Service Desk Interview Prep Questions

I have a interview for a Service Desk Analyst I position at a state university on Wednesday afternoon and I have a few questions while I am getting ready for it. The position really seems like a straight up tier 1 help desk job where customer service skills are valued more over tech skills. At this point, I would say I am very strong in customer service but I am still pretty green in the tech side of things.

1. I was told that the dress is business casual. Which, I have always assumed that meant dress shoes, khakis, and a dress shirt tucked in. Would I be "too formal" or "not paying attention to instructions" if I wear a tie?

2. The position lists ITIL v3 foundation cert as a preferred qualification, which I do not have. Would it be a decent idea to bone up on the very basics before Wednesday?

3. I have a Masters degree and background in library science. What are some things I could say that would ease their minds that I am overqualified or I am only passing through IT? The reason that this might come up is that when I filled out the application, I selected both libraries and IT as interests and I listed both backgrounds on my application and resume.

4. On a related note, I am getting ready to build setup pFesnse system. I might have sometime tomorrow night to do that; this is the only time I have to work on it before the interview. Should I work on it to show that I really know what I am doing and possibly deflect some of the possible concerns that I am overqualified or should I just get ready for the questions they might throw at me via the customer service side of things.

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Comments

BerkshireHerd

Your spot on for the dress, business means tie, business casual means basically what you stated.

Yes, ITIL is often used as a foundation on how service management functions, at minimum, pick up some of the lingo and be ready to talk about some of it's advantages.

Just be honest with them. If your realized your passion is in IT so be it.

Don't sweat it, looks like you got the certs you need already for Tier 1, focus on following protocol and customer service soft skills. If you do not know the answer to something, admit it, but offer to follow up with the answer.

Good Luck!

lsud00d

1. Wear a tie to the interview! A tie is such a little thing that goes a long way, I'm not sure why some people have such an aversion to it. Even if the daily dress is business casual, you still have to show up on game day (i.e. the interview) and put your best foot forward.

2. 100% learn the ITIL basics. You won't need the cert for the spot, but ITIL runs you through the gist of things and it's good to have the jargon down.

3. Use your degrees as a source of strength, not a weakness of being 'overqualified'. Explain to them that you're good at researching problems to identify solutions, your documentation skills are top notch, and you are an excellent communicator. These three, as an example, showcase both soft and technical skills that will be necessary to excel in your first IT job and move you to the next level.

4. pfsense will not help you in a Help Desk. Here are some basics to understand IT & higher ed:

You will be doing a lot of user account/password management. You probably won't have the admin rights to pull the trigger, but you will be assisting new students, undergrads, and even professors with logging into their AD and email accounts
You will be connecting people to wifi. Understand the basics of how to do this on Windows and OSX.
You will be troubleshooting LAN connections. Understand how to get an IP address, renew a DHCP address, and troubleshoot where the problem is in the network connection (ethernet cable, bad NIC, etc).
You will be troubleshooting printers. Understand how to get to the print queue, install printer drivers, and do basic printer troubleshooting
You will be troubleshooting storage access. This might be network shares, or cloud-based. Understand the differences in both
You will be troubleshooting email access. Understand how to configure Outlook, and the difference between on-premise and cloud-based email.

There are many more things you'll come across, but most important is show that you can be trained, you have great customer service skills, and you can do basic research & troubleshooting.

UncleB

lsud00d wrote: »

1. Wear a tie to the interview! A tie is such a little thing that goes a long way, I'm not sure why some people have such an aversion to it. Even if the daily dress is business casual, you still have to show up on game day (i.e. the interview) and put your best foot forward.

While I generally advise going above what is normally needed in dressing for an interview, the OP stated that business casual was requested, so to do otherwise is already showing they cannot follow a directive - very poor form for what is the lowest rung of the ladder in IT.

I would agree with their plans for the dress code and focus on being spotless (ie freshly laundered & ironed), well groomed, well washed themselves (don't go overboard on the cologne though) with a shave and well combed hair. Remember to avoid garlic and brush/floss your teeth too before the meeting.

At this level of recruitment the person hiring isn't looking for a specific skillset or personality type as you will gain the skills needed to do the job in the first few weeks (the tasks are likely to be documented well) and you can then develop deeper skills to fix more as time goes on rather than just log the calls and pass to 2nd line. What the recruiter wants to see is someone who can follow orders and can be shaped to be a minion doing what the others can - not complaining and being too different.

This changes as you move up the ladder, but start as you are planning and let them mold you initially to get started so they are happy to keep you then grow from there.

Just my $0.02 worth.
Iain