Skills examination over the phone?

AvidNetworker · February 2011

I am looking to get a networking job after completing my CCNA. I am in touch with a recruiter, and he has potentially lined up an interview for a good network engineer job. Anyway, he told me that I would need to conduct a phone skill assessment to move forward. I have never done one of these, and am wondering what to expect. He told me it would be questions about routers/firewalls/routing protocols, etc.

Of course, with CCNA I haven't really touched firewalls much. Of course I would just prefer a face to face interview, as I feel that is when I do my best, but a little advice on what to expect, pitfalls to avoid, etc, would be great.

Thanks

docrice · February 2011

If you have CCNA-level knowledge, you have a little bit of firewall on your side - specifically, IOS ACLs. From a filtering perspective, understand the different protocols (IP, TCP, UDP, ICMP, etc.), common ports, source destination ports / addresses, etc. that you can define in a rule for. Don't forget the implied deny rule and the fact that you can tune ACLs by examining the hit count of each rule (show access-list 101) and re-ordering as necessary. Remember that they must be applied to an interface to be of any use (ip access-group 101 in). Know the difference between standard and extended ACLs, extra credit for reflexive. Know what the established keyboard is for in a TCP rule. Named ACLs allow you to insert rules between existing ones.

Just relax and be yourself in a phone interview. You have to sell yourself through your perceived attitude and charm, so to speak. Smile while you talk. Be strong on fundamentals and that usually makes a good impression.

AvidNetworker · February 2011

Never thought of the ACL's as firewall experience, I am definitely good with the ACL's though, so I should be good on that for the most part.

Thanks for the tips and encouragement.

Skills examination over the phone?

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