Interview experiences as an interviewer..

I was tasked with doing some interviews for a support position with my company. I had a guy who had his CCNA and MCSA with about some previous support experience. I went through his resume and asked the usual questions about his past experiences, then I decided to ask some technical questions..

I first asked him a basic networking question like how to find the ip address of a machine, he told me he uses a website like whatismyip to find the client address..I asked him about using ipconfig in cmd prompt, he said he doesn't know much command line. I couldn't believe he really had a previous support job and never knew about finding a machine ip address..

So I'm curious about some of you guys experiences interviewing other candidates..do you get real technical? Focus on personality? if the candidate really screws up do you guys end the interview shortly?

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About7Narwhal

Anyone can be taught to work in IT, but you cannot teach good work ethic and motivation. I believe that is a point you want to keep in mind. A candidate might miss simple questions, but it could be nerves or lack of knowledge in that area. Just my 2 cents.

cruwl

was this specifically a technical interview?

my experience both as an applicant and an interviewer has usually been a 20-30 min first interview to get a feel of personality ect followed by a some time much longer(up to 2 hours) technical interview.

Now saying that maybe he was nervous and really wasn't prepared for it? or maybe you caught it early and dont have to waste any more time on this candidate?

I would usually expand and really grill some one if they missed simple things like this. cover as broad a spectrum of basic knowledge as I could to really see if he had and skill, or if he dumped to get his certs.

if they continued to miss the basic things we would end the interview early, no sense and wasting everyone's time.

networker050184

Depends on the position. I usually interview for high level networking positions so the questions are very technical in nature. If they aren't doing well it ends pretty quickly. Only if they can answer the technical questions do I consider whether their personality is a fit.

When I have helped interview for lower level positions I'm more concerned with seeing a good thought process and basic understanding of how technology works. Things like ARP, IP addresses, etc. Though I will say I would never hire a supposed experienced person that doesn't know how to do an ipconfig. It doesn't get anymore basic than that in support.

One thing interviewing has taught me is that the shortage of qualified workers deal is not a myth. There are plenty people with certifications and degrees but that does not make them qualified to do the job.

Zartanasaurus

I wouldn't FOCUS on personality per se. There's a minimum technical bar that has to be reached for a given position. If you aren't tall enough to ride that ride, it's a no go. And it's a fallacy that you can teach anyone to work in IT. Can just about anyone work a help desk? Sure. But not everyone is fit to be an Exchange or SAN Admin or troubleshoot why VPN stopped working at 2am. Having a brain lapse on a simple question can happen to anyone, but it shouldn't happen repeatedly throughout the course of an interview either.

Taking the time to understand the question being asked is a skill itself. If they can't work under the pressure of being asked a question, can they work under the pressure of the CIO and IT Director standing at your door asking what the plan is to get the network back up? People always mention how important it is to make a good impression with your attire at an interview... well making a good impression by working on your interview skills is important too.

His answer to that question is pretty fishy for a CCNA and MCSA with experience though. I might've asked a follow up about accessing the computer by it's internal IP since he may have misinterpreted your question.

jvrlopez

A CCNA who "doesn't know much about command line"?

Forget command line, just not knowing ipconfig? Not even control panel > network connections > double click > details?

Using a website to deduce a host's IP address? What if the address is static and there is no connectivity? How would he find his MAC address? Heh....

Bombing a gimme like that wouldn't help his chances if that was me.

alexander77

All the candidates were informed that thee would be some techncial questions asked during the interview. I thought maybe he was nervous or didn't understand the question so I followed up with something simple like accessing a client machine remotely with a with public or private IP addresses...But when I asked about obtaining the MAC address since we do have locked ports at our company he couldn't answer. I liked his personality though and thought he could make a good fit, but if he couldn't understand the basics such as finding an IP and MAC then I worry about how long it would take to get him up to speed.

Since it's my first responsibility interviewing I wanted to make sure the team and management doesn't say "He brought in a guy who didn't know how to access my computer".

Gorby

Sounds like your candidate took braindumps or is lying about having the CCNA and MCSA, there's no way you could not know something as simple as accessing ipconfig with those certs.

zeroth

How strange. That would've been a clever answer if you'd asked how to find a PC's outside global address, assuming it's different from the inside local address. I can understand someone not knowing ifconfig or other Linux commands, but not knowing ipconfig is a little astounding.

I don't conduct interviews myself, but if I did, there would be very few "trivia" questions. By trivia I mean questions like which two well known ports are associated with FTP and what is the distinction between well known, registered, and ephemeral ports? If I got a good answer I'd dig deeper and simply ask...what is a port? Why does it matter and where would you find it in a packet?

Another good one, especially for a CCNA, would be...describe what happens when you ping an address, start to finish. Whiteboard it. Give as much detail as you can. I wouldn't be looking for a right answer, I'd be looking for a thought process.

If the candidate screws up basic technical questions, I'd immediately move on to thought process questions. They screw those up and the interview is pretty much done.

Edit: Another thing I've never seen but would definitely do if I had to interview a (Cisco) network engineer would be to break something like an EIGRP neighborship, print out all the relevant show commands and configuration items, hand them to the candidate, and ask them what they think is wrong with it, if anything.

TechGuy215

I've sat in on a few interviews. I think a majority of the misanswered quetions by perspective employees is due to nerves. However, I've have seen a fair amount that probably dumped a few of their certs, as they couldn't even answer the gimmie's that they were given. We now use a technical "quiz" that applicants take along with submitting their resume/cov. The content of the quiz is based upon the position. The quiz is timed fairly tightly to prevent googling of answers, and so far the applicants that have passed the quiz and made it to the interviewing process have been fairly sharp.

blargoe

I have conducted lots of interviews for both tier 1/2 support type positions up to Sr. level admin/engineer. Most of the candidates for the support jobs have been exactly as you described, but the diamonds in the rough are eventually found.

Mishra

I start out with a 30-60 minute technical phone screen. I'm very clear about what my expectations are and what they should expect. For example, I tell a candidate "I'm thinking of technical questions off the top of my head and do not have a canned response I'm expecting in front of me. I'm a systems engineer so I'm looking for how to answer the question, not necessarily if you are really good at trivia.".

I have a lot of people to interview in a certain amount of time so I want to see if you have skills or not... I can figure it out pretty quickly. Even if you were nervous and couldn't explain ipconfig, you need to be able to clearly communicate an easy answer like that.

jmritenour

When I'm on interviews, I like to lead off with several high level technical questions. That way I can gauge both their knowledge, and how they respond to pressure. After 5-10 minutes of grilling, if I can see that they know what they're talking about, and they're not rattled, then we can proceed with the personality type stuff.

My favorite interview was with a guy who had MCSE in 2000, 2003, and was allegedly working on upgrading to MCITP:EA in 2008. I asked him to tell me as much information as he could about the FSMO roles in AD. He stared at me blankly for a few seconds, then said he hadn't worked with Windows 2008 as much as he would've liked at that point, and was not very familiar with some of the newer features. That's great, but FSMO roles had been around since Windows 2000... :rolleyes:

Oh, and I can't forget the guy who was interviewing for a storage engineer position, and informed us that RAID levels are set by the storage vendor. Obviously a guy who had only worked with NetApp.

Mike-Mike

Anytime I had to interview someone at my last job, I walked away thinking I deserved way more money

NetworkVeteran

alexander77 wrote: »

So I'm curious about some of you guys experiences interviewing other candidates..do you get real technical? Focus on personality? if the candidate really screws up do you guys end the interview shortly?

All of the above. Lunch time is an obvious time to chit-chat and see how personable they are. Different interviewers target focused aspects of their technical skills deeply, over the remaining 4-8 hours.

We also do stress-testing. I usually make their hands shake and their cheeks flush! I like to see healthy stress levels that propel them forward, not those who don't care, or who are paralyzed with doubt.

Kobayashi Maru for the win!

Slithy

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

Kobayashi Maru for the win!

Must be some interesting interviews...

Danielm7

I once sat in for an interview for a programmer. The guy was so nervous he was clenching his hands so tightly he broke the end off a pen, leaked ink all over the floor then denied it was him who did it. Just what you're looking for in a small tight-knit group of developers.

Mishra

LOL @ Danielm7. The denial thing makes it hilarious.

rsutton

Once I have verified the minimum technical skills are met I focus completely on cultural fit. That is many times more important to me.

Danielm7

Mishra wrote: »

LOL @ Danielm7. The denial thing makes it hilarious.

Yep, purple ink too, on his hands, his pants and on the floor around him. After he said it wasn't him we were like... ummm... well... OK?

pert

It completely depends on the level of the position. For help desk the person's personality trumps any technical knowledge they have. However, ll the personality in the world isn't going to help you perform open heart surgery. If you're looking for high level engineers its technical knowledge questions until your satisified, then personality questions until youre satisified this is someone you can work with everyday. They need be sociable enough that you can work with them without angst.

If I'm interviewing a guy with a CCNA for a network engineer and he doesn't know how to use ipconfig then the interview is instantly over.

Zartanasaurus

Danielm7 wrote: »

Yep, purple ink too, on his hands, his pants and on the floor around him. After he said it wasn't him we were like... ummm... well... OK?

You should've asked him if he murdered Barney on the way over.

Hypntick

Yeah i've done a few level one interviews and it is mostly about personality and cultural fit. However one that I always liked to ask, particularly if they claim experience, is how to troubleshoot a 169 IP. Was never looking for a specific answer, more of a process of how they would go about finding the root cause. Being able to show a clear thought process was always a huge plus.

philz1982

Two things,

Depending on the size of your company, you need to ask the same questions of all interviewees or they can come back to you for legal reasons.

If you are going to perform a test, which I recommend (demonstrate basic practicum skills), then get HR approval first. (Once again this is most important if you are at a large company).

I like to perform three step interviews.

1. Step one- Skill testing, outline the day to day skills not the BS on the job title and test them. Eliminate based on core skills.
2. Learning Skills- Pick a related topic that is a stretch give the person access to the internet and say find me the answer, show me how to apply the answer, and show me the potential downside of the answer.
3. Trial day- I have the potential person shadow my team member(s) for 1 day (work with HR on the legal ramifications, potential injury, liability, labor laws, ect).

Convene a council of team members to review the results from 2 and 3 and then select. This method has yet to fail me on an hire.

-Phil

NetworkVeteran

philz1982 wrote: »

Depending on the size of your company, you need to ask the same questions of all interviewees or they can come back to you for legal reasons.

No, you do not. I've worked at or with many of the largest IT companies, and they don't practice this, HR doesn't push this, and I wouldn't recommend any such thing except for initial phone screens or candidates near entry-level.

Adaptive questions tend to be better at flushing out weaknesses.

philz1982

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

No, you do not. I've worked at or with many of the largest IT companies, and they don't practice this, HR doesn't push this, and I wouldn't recommend any such thing except for initial phone screens or candidates near entry-level.

Adaptive questions tend to be better at flushing out weaknesses.

You open yourself up for a discrimination lawsuit if you ask one person a set of technical questions and don't ask someone else the same or similar questions and that person gets hired.

A company I worked for lost a manager because he asked some technical questions of one candidate and none of the other. The one who got asked questions didn't get hired and the company got sued for discrimination. Thus all technical questions must be defined and asked of all parties. You can change the wording but the premise must be the same.

Just because they don't practice it doesn't mean anything....

olaHalo

philz1982 wrote: »

You open yourself up for a discrimination lawsuit if you ask one person a set of technical questions and don't ask someone else the same or similar questions and that person gets hired.

A company I worked for lost a manager because he asked some technical questions of one candidate and none of the other. The one who got asked questions didn't get hired and the company got sued for discrimination. Thus all technical questions must be defined and asked of all parties. You can change the wording but the premise must be the same.

Just because they don't practice it doesn't mean anything....

How did the other candidate know what was asked?

deth1k

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

No, you do not. I've worked at or with many of the largest IT companies, and they don't practice this, HR doesn't push this, and I wouldn't recommend any such thing except for initial phone screens or candidates near entry-level.

Adaptive questions tend to be better at flushing out weaknesses.

How does that work then? How can you determine someone's technical ability when you ask different questions depending on how you feel? All candidates should be treated the same, there must be a standard interview process with standardised Q/A. Otherwise it is discrimination as stated previously. I do feel the same way however when someone comes in for entry level position with CCNP etc this obviously raises some eyebrows.

NetworkVeteran

Just because they don't practice it doesn't mean anything....

It sure does mean something that they neither practice nor advertise the policy you're mentioning. Most corporations want to make money, and one aspect of that is avoiding losing money to lawsuits. Thus, I've had to take courses on discrimination, illegal stock transactions, wrong ways to do business in foreign countries, workplace safety violations, etc. Often these were given by independent firms who provide the same training to other large corporations.

A company I worked for lost a manager because he asked some technical questions of one candidate and none of the other.

I don't buy it. First, consider that you may not have been in a position within your company to know the full circumstances of his termination. There's often the official story, the rumor story, and the real story known by relatively few. Second, if you know any laws requiring this, product them. Third, with regards to technical questions, you say he asked "none" of the other candidate, which is a bit different and more interesting than asking each one different questions.

NetworkVeteran

deth1k wrote: »

How does that work then? How can you determine someone's technical ability when you ask different questions depending on how you feel?

I said adaptive questions are better at flushing out weaknesses. I never mentioned varying one's questions based on their feelings. Adaptive tests are accepted as efficient even in certification tests and the public school system.

See: http://www.doe.mass.edu/edeval/ddm/example/k-3Math-samples.pdf and search for, "adaptive".

philz1982

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

It sure does mean something that they neither practice nor advertise the policy you're mentioning. Most corporations want to make money, and one aspect of that is avoiding losing money to lawsuits. Thus, I've had to take courses on discrimination, illegal stock transactions, wrong ways to do business in foreign countries, workplace safety violations, etc. Often these were given by independent firms who provide the same training to other large corporations.

I don't buy it. First, consider that you may not have been in a position within your company to know the full circumstances of his termination. There's often the official story, the rumor story, and the real story known by relatively few. Second, if you know any laws requiring this, product them. Third, with regards to technical questions, you say he asked "none" of the other candidate, which is a bit different and more interesting than asking each one different questions.

He got fired for discrimination, the two potential hires were acquaintances. The hired was the bosses friend.

The point, which your missing, was that if you ask different questions, not the same question differently, you can be sued for discrimination. But as I said, do what you want, I really could care less if you or your company gets sued or in any sort of legal trouble...