Technical Interview

Dieg0M

My employer has recently asked me to conduct technical interviews for future candidates. I have interviewed 2 guys so far that have a CCNP R&S on their resume and they both lacked a ton of knowledge that I consider CCNP level networking knowledge (how OSPF works, Redistribution, BGP). Anyone else has experience interviewing for network engineering positions that I can PM to ask them if the questions I am asking are too hard? Or maybe I should lower my expectations? Is it just really hard to find competent people these days?

networker050184

I interview people all the time and unfortunately your experience is the norm. 90% of the people I interview with CCNP or CCIE can't answer a lot of what I consider basic or mid level questions unfortunately. I don't think it has anything to do with 'these days', it's just hard to find people that take this stuff serious and keep the knowledge fresh after they finish the exams.

Whether you should lower your expectations depends on the position you are trying to fill. Sometimes we'll take on less knowledgeable people that have the drive to learn. I'm a lot less likely to take on someone that can't answer the questions and has a lot of experience though.

Danielm7

I had an interview the other day and I have the CCNA on my resume, but I don't work with it day to day. The guy said he wanted to ask me a few questions since he's not certified but works with Cisco all day, etc, he seemed kind of hung up on it. The questions were really basic, I answered both and he was really surprised and said he's have a lot of "certified" people in who couldn't answer them.

Dieg0M

Thanks for your honest opinion Networker, here's a post I wrote on the kind of questions I ask: Hour 200: Interview questions and how I evaluate someone
Can you have a look and tell me if, in your opinion, these questions might be too hard or too broad for CCNP level knowledge candidates?

kohr-ah

A CCNP should of been able to answer those questions to some extent. Doesn't need to be in detail.

I agree with networker about I know my coworkers who do more switching don't keep up on Route but they should be able to give you a basic answer I'd imagine.

WiseWun

Bonjour fellow Canadien!

networker050184 wrote: »

I don't think it has anything to do with 'these days', it's just hard to find people that take this stuff serious and keep the knowledge fresh after they finish the exams.

+1

Certifications are usually good for 3 years, some people just loose interest after passing the exam but still list the cert on their resume. I stay abreast by reading blogs, articles, quick nuggets on youtube, etc...its important to lock down the fundamentals. Thanks for the blog link, make sure you don't loose interest after passing the exam!

darkerz

I read through your blog (great post, love it).

I personally think you're being too easy on the candidate. CCNA + some blogs + GNS3 experience should answer the OSPF q's pretty easily.

Polynomial

What level of network engineer are you hiring? You might consider taking some stock questions from Cisco practice exams rather than generating your own scenarios. Since your questions are going to be asked in the way your mind works. (which is the conclusion I came to reading all this)

I had a high level systems guy give me a 10 question quiz on various topics. After he came back into the room he said he didn't really care if my answers were completely correct or not, but just wanted to see my thought process.

Dieg0M

Polynomial wrote: »

What level of network engineer are you hiring? You might consider taking some stock questions from Cisco practice exams rather than generating your own scenarios.

The scenario's I took are from CCNA/CCNP/CCIE level books and exams (depending of the technology) or questions I have been asked myself during interviews. None of the questions I ask are made up on the spot and all of them involve technologies that WILL be used on a day to day basis. For example, I won't ask questions on RIP or Frame Relay , but I will ask questions on redistribution and multicast if the candidate is interviewing for one of our clients that use these technologies.

shodown

I think it depends. When I see a resume and they have "insert certification" in there. I will only ask in-depth questions if it also matched up with the current or last job they had. I can't tell you how many Voice engineers that I have met that have had configured gatekeeper, Designed 5,000 phone deployments to find out that a VAR did it, or they just flat out lied about it.

If its a technology that your client used and they don't have it listed. I don't think its fair game, you can easily miss out on good guy/gal you try to hire based on technologies. Hire good a good person and the skills will come if they have shown the aptitude from what they did know.

mistabrumley89

I feel that a ccna with job experience dealing with routers could vaguely answer those questions. Although if your job experience never dealt with ospf much I would see where they might fumble the ball. Good straight to the point questions IMHO. Gets the wheels turning, but doesn't burn them out

kohr-ah

Even still.

Something like when you redistribute OSPF what is the default tag. OK heck, I don't know. I know how to use tags to filter but not the default tag

Name the stub areas. That should be known by a CCNP even if not used daily or in months.

networker050184

I usually start out with a simple vague question about a technology and build from there. BGP for example.

Are you familiar with BGP?
Do you know the difference between iBGP and eBGP?
What is a route reflector?

If they can get through the basic questions like this I'll go to a scenario question, industry best practices, or something along those lines. You can usually weed people out with the first two questions and save yourself some time. If the only difference they know between i and e BGP is that they are with your own or a different AS I know they don't have deep knowledge of the subject. I do this for each protocol or technology you find relevant from their resume and the job at hand.