Interview Questions (.. For me to ask a candidate)

Hello all,

I'm looking for some interview questions as we get prepped to find my replacement, (I'm moving on in a couple of months.)

I've been placed on the committee and am looking for some good 1st/2nd interview questions that are somewhat IT specific.

If you guys can think of any good ones that you can remember from past interviews, that would be awesome!

The Basic job description is to be 'the' tech person for a small school district, doing everything from server to desktop maintenance/training/support.

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Comments

rogue2shadow

1. Tell me about yourself. (Classic)
2. What would you say is one of your weakest traits? (Candidate would be expected to flip the q into a positive light)
3. How well do you work under extreme pressure/deadlines? (Classic)
4. What are you looking to get out of this opportunity?
5. Let's say there is a massive outage and a primary server has suffered a catastrophic loss and it is going to be a while before the redundancy server has everything back up. What would you say to the affected users? How would you convey this message to them?
6. Where do you see yourself in the next 5-10 years? (Classic)
7. What drives you/Where does your motivation come from?
8. Are you comfortable addressing a committee of executives who may not have extensive IT experience?

I think these are all pretty general. Hope this helps!

laidbackfreak

The above questions are ok but with the exception of number 5 I'd say those are more HR related. Nothing wrong in them being asked (and I would expect most of them to be asked) but I would look at what you actually do on a daily basis and form your questions around that.

That way you will get more of an understanding how they think and how they approach tasks that they are likely to face.

Devilsbane

The one thing that never happens is ask them about their certs. Ask how they prepared and just try to make sure they actually have them and didn't **** them or are just plain lying.

If they tell you they worked 4 hours a day studying, you know that they are someone who has a strong work ethic and is going to get the job done for you.

forkvoid

I haven't been a manager yet, but were I one, I would look for passion above other things.

You can teach technical skills, but you can't teach initiative or passion. I would word some of my questions to gauge those traits. Technical expertise would come second.

"Why do you want this job?"
"Why do you get up in the morning? What drives you?"
"Why did you get into IT?"
"What do you want to be doing in five years?"

After that, I'd go for the HR stuff:

"A critical server has crashed. The VP is standing over your shoulder, there's a room full of upset users. You have to go to the bathroom, which requires walking through them all. What do you do?" (how to handle pressure)

Then the technical questions... which are entirely based on what your job is. Just pick out some stuff from your day to day duties. Hands-on is always great. Give them something to fix.

I would really put more emphasis on soft skills than technical skills, since they're going to be doing support.

h.embass

Please find below some of the interview questions. You can look into these and these my guide you into
preparing your answers and preparing yourself for a good interview:

Explain how DHCP works.
What is the difference between a UNC and drive mapping?
What is TCP/IP model its working?
What is a mail merge and how does it work?

If you get familiar with these things I'm sure your interview will turn out good.

Countryboi

forkvoid wrote: »

"A critical server has crashed. The VP is standing over your shoulder, there's a room full of upset users. You have to go to the bathroom, which requires walking through them all. What do you do?" (how to handle pressure)

so whats the answer to this? i get this question alot and i dont know if i am answering it correctly or not.

Heero

Countryboi wrote: »

so whats the answer to this? i get this question alot and i dont know if i am answering it correctly or not.

put on your diaper and keep working

erpadmin

Countryboi wrote: »

so whats the answer to this? i get this question alot and i dont know if i am answering it correctly or not.

Keep your cool, take a deep breath and think for no more than a few seconds. The "ideal" candidate is expected to think quick on his feet.

The "answer" is somewhere along those lines.

Countryboi

Heero wrote: »

put on your diaper and keep working

please fall on something sharp....if your not going to answer the question then fall back. anyway i am guessing by these answers that i was giving the correct answer along

OoteR

Countryboi wrote: »

please fall on something sharp....if your not going to answer the question then fall back. anyway i am guessing by these answers that i was giving the correct answer along

Woah cowboy, relax.

The answer we were looking for was not really technical, what I wanted to hear was about communication to our users. If you don't do a good job dealing with their needs and worries, you are going to spend as much time on the phone answering their questions as you are trying to get things back up and running.

I'd also have accepted heero's response, at least that shows some character. :P

jtoast

1) If you suspected a student had gained admin access to a restricted machine, how would you go about verifying the breach and locking it down?

2) Ask the candidate to take a somewhat complex topic and explain it to you as if you were a typical user. I usually use DNS, active directory domains, or wireless security topics for these types of questions.

3) Ask him to explain the difference between a workgroup and a domain.

4) If you are still on xp ask him their thoughts about upgrading to Windows 7...potential benefits/concerns/etc.

dynamik

Get Your Dream IT Job! 77 Questions You Need to be Ready For | Train Signal Training - Free Computer Training Videos

The general HR questions might be the most useful, and the following link has some interesting ones as well.