Scenario. Just want to see if people agree with me

You are the head honcho of the IT department and you opened up a position for help desk at your company.

You have three people interviewing. Person A person B and person C

Person A has a bachelors degree in computer information systems and no experience, no certs, and has been with the company for 1.5 years.

Person B has a bachelors in computer science, no experience, is possibly going to school to be a manager for IT. Has been with the company for a little over a year.

Person C has an associates in computer networking, has 2 years of combined experience working for circuit city and currently has a job at staples as well. Currently enrolled in a bachelors degree program for CIS security and has roughly another year left. Has his mcts and a Novell cert, and has been with the company for 5.5 years. He works in several departments in the company and resolves issues that could potentially go to helpdesk on the floor he works on. He knows how to use the help desk software to look up past issues and resolutions. The only time he puts in a ticket is if higher privileges are needed.

Who is your best candidate?

Find more posts tagged with

SAVE $250 on Your Boot Camp — Use Code "EXAM26"

Exclusively for TechExams members for Infosec Boot Camps starting before April 30, 2026

View Boot Camps

Comments

networker050184

Person C sounds like a no-brainer to me.

shodown

Depends on how the interview goes and how well they fit in on the team. Help desk is more customer service than technical.

Jasiono

Softskills between the three are the same. Person A I don't know about too much but he seems to be very outgoing. Person B means business but is very nice and person C gets along with everyone.

kurosaki00

Person A

its kind of a joke, but at the same time its true

There is such thing as overqualified.
The person already works with the company, many companies specially when small they rather have someone they already know to move up/keep working with them.
I had an interview around 4 months ago for a Tech position and I swear to you
around 8 times during the interview they asked me if I wont be bored with the position
(the position was lower tier of what I work with, but paid very well)
They asked me things like, are you sure you wanna work with this?
wont you get bored?
This is not as high tech as what you are accustomed to.
It went like that on and on
yeah in the end I didnt got the interview.

Jasiono

That is a very interesting point of view right there, something I never think about.

There is also a security position open and it's very entry level. I was thinking about it and I asked the person that is hiring what kind of experience is required, since the posting was very basic. He wants someone willing to learn and someone that knows basic concepts of networking and security. He said experience is not something he is necessarily looking for.

I have the degre in networking and I've taken one security class. I also read half of Darryl's book of security+, so I know basic concepts. I'll probably read the book and apply to the position. It's only 450 pages.

Jasiono

Pardon my grammar and spelling. The iPad lags on this website and I don't feel like correcting anything since it freezes sometimes.

ptilsen

It really depends on my goals for the position. Person A sounds like the most likely to stay in the position for a while. B and C are more likely to leave sooner. C will be more capable in the job to boot, but is almost guaranteed to leave in less than two years. B will leave as soon as he can. Any one of them should be able to do the job.

kurosaki00

btw its just an anecdote, Do apply for any position you see fit.
Dont get frustrated before even trying, always try.

networker050184

ptilsen wrote: »

B and C are more likely to leave sooner. C will be more capable in the job to boot, but is almost guaranteed to leave in less than two years.

Curious what gives you that impression? The person has been with the company for 5.5 years already it sounds like they are invested and interested in staying the long haul to me.

ptilsen

I don't mean to imply C will leave the company, per se, but I would think that with finishing his bachelors, having certs, and tons of relevant experience, C would be smart enough to want to leave the position.

Roguetadhg

I'd say Person C, A, B. In that order.

Person B is going to probably look for a Manager position soon afterwards. Being with the company for only 1 year, I would be suspicious about how much time he spent at work jobs. If I had seen a pattern of hopping full-time position, mind you, not contracts - I would immediately red flag it.

Person A, would be a better position for an entry level as I would assume he went for his BS degree in hearing that "BS is the new AS". I've heard several times that to get anywhere in IT, you'd need a BS degree to climb out of the pack of AS degrees. I would ask why he went for his BS degree, and it aligned with what I thought, I would not red flag him because of his college degree.

I'd be more wary of C just because of his experience and skill set. Which is to say, it's a bad thing. I'd want someone that would want to grow with the company. At which point he would feel entitled to stay longer.

Jasiono

I'm person C, in case you didn't realize haha. Here's the thing. I've gone out for multiple positions in this company, and they know damn well I'm very dedicated to this company. I work my ass off. I went out for systems engineer, network technician, QA test specialist, and I have gotten nothing.
The last job I went out for was the network technician, and the interview was with the head of IT. This man is brilliant, and he interviewed me for 3 hours. By the time we were done, I explained an entire network to him and how each individual component works together, and we did a TON of troubleshooting scenarios that were not network related. He thought that the way I troubleshot the computers and the way I backed up data in certain ways was fantastic and he was impressed. He said I'm the only one that did what I did and he thought it was really clever.

This helpdesk job is the bottom of the totem pole. I want my foot in the door to move up in the IT area. Last time I interviewed with him, I wasn't doing half the stuff I do now, and I just graduated with my degree in networking. Now I have more to bring to the table and I wasn't considering a bachelors because it was too much money, until wgu came around.

Post number 6 describes another position which I may go for as well.

Roguetadhg

You metioned the network technician position, what happened to it?

Jasiono

The person that got it has several masters degrees. She doesn't even know how to use remote desktop client to assist with issues. My wife works from home and had her on the phone for more than an hour, and blatantly said she doesn't know how to use it.

Jasiono

That's another thing I don't understand. I get all this praise as to how knowledgable I am, yet I get nowhere within this company. My interviews go well, from my point of view, every time. I understand that there are people out there that are more qualified, but there are times when I ask myself what I did wrong with some of the positions I go out for that someone who has close to nothing gets over me.

The opinions in this thread open up my eyes a little more. I never thought like you guys think in terms of being bored and all. I see myself as a great candidate because I want to get into the IT department and work myself up, in that department. Everyone wants to move up, it's a given.

The security position I'm going out for is a little out of my comfort zone, but sometimes that's what it takes, and judging by what the manager wrote back to me in regards to what he is looking for, it's very manageable to me and I fall right into his categories.

networker050184

Sounds like that do not appreciate your loyalty or drive for success. Time to find someone that will!

Jasiono

I was thinking the same thing, and every time I do so, they open another position.

Do you think it looks like I'm desperate by going out for both these positions?

Roguetadhg

I'm not a hiring manager. So take what my opinions were as a grain of salt on McDonald's fries.

There's one aspect that came into play with one of my past interviews - Politics. Who you know. I was interviewed for a spot with a national gas station, the hiring manager called me up to let me know that I didn't get the position, but it wasn't her choice as it was overruled.

It is what it is. You can't let such things be discouraging.

I think NOC_Ninja has done hiring before, I think.

ptilsen

IMO, if they don't get you into a position within a few weeks, you start looking outside the company. Helpdesk positions are not hard to come by. Putting you in one should be a no-brainer.

pert

Jasiono wrote: »

I was thinking the same thing, and every time I do so, they open another position.

Do you think it looks like I'm desperate by going out for both these positions?

In my experience if you start off low in a company and then make drastic gains in your skills they dont know what to do with you and you end up having to move if you want to grow.

BradleyHU

Jasiono wrote: »

The person that got it has several masters degrees. She doesn't even know how to use remote desktop client to assist with issues. My wife works from home and had her on the phone for more than an hour, and blatantly said she doesn't know how to use it.

to be fair...most places dont use RDP to do support, it would be VNC, LANdesk, Dameware or something to that effect. And if Remote assistance isnt turned on her machine, then the tech wont be able to connect to see her screen...

Jasiono

RDP was a requirement. Our company has people that work from home and the only way to help them is to use it, or have the person come in. They would rather remote into the pc and all the pcs have their firewall rules set up to allow the service. They VPN into our network to work.

I'll be searching elsewhere in the meantime definitely.

paul78

Roguetadhg wrote: »

There's one aspect that came into play with one of my past interviews - Politics.

I don't like to call it politics but the word does fit, especially when it come to internal hiring with internal candidates. I will admit that even when I am not a hiring manager for a position. If there is an open position and there are multiple internal candidates, if that position is in anyway going to impact services to my line-of-business, I will influence the hiring decision. It's never personal but based on my perception of what will add most value to the business.

If you didn't get the job, it doesn't mean that you are not qualified or are a good fit. It just means that someone had a different motive.

Given your description, if all things were equal, "C" would be the best choice. But then again, there are always other agendas.

eansdad

No offense, but if you are making their lives easier doing what you are doing then why would they promote you and pay you more? Sometimes going above and beyond your duties and title can hurt you expecially with managers/supervisors that don't promote talent or reward loyalty.

Jasiono

It's not a pay upgrade for me

I was thinking what you were, a long time ago, so I decided to cut some responsibilities slowly.