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Scenario-Based / Presentation "interview"

jibbajabba

Never had that before. Just got off the phone with a big company applying for a TA (Technical Architect) position. I did come around a bit in techy land but this is new.

The initial phone interview with the technical manager was less technical but it got me into the short list ... Shortly I will be receiving a technical scenario (e.g. VMware Infrastructure, Exchange Upgrade / Migration etc.) which I will have to prepare for.

During the (first) face to face I will have to give a presentaion at Director Level about that given scenario..

Anyone done that before ? I held Architecture positions before - but that never was part of my interview proceses lol (I do like it though).

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Comments

the_Grinch

I interviewed over the phone for a support position that would have a large training aspect to it. For the in person I was given the task of presenting on pivot tables in Excel. They gave me a time requirement as well as being prepared for questions and answers. It was definitely one of the harder interviews that I have done.

Everyone

I had to do something like this once, only I wasn't given time to prepare. I had to just get up and draw out an Exchange architecture to support X amount of users (can't remember what the number was), then defend my design.

The company was really impressed, but didn't hire me because I didn't have certifications. Ended up getting the job I have now (still without certs), making more than what that company was offering anyway.

While interviewing for the job I have now, I had to do something similar, but less technical. Again, no time to prepare, just given several scenarios, one at a time, and had describe how I'd handle them. Stuff like "You're onsite with a customer, and their CIO is yelling at you, blaming you for an outage, what do you do?"

jibbajabba

I have a week to prepare and just got the scenario ... Don't even know where to start yet but we'll see.

cyberguypr

I work at a software company. The scenario thing is pretty common for developer and architecture positions. This place has more whiteboards than an Office Max regional warehouse and they love to have candidates use them.

Mrock4

I had to do this once- I was brought onsite and met with a handful of engineers plus the hiring manager. I was handed sheet after sheet of diagrams and presented with a scenario (ie: you're the engineer here and we have a requirement to do this, how would you move forward?). I got about 10 of these, and many were on-par with CCIE lab scenario's (from vendors such as INE or IPX). It was insanely stressful, but they mostly wanted to see how I'd work through them, and what steps I'd take. What really caught me off guard was that they wanted all of the technical details, but also the 'soft' details (such as "I'll submit a change request then after approved do THIS, THIS, THIS). Got offered the job but didn't take it (compensation wasn't completely inline, but they were great people that I would have enjoyed working with).

Overall I enjoyed it, though- it was a refreshing way to weed out the phonies.

Krones

I work at a web company, and web developer candidates undergo a variety of coding tasks to showcase their skills in real time. I believe this is pretty common though for dev positions. I read a forum post awhile back for a network/system security position where the candidate had to try to break/root into as many boxes as possible and he did fairly well. Best of luck with your presentation. I am sure you will do fine!

undomiel

I'm a big fan of scenario based interviews. I've been on both ends of them. They make for fun interviews both for the interviewee and the interviewer. You can also dig out a candidate's comfort level pretty easily with them. I've had a number of interviews where the candidate would just keep saying that they're sure they could figure it out if they could sit down in front of a computer to work it out. That's nice and all but when you're interviewing for a senior engineer position you had better be able to puzzle out something. Good luck on the interview jibbajabba. It's especially good that they give you time to prepare so you can definitely put together something to knock their socks off. Is this based off a real world scenario for the company or is it completely fabricated?

pinkydapimp

i had to do a 10 minute presentation for my current job. Seems typical for jobs where you will need to do presentations or be customer facing. They want to make sure you know how to handle yourself. Just practice practice practice and you will do fine. Do a PPT if you can.

phalx

Yes I have been in the position to do one of these before. The best advice I can give is to focus on the people in front of you as much as the information you are presenting. I did not get the job at the time even though I was told I was technically one of the best. I was fully prepared technically, however I had not worked out the social aspect of the situation. I was focused on getting through the problems as quickly and effectively as possible, but I never considered slowing down and talking to the potential employers on a personal level. However, my test was without preparation so you have a big advantage. Good luck!

jibbajabba

I am currently working on a Viso Diagram and some text in word .. Might do that in Powerpoint as well but in this scenario given I think I am better off with Visio (will share once all done and dusted).

This is not customer facing but director facing - almost worse lol ..

jibbajabba

undomiel wrote: »

Good luck on the interview jibbajabba. It's especially good that they give you time to prepare so you can definitely put together something to knock their socks off. Is this based off a real world scenario for the company or is it completely fabricated?

Thanks. And yes, I hopefully got something up my sleeve. I am not great with Office products, but I am sure I got what I need worked out.

And no, I do not think this is fabricated. The scenario sounds like a real world task (if that makes sense) and I got the feeling that they go through exactly that internally.

Heh - might be just a way of getting cheap consultancy lol ..

I don't want to say yet what it is as I try not to get influenced by other people (as tempting as it is) ... Needs to be my design one way or another, especially since I am sure I have to a. defend it and b. answer questions.

zrockstar

I just had one of these a few months ago. Mine wasn't for such a techy role, but I can tell you the feedback I got. First, I had a really slick handout which they loved. I was really prepared for my presentation which was good and bad. The good is obvious, but the bad part was I was almost too structured because my panel would interrupt me with questions every minute or so, and I would briefly answer it and let them know that their question was covered in depth later in the presentation. At the end they were impressed that all their questions were already in my presentation, but they said that they would have liked me to actually answer them more in depth because that might be the most important to the person and they might tune you out until you get to their question if that is what is on their mind. I think they wanted it to be of more of a tech conversation, which my friend who is an engineer at Apple agreed with, rather than a straight up presentation. So if you know anyone who works at the company already, or if you can glassdoor it, it would definitely be valuable to know what kind of format they are expecting. My friend at Apple also told me that if there is a white board set up, pretty much expect that they want you to use it. I didn't in mine, but mine was far less technical. I got the job, hoping the same for you, good luck.