I have a Help Desk Analyst interview in less than 2 hours!

I just got an email today asking if I could come in for a interview with a physicians care practice here in town that will be growing 10x its size now, they are starting to build up their IT department. The person interviewing me use to work with my mother, which is a +. I'm taking my A+ exam in 3 weeks, and this would be my first job in IT ( Career change from Sales). I'm pretty nervous, and trying to look over some stuff before I go in. Would love some advice from some of the other board members. I'm worried that I'm some fresh coming into IT that they will not want someone like me.

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Params7

Just be honest, show your enthusiasm to learn more, make him believe you want to be in IT for the long haul. He knows you are at a basic skill level right now so don't panic if you are not able to answer some technical questions. Worse comes to worst, you don't get the job but you will have gained experience interviewing. The world won't end with this interview and you'll get many more as long as you keep on trucking with the certs/education.

SweenMachine

Clem25 wrote: »

I just got an email today asking if I could come in for a interview with a physicians care practice here in town that will be growing 10x its size now, they are starting to build up their IT department. The person interviewing me use to work with my mother, which is a +. I'm taking my A+ exam in 3 weeks, and this would be my first job in IT ( Career change from Sales). I'm pretty nervous, and trying to look over some stuff before I go in. Would love some advice from some of the other board members. I'm worried that I'm some fresh coming into IT that they will not want someone like me.

Have confidence and don't worry. Every one of us had to get our first job in IT! haha

I started off with no IT experience minus personal computer usage as well. You are better than I was, you are almost A+ at this stage so you have knowledge. I only had AOL and Geocities webdesign experience when I started haha

I doubt they would bring you in if they didn't consider your lack of experience ahead of time. If your mom helped you get it, so be it. It happens a lot for the first job.

Just show enthusiasm as mentioned before, express the knowledge you have, don't fake what you don't and remember help desk is a starting point, so they aren't expecting you to run the show.

-scott

Xyro

Good luck! Don't forget to dress well and try not to be too nervous.

scaredoftests

Smile and ask alot of questions!

Devilry

Good Luck, let us know how it goes. Most of those doc-in-a-box places use basic setups, I even notice they aren't using domain level setups. Just simple workgroups and a file share. IMO its a great opportunity for someone new who wants to learn the basics then experiment in a lab setup to make it more SBS level.

Let us know how the interview goes.

lsud00d

They will be looking for soft-skills, an affinity towards customer service, and how you research issues, not necessarily if you know the answer off the bat.
Walk through your train of thought and start with the known's in the situation.
Offer to start a knowledgebase to track internal issues and speed up future addressing of duplicate/similar issues.

White Wizard

Good luck!

Be yourself, show them your desire to learn, ability to troubleshoot, and always be positive.

CIO

So how did the interview go?

njlogix

He's probably still at the interview.

Xyro

That would be one long interview.

lsud00d

Dufresne, search party of four.

Xyro

...

stryder144

lsud00d wrote: »

Dufresne, search party of four.

I never under estimate the power of a Mitch reference!

OP, let us know how you did. We're rooting for you!

Devilry

Still holding breath over here hoping you got the gig! ....let us know!

Clem25

Sorry for the late reply, ended up going to happy hour with some friends after the interview. I feel like it went pretty well, they asked me some basic questions such as if I could explain the difference between DSL, Cable, and Fiber. They also asked if I could walk them through setting up a wireless routers and I nailed that question also. The lack of actually having experience is going to hurt me. I explained to them that I was making a career change, and really showed them how motivated I am and that I'm not just looking for a stagnant job and I want to grow with a company. The biggest question that hurt me was not having any experience with Active Directory. They pretty much told me that I wasn't qualified for the position, but then I asked them what is it that I could do to walk out with a job and it really surprised them. They told me that they are going to try and get me an internship, which could turn into a full-time position in a couple of months if I do a good job. I will let you all know what I hear back.

ajs1976

get a couple of VMs setup, a server and a client and start playing.

Polynomial

Active Directory, from a HD analyst's point of view, is "stupid simple".

Clem25

ajs1976 wrote: »

get a couple of VMs setup, a server and a client and start playing.

What is the best way to start this?

ajs1976

Have a spare PC laying around that was made within the last couple of years? download and install VMWare ESXi.

If you don't a spare, but have a decent desktop or laptop, download virtual box. https://www.virtualbox.org/

You can get trials of Windows from the MS site. Get Windows 2008 server and windows 7 pro setup. Suggesting those because you will be able to find more resources.

that should get you started. Once there, DCPromo the server and make it a DC.

Clem25

ajs1976 wrote: »

Have a spare PC laying around that was made within the last couple of years? download and install VMWare ESXi.

If you don't a spare, but have a decent desktop or laptop, download virtual box. https://www.virtualbox.org/

You can get trials of Windows from the MS site. Get Windows 2008 server and windows 7 pro setup. Suggesting those because you will be able to find more resources.

that should get you started. Once there, DCPromo the server and make it a DC.

Thank you, this is all new to me. Appreciate your help.

Clem25

How much RAM do you recommend to run virtualbox or VMware?

SixtyCycle

ajs1976 wrote: »

Have a spare PC laying around that was made within the last couple of years? download and install VMWare ESXi.

If you don't a spare, but have a decent desktop or laptop, download virtual box. https://www.virtualbox.org/

You can get trials of Windows from the MS site. Get Windows 2008 server and windows 7 pro setup. Suggesting those because you will be able to find more resources.

that should get you started. Once there, DCPromo the server and make it a DC.

Thanks for this info. Once everything is set up, what is a good book/resource we can use to help learn the fundamental skills in AD (group policy, passwords etc)?

ajs1976

@Clem25

Minimum 4gb. More the better. At 4 gb, you should be able to get server running with 2gb and a client with 1gb leaving 1 gb for the host. It might run like crap, but should be good enough to do some basic exercises. If you don't need the client, you can leave it off and give 3gb to the server.

@SixtyCycle

The MS Press Training kit because they have labs that will walk you through the setup and different exercises. Sybex and MS Academy may also work. I haven't looked at it, but the MTA Server material may also cover it.

tstrip007

Yah I would def. get familiar with VMware workstation or virtualbox. I always recommend this VMware lab because its the one I used when studying for VCP but there is also Autolab. If your not interested in learning vSphere you could get by with just VMware Workstation by putting your domain controller and some XP/Win7 vms in a private network. Then you can practice some AD basics like creating Users, OU groups, Security groups, assigning users to groups, resetting passwords.

Params7

Polynomial wrote: »

Active Directory, from a HD analyst's point of view, is "stupid simple".

I don't know what's the big deal behind not knowing AD. If a person can graduate high school, that person can understand the logic behind AD in 15 mins max and be ready to be delegated password reset duties.

TechGuru80

Params7 wrote: »

Just be honest, show your enthusiasm to learn more, make him believe you want to be in IT for the long haul. He knows you are at a basic skill level right now so don't panic if you are not able to answer some technical questions. Worse comes to worst, you don't get the job but you will have gained experience interviewing. The world won't end with this interview and you'll get many more as long as you keep on trucking with the certs/education.

Boom...the further you go in your career, the more experience is needed to answer questions but generally an entry level help desk position will be troubleshooting basic connectivity and applications. Generally there is some type of tier 1-2-3 type setup (could be with vendors). It is a numbers game, the more interviews you have the better you will do.

Xyro

Params7 wrote: »

I don't know what's the big deal behind not knowing AD. If a person can graduate high school, that person can understand the logic behind AD in 15 mins max and be ready to be delegated password reset duties.

People I went to school with had an entire semester to learn AD and still did not get it. This is just another reminder of why I hang out on this forum.

Clem25

ajs1976 wrote: »

@Clem25

Minimum 4gb. More the better. At 4 gb, you should be able to get server running with 2gb and a client with 1gb leaving 1 gb for the host. It might run like crap, but should be good enough to do some basic exercises. If you don't need the client, you can leave it off and give 3gb to the server.

@SixtyCycle

The MS Press Training kit because they have labs that will walk you through the setup and different exercises. Sybex and MS Academy may also work. I haven't looked at it, but the MTA Server material may also cover it.

So a laptop with an i5 processor, and 6gb of ram would work fine?

ajs1976

64-bit? with 6gb it should be.

Clem25

ajs1976 wrote: »

64-bit? with 6gb it should be.

Yep, 64bit. Thanks, I guess I could always upgrade the ram later on if I need to.