Desktop Support Interview Thursday

I know this has been a topic in many threads before but most of those threads got very few usful answers in them.

What are some of the questions I may get asked?
In the initial phone interview with the recruiter she asked how comfortable I would be about being asked break/fix questions. What are some break/fix questions others have been asked or asked of others in interviews.
Most of my experience has been in straight hardware repair/upgrades, cleaning out viruses, finding out what is causing slowdowns in HD performance (most cases just required a defrag or something as simple as that) and basic slowdowns in PC performance. Mostly really basic things.
Any help would be appreciated.

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Comments

gateway

I guess it depends what they deem a desktop support engineer role is - I find it varies from company to company in terms of responsibility. Some do very basic break/fix work, others more technical.

A couple of years ago I had an interview for a similar role, and there was the usual HR type q's such as what do you know about the company, why do you want to work here, how do you handle angry customers, how do you prioritise your workload, where do you see yourself in 3 years time etc.

There was then a variety of questions which were more scenario based, then asking what tools you could use to diagnose a certain problem etc. Most break/fix questions I have come across are ones such as:

What steps do you take if a user reports they have no network connectivity?
What would you do if one member of a team is unable to access a network resource but other team members can, and they DO have network connectivity?
How do diagnose BSODs?

etc etc...

I don't think any questions you'll get about the job will surprise you. Looking at your experience, certs, and going off posts I've read of yours on here I don't think you'll have any problems.

Best of luck with it.

earweed

How to diagnose a BSOD? Now that gave me something to look up. The only BSOD I've seen (had actually) since the 3.x days (yeah I'm old) was when I had Windows ME.

veritas_libertas

They usually like to see how you approach troubleshooting. The other big thing will be how do you work with people, how do you approach an angry customer, etc.

Typical A+ questions

Good Luck!

rogue2shadow

Random but one question I got once was "Do you know how to fix Internet Explorer?".

I guess what I'm trying to say is be ready for anything no matter how random. It really comes down to what the company deems as appropriate knowledge for the position and who the HR person is (whether they have discretion to switch out questions etc).

I agree with veritas; they usually want to see how you would break/fix x situation to get a scope of how well and quickly you think on your feet.

You should be fine with your skill set!

loxleynew

Most likely they will give you some scenarios and you need to know how to approach them. For example.

What if someone comes to you and says they are getting no internet? What do you check first and how do you solve it?

What if you get 3 people asking for your help at once, how do you organize who gets priority?

How to deal with spyware and how to restore a computer.

sambuca69

Like others said, it's more to see how you think on your feet than anything else.

My last boss's favorite scenario to ask was this: You have 2 users, both VPs, and both have a printing problem. Both want you to come see them first. Who do you visit first and why?

A lot of people would give whatever reason for seeing one vs the other, but what he was looking for was reaching out to the rest of the team to get someone to visit one, while they visited the other... the whole "teamwork" thing and all.

earweed

Most of these questions appear to be pretty much common sense to me as I've dealt with a few in my time already. The angry customer just in my non-IT roles, though.
The basic A+ questions may throw me a little as I took that test 2 years ago but I've used a lot of it lately.
How do interviewers react if you say "I may have to look that solution up"?

veritas_libertas

earweed wrote: »

How do interviewers react if you say "I may have to look that solution up"?

Better than if you tried to stumble your way through, or just said you didn't know.

rogue2shadow

earweed wrote: »

Most of these questions appear to be pretty much common sense to me as I've dealt with a few in my time already. The angry customer just in my non-IT roles, though.
The basic A+ questions may throw me a little as I took that test 2 years ago but I've used a lot of it lately.
How do interviewers react if you say "I may have to look that solution up"?

In a recent interview, I got a question about certain topics a person with my certs would not have had full exposure to as of yet. Most interviewers will definitely value the fact that you are able to open and honest about not knowing something in advance of your studies but more importantly they like to see go-getters who know exactly where to search for such info. Overall, that does work but something along the lines of "in a timely fashion" if this is in reference to finding something out for a customer.

earweed

Getting ready to go. Wish me luck.

veritas_libertas

earweed wrote: »

Getting ready to go. Wish me luck.

Good Luck

Hyper-Me

rogue2shadow wrote: »

Random but one question I got once was "Do you know how to fix Internet Explorer?".

Tools > Internet Options > Advanced Tab > Reset IE button.

veritas_libertas

Hyper-Me wrote: »

Tools > Internet Options > Advanced Tab > Reset IE button.

LOL

nicklauscombs

good luck!

Devilsbane

Let us know what goes down.

rogue2shadow

Hyper-Me wrote: »

Tools > Internet Options > Advanced Tab > Reset IE button.

Lol. HR for the lose!

undomiel

To be ahead of most everyone else on the BSOD learning curve get really friendly with windbg. Take a look at this site: WinDbg as windbg can save you hours in fruitless troubleshooting. Of course it can send you down the wrong track a few times as well but you learn to recognize those from experience.

veritas_libertas

Well?

earweed

Seemed OK there were a couple areas where they introduced a subject and asked me if I was familiar with it: Xen/ Citrix and how to set up blackberries - no experience with either of those. I've used a blackberry but not set one up in an AD environment. Bombed the printer part (should have reviewed A+ book). The only Xen/Citrix question he asked was what a thin and fat client were..easy.
He said they'll be making their decisions in a couple of weeks. The job is desktop support working for Dell but Dell contracts us to the Hospital System. It's a strange setup the Tier 1 and regular hospital Tier 2 people work for Ascension Medical but the hospital chain is Saint Vincents,
How long should I wait to send a thank you email?
They're a complete XP shop so if I get it I'll be putting 7 on hold and doing XP.

nicklauscombs

earweed wrote: »

How long should I wait to send a thank you email?

now that the interview is over i would go ahead and send it.

veritas_libertas

earweed wrote: »

Seemed OK there were a couple areas where they introduced a subject and asked me if I was familiar with it: Xen/ Citrix and how to set up blackberries - no experience with either of those. I've used a blackberry but not set one up in an AD environment. Bombed the printer part (should have reviewed A+ book). The only Xen/Citrix question he asked was what a thin and fat client were..easy.
He said they'll be making their decisions in a couple of weeks. The job is desktop support working for Dell but Dell contracts us to the Hospital System. It's a strange setup the Tier 1 and regular hospital Tier 2 people work for Asenscia Medical but the hospital chain is Saint Vincents,
How long should I wait to send a thank you email?
They're a complete XP shop so if I get it I'll be putting 7 on hold and doing XP.

Excellent, sounds like a great opportunity. Xen/Citrix seems to be huge in the Hospital world, at least from what I have seen on Monster, etc. I hope you get it

Bl8ckr0uter

earweed wrote: »

Seemed OK there were a couple areas where they introduced a subject and asked me if I was familiar with it: Xen/ Citrix and how to set up blackberries - no experience with either of those. I've used a blackberry but not set one up in an AD environment. Bombed the printer part (should have reviewed A+ book). The only Xen/Citrix question he asked was what a thin and fat client were..easy.
He said they'll be making their decisions in a couple of weeks. The job is desktop support working for Dell but Dell contracts us to the Hospital System. It's a strange setup the Tier 1 and regular hospital Tier 2 people work for Asenscia Medical but the hospital chain is Saint Vincents,
How long should I wait to send a thank you email?
They're a complete XP shop so if I get it I'll be putting 7 on hold and doing XP.

Blackberries aren't that bad to set up, from the admin side or the device side. By set up Citrix, they most likely mean installing the client and using the proper settings which isn't bad. You more than likely won't be working on their Citrix farm or rolling out ZenServer but I could be wrong.

Sounds good dude! I suggest emailing them right away and thanking them for their time. Did they say when they would be getting back and doing 2nd rounds? I second V in stating that Citrix is big with hospitals. So is storage. Something to think about for you 2-3 year plan. Good luck!

Devilsbane

nicklauscombs wrote: »

now that the interview is over i would go ahead and send it.

Don't rush home to send it, but if it is sent before the end of the day it should be good.

earweed

It's already sent.

xenodamus

I just started a new job as Desktop Support in a medium-large hospital. Citrix/Xen was something I had never dealt with either. From a desktop support standpoint it's not a big deal. 2 files to install the client...click, click, you're done.

We have about 2,000 xp PC's and are about to roll out our first 50 thin clients soon. If it all goes smoothly we'll be transitioning every possible box to a thin client down the road. So, Citrix/Xen will be an even bigger part of our day to day.

earweed

That seems to be the case where I interviewed also. They are an all XP shop and use Citrix/Xen for thin clients.
I'm still doing the job search while waiting. I'm an extreme pessimist so I'm not waiting around for this job to contact me. It is said that there are 2 types of people 1) Those who see the glass as half full and 2) Those who see the glass as half empty well I'm the third kind, I see the glass as half empty probably lukewarm and full of germs..lol

Devilsbane

earweed wrote: »

It is said that there are 2 types of people 1) Those who see the glass as half full and 2) Those who see the glass as half empty well I'm the third kind, I see the glass as half empty probably lukewarm and full of germs..lol

Some say that the glass is half full. Others say that it is half empty. I say, "Are you going to drink that?"

N2IT

Hyper-Me wrote: »

Tools > Internet Options > Advanced Tab > Reset IE button.

Clear your cache history and cookies lol Make sure your pop up blocker is turned off

earweed

I haven't heard anything yet about the results from my interview. I did get a call from another recruiter working with the same institution (Hospital) about a help desk opening(s) from a different agency. He immediately asked if I had already interviewed and I answered truthfully. This immediately put the freeze on the process. I did get his contact info and he is going to see what he can do about getting me an interview. He said that his agency takes a backseat to Dell at the institution as far as hiring people.
Hopefully the Dell job works out but if not this one would be good.
Apparently this hospital is almost doubling it's IT staff and increasing available hours to 7 AM - 7 PM, with 2 shifts overlapping in the middle of the day.

[Deleted User]

earweed wrote: »

I haven't heard anything yet about the results from my interview. I did get a call from another recruiter working with the same institution (Hospital) about a help desk opening(s) from a different agency. He immediately asked if I had already interviewed and I answered truthfully. This immediately put the freeze on the process. I did get his contact info and he is going to see what he can do about getting me an interview. He said that his agency takes a backseat to Dell at the institution as far as hiring people.
Hopefully the Dell job works out but if not this one would be good.
Apparently this hospital is almost doubling it's IT staff and increasing available hours to 7 AM - 7 PM, with 2 shifts overlapping in the middle of the day.

I'm sure something will come up soon man. You are a pretty thorough guy and know your stuff pretty well. If this one doesn't work out I'm sure something will come through.