Interview for Level 1 NOC position next week!

Well, it's a phone interview, but hopefully it goes according to plan and I can actually get in for a proper interview.

My work experience is pretty limited, did relay call center work and am now doing remote network troubleshooting for a hotel chain. All of my current responsibilities are strictly remote troubleshooting, so I have no experience configuring/maintaining routers, etc. so I'm honestly not too sure what to expect. I will obviously express my interest and ability to learn, as this position would be a great way to help me get my foot in the door and provide plenty of opportunity to expand.

The listed requirements on the job posting were as follows.

Associates degree in a technical discipline or equivalent work experience and industry technical certifications (CCNA, MCSE, A+, etc…)
Previous customer service work experience is required, but candidates with help desk or system administration experience are preferred
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Strong independent problem solving skills

Based on this it seems like the majority of the L1 work at this job would be basically what our company's L2 position is doing, accepting escalated calls and going through basic monitoring/checking functions and then escalating them up again if they can't resolve them. If that is the case I think I should be able to learn/get used to that relatively quickly as their technical abilities are pretty much limited to telneting into the devices and just using show commands.

Part of me thinks this will go smoother than expected as it's what I'm expecting the position to be, yet for some reason I have that nervous feeling that I won't be able to immediately provide what they're expecting based on not having experience doing any router/switch troubleshooting previously.

Help?

Edit: Ok, I realize the "Help?" was a bit vague, I'm just curious if others may have had similar job experiences with NOCs where their responsibilities fit under the requirements listed above and it turned out to be strictly generic call center work and then escalated through to the upper tiers to resolve and handle the majority of issues if they weren't easy fixes that could completed over the phone.

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Comments

nicklauscombs

Lemonade727 wrote: »

I have that nervous feeling that I won't be able to immediately provide what they're expecting based on not having experience doing any router/switch troubleshooting previously.

sell them on your soft skills and your commitment to learning by way of certs you already hold; maybe mention what you are currently working on. job descriptions usually are for "dream candidates" and anyone fully meeting the listing would probably be looking for a higher up position anyways.

good luck!

SubnettingGoddess

Oh yeah, try to find a blurb on their website that talks about their customer service focus so if they ask you why you want to work there, you can trot that out and say how it aligns with your values (assuming it does).

Seriously, this nugget is how I got my first "real job" when they asked: "According to JD Power and Associates, X ranks number one in customer satisfaction for telecoms, and that's important to me." Luckily it IS important to me so I wasn't just blowing smoke.

TheMechanic

Subnettinggoddess - i like your cert sig

Paul Boz

I would start reading networking books like yesterday. NOC jobs are generally very network-centric, as much of the monitoring is keeping tabs on the high-availability data network. I don't know what the NOC is like where you're trying to work but the one I worked in was like 90% network 10% servers/misc.

Get a Network+ book and a CCNA book, read them both, and get new books after that. Don't even bother with studying for and taking cert tests at first because the material is going to be so foreign that you'll get lost in the details. Get your bearings on the new terminology and concepts then re-read your books to fill in the gaps. Networking is a blast and is definitely something you need to be strong in to be a good NOC technician. I've seen so many people's careers sidelined or held back because they couldn't understand a network at at least a conversation level. I don't think you should feel compelled to get a certification but its a good idea long-term.

Lemonade727

nicklauscombs wrote: »

sell them on your soft skills and your commitment to learning by way of certs you already hold; maybe mention what you are currently working on. job descriptions usually are for "dream candidates" and anyone fully meeting the listing would probably be looking for a higher up position anyways.

good luck!

Thanks for the tips, I'll definitely try to emphasize my current soft skills and that I'm eager to train and gain experience in proper networking.

Paul Boz wrote: »

I would start reading networking books like yesterday. NOC jobs are generally very network-centric, as much of the monitoring is keeping tabs on the high-availability data network. I don't know what the NOC is like where you're trying to work but the one I worked in was like 90% network 10% servers/misc.

Get a Network+ book and a CCNA book, read them both, and get new books after that. Don't even bother with studying for and taking cert tests at first because the material is going to be so foreign that you'll get lost in the details. Get your bearings on the new terminology and concepts then re-read your books to fill in the gaps. Networking is a blast and is definitely something you need to be strong in to be a good NOC technician. I've seen so many people's careers sidelined or held back because they couldn't understand a network at at least a conversation level. I don't think you should feel compelled to get a certification but its a good idea long-term.

I'm actually already Network+ certified and have started studying for my Security+ as well as started reading a friend's book for ICND1 to start towards my CCNA.

I'm not networking illiterate, I just don't have any previous work providing hands-on experience configuring and setting up switches and routers or troubleshooting them as it wasn't part of my job responsibilities. The main thing that worries me is because of this fact, that I don't have experience doing this, so I would pretty much be relying on OJT to get me comfortable and familiar with the role. I'm pretty confident that I'll pick it up quickly once I start working on it as I understand the concepts of it, I'm just generally a worrisome individual, especially when it's involving a job.