questions that are very likely to come up in an interview (based upon what you know about the company, and what's on your resume--previous poster alluded to that).

Like, biggest strength/weakness is a common one. Or, how you see yourself fitting in. Or, how you work with others.

Or, probably just research on common interview questions, the company, and yourself, and be prepared for questions about either of those three.

Edit:

Also, have questions prepared to ask whoever is interviewing you. Since you won't know if it's a peer, or a boss, have questions that you can ask either.

I'm the type of person to ask when my start date is, but if you're a bit more modest, you might ask something like "how soon would a candidate such as myself be informed of your decision"

another thing:

sometimes the interviews are multiple phases, multiple rounds, etc. Make sure you bring tons of resumes, so you won't run out.

Dress Code:
Wear the best suit that you have. If you do not have a suit, at the very least, wear your best creased pants, a jacket, and a tie. If you're not comfortable in the suit, you might want to practice sitting in it for an hour or so, just so you're not uncomfortable when the moment comes.

Of course, be flexible enough to realize that you can't plan for everything, and sometimes things just "happen".

Maintain a positive attitude.

Hope this helps.

Nemowolf

instant000 wrote: »

Also, just rehearse the interview.

I always feel like if i don't provide a response to "uninspired" questions like what are your three strengths and weaknesses, then i lose ground. Having taken some time to think about yourself honestly so you have an idea of what these answers may be can be good so your not sitting there going "uuhhhhhh... ummmm ... uhhhh ... i dont know?"

Even if your not 100% what your going to say, don't leave it to chance and hope you can come up with a winning response on the spot.

windycity84

Otnesen,

Congrats! Let us know how it goes. You seem to be where I want to be. I have a BA in Communications with no IT work experience. So you managed to pass both the CCNA and CCENT with no past IT experience? That sounds pretty darn awesome. Any advice? Were they tough exams?

Otnesen

I don't have any experience either. I managed the network for one of the companies I worked for (about 10 PCs), and they had 2811 router and an old switch, I think it was 2960, 24 ports, and Win Server R2 domain. It was all voluntary, since my boss didn't want to pay for external guy, and I had the most experience with PC from all the company (I am sure you can imagine how small it was). It was pretty easy, and cannot be count for experience. However, I've put this on my CV, because even though it's almost nothing, it's better than completely nothing.

The ICND1 and ICND2 exams are really easy, just make sure to get as much practise as you can. I'm preparing for CCNA Voice now, and it is just as easy as the previous two. Just don't get caught in the "these exams are really hard" trend. They are not that hard, if you put your time in it. I hope the CCNP track is that easy too.

Thanks again for the advice, everybody. Don't know what I was going to do if it wasn't for this forum. I will post my interview experience immediately after.

Otnesen

Hello

I know I said I will post the interview experience immediately after, but I was too lazy (I admit). I wanted to go back to studying for CCNA Voice. Yesterday I passed and now it's time to follow up the topic.

The interview was nothing to be afraid of, on the contrary of my expectations. I talked with 2 gyus from the tech side (as this was 1 stage interview). The questions were the cliched
->What do you know about our company? [nothing]
->What's the achievement you're most proud of? [don't have any]
->How do you see yourself in 5 years? [come on, man... what kind of person asks this question?]

Now for the technical part. As most of you said, the questions were pretty basic and the guys told me they don't expect me to be an expert.
->What's an autonomous system?
->What's BGP?
->You have a situation with a router down. How will you troubleshoot it (step by step) [ I explained pinging and reverse engineering the problem, they said this is what is expected]
->How does spanning tree works?
->What messages do the switches exchange for spanning tree to work?
->What's SNMP? [I know what is it and dunno what it's used for, failed this one]
->One subnetting question, find the network ID and broadcast address of a /24 masked addreess
->What protocol is used for multicast? [I had no idea, they told me that it's not a common thing for people to know this thing]

This is what I remember. I nailed most of the questions with the exception of two or three. I blew the first part of the interview, as I was not really prepared for the "HR" questions. However, it turned out that the job is shift work and since I live two hours away from the place of work, I will have to get up at 2:30 in the night to go there. Maybe this is one of the reasons they didn't call me back.

However, it was a good experience. Now I know what to expect

jibbajabba

"Where do you see yourself in 5 years" - yet another question interviewer LOVE to ask and everybody hates.

I said once "I'd like to own my own island" - but believe me, that is really not what they want to hear ..

Ivanjam

@Otnesen - sorry to hear that you did not get the job.

Bokeh

jibbajabba wrote: »

"Where do you see yourself in 5 years" - yet another question interviewer LOVE to ask and everybody hates.

I said once "I'd like to own my own island" - but believe me, that is really not what they want to hear ..

We used this on an interviewee years ago. His response? I want to be on the other side of the desk, doing your job, and hiring someone for this position.

He ended up getting the job.

Otnesen

That's a smart answer

I couldn't come up with something like this. When I heard this question, honestly, I though about Family Guy. The quality is bad, but check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-DxzMdW-ug