Bad interview

aschenbecher · December 2015

Hi

I've been to several Desktop & help-desk support interviews , but this is the first time i was ever grilled for 1.5 hrs on network technology.

I answered as best as i could but i feel demoralized now as there were several questions i could not answer.

I mean i knew the concept but i could not provide text book answered.

And couple i didn't event know.

Now feel completely dejected and demoralized.

I have another interview this coming Tuesday but i am super nervous now.

How do you pick up from such an experience and move on ?

scaredoftests · December 2015

Try to remember what you had wrong..read up on it (and practice, if possible). Take a deep breath and move on. It happens.

NetworkNewb · December 2015

What you need to do is learn from every interview. EVERYONE has had bad interviews. What I like to do is write out questions you think they might ask and questions you have been asked in previous interviews. Then come up with quality answers for them. Think of past experiences that you can relate to those questions. Then I actually write out my response. I want to know that my answer to that question is as good as possible and see I can find anything I could add to it or remove from it. The goal is not to memorize the answers but have a well thought out response ahead of time so your not sitting there thinking of one.

Being good at interviewing is a skill that takes practice. And the better prepared you are the better you will do.

Also, the more you prepare and more questions you come up with responses for the less nervous you will be as well. Good luck on your next interview!

markulous · December 2015

Did you still send a thank you letter and did they tell you whether or not you got the job?

I thought I bombed the technical portion of the interview here, but ended up getting the job. I couldn't even remember basic Linux commands when I have my Linux+!

sthomas · December 2015

No reasonable person expects someone to know everything. Even if you didn't have the answer to the technical question in the interview as long as you kept your cool and answered professionally then you still may be in the running for the position. If you are interested in the job I would still follow through if I where you. People skills are often more sought after than tech skills so if you displayed these in the interview you will likely still have a chance.

Justin- · December 2015

@=sthomas

I agree with this statement. If you show that you are truly passionate for the job role / IT and are personable and easy to communicate with, you still have a pretty good chance. You should definitely follow up with a 'thank you' email and consider mentioning that you appreciate the interviewers taking the time to interview you and that you learned a great deal about the company. As long as you showed that you are capable of researching and understanding the questions that you did not answer correctly in the interview, then I would still say you have a chance.

Good luck, keep us updated.

cyberguypr · December 2015

Agree with what others have said. When I interviewed candidates for desktop support I always included questions that were outside of the technical scope of the role. I wasn't expecting a correct answer, I just wanted to see how the candidate would handle something they were not familiar with. I considered valid any answer other than a plain "I don't know" followed by a blank stare. If you don't know just tell me what you would do next, such as asking a colleague, reviewing documentation, researching, escalating, calling vendor, whatever other than sitting and wondering if it will fix itself.

coreyb80 · December 2015

OP don't feel bad this same exact situation happened to me a few weeks in an interview. The guy grilled me and I just knew I bombed. I ended up getting offer that evening and I start Monday. He told me that he wasn't looking for correct answer, but my thought process behind it. One of the best interviews I've ever had. Good luck OP!

UncleB · December 2015

As an interviewer I consider it is much less relevant for a candidate to have memorised books of commands and options - it is much more relevant to make sure they know the principles, have not lied about stuff they claim to know (I hate liars who know nothing about subjects they claim to be proficient in) and can handle being put under pressure when they cannot magic a solution from memory.

This is the sort of situation that lets the interviewer focus the laser of scrutiny on the candidate through scenario testing and see how gracefully they fail. You are not expected to pass (think the Kobayashi Maru similation in Star Trek) but I want to see if you turn into a gibbering wreck, throw the toys out of the pram and sulk, or make sure you have kept the correct people informed at the correct times rather than trying to be a hero.

These qualities are important to assess as the very time they are likely to be exhibited are the times when the bad behaviours will make a bad situation disasterous (eg under a virus outbreak or cascading failure).

As other posters have said, learn from every mistake and record it to go over before your next interview to make sure you have mastered what tripped you up previously, and try to work out why you may have done badly in something you thought you knew.

We all fail from time to time and it is how we deal with it that can define us.

thanks
Iain

andSo · December 2015

@aschenbecher

My recommendation is that you learn from the interview and go earn an AACSB accredited MBA or business-related degree and work in management. The pay is better, the hours are better, and you don't have to be an expert at anything.

aschenbecher · December 2015

Thank you all,

I reached out to the client with thank you.

Hope i hear something , this kind of position will be a good for me to gain new skills.

In the meantime i am preparing for my next help-desk interview on Tuesday.

scaredoftests · December 2015

Bring a notebook with your questions, interviewers love that. Good luck.

TechGromit · December 2015

aschenbecher wrote: »

I've been to several Desktop & help-desk support interviews , but this is the first time i was ever grilled for 1.5 hrs on network technology.

Wow, 1.5 hours is a brutal interview. The best advise I can think of is if you don't know the answer, tell the interviewer, "I Don't know the answer, but I would look for the answer here." It's far better to give an answer than no answer at all. A lot of interviews are less to do with what you know, but how you behave under pressure. The interview I had for the position I have now didn't have any techincal questions, it was all questions like "Tell me a time when you promised a client you would complete a task/project, but failed to do so.".

coreyb80 wrote: »

OP don't feel bad this same exact situation happened to me a few weeks in an interview. The guy grilled me and I just knew I bombed. I ended up getting offer that evening and I start Monday.

Few people are good at interviewing, If you think you did bad, it's entirely possible others did worse.

rsutton · December 2015

I always ask questions that I don't expect candidates to know. I'm interested in knowing how they would approach these issues, and when they would escalate. This does not mean that you failed the interview.

kohr-ah · December 2015

The other thing is you have to remember even bad interviews are experience. You have seen a curve ball you didn't expect and now you know it can happen again in the future. It builds your interview skills and you shouldn't let it demoralize your confidence.

LeBroke · December 2015

Don't ever feel bad about not knowing something. It shows the limits of your knowledge to the interviewer, your own skill gaps to yourself, and basically reminds everyone you're still human. If you can answer every single question they throw at you, both of you would start to wonder "perhaps this job is too easy for you?"

I've been interviewing recently, and if I ever come across a question I can't answer, like "what are MySQL triggers," I honestly answer "I have no idea. Can I google it?"

aschenbecher · December 2015

I have another interview today at 1 pm est.

This is for helpdesk position 5 mins drive from my house. I really want this job.

I have mentally prepared myself but i welcome any advise anyone has to offer.

LeBroke · December 2015

aschenbecher wrote: »

I have another interview today at 1 pm est.

This is for helpdesk position 5 mins drive from my house. I really want this job.

I have mentally prepared myself but i welcome any advise anyone has to offer.

"I may not know the answer to this question right now, but someone has probably asked it at least once on Technet, Reddit, or StackOverflow. If it looks like a 5 minute fix, I learned something new. If even the explanation goes beyond my head, I would probably need to escalate it, and then try to learn it on my own time."

aschenbecher · December 2015

LeBroke wrote: »

"I may not know the answer to this question right now, but someone has probably asked it at least once on Technet, Reddit, or StackOverflow. If it looks like a 5 minute fix, I learned something new. If even the explanation goes beyond my head, I would probably need to escalate it, and then try to learn it on my own time."

What do you mean ?

LeBroke · December 2015

aschenbecher wrote: »

What do you mean ?

I'm confused by your confusion.

But seriously, if someone asks me to explain how they would approach something I haven't encountered before, the above sentence is a fancy way of saying "google it then escalate if googling doesn't help."

aschenbecher · December 2015

lol --- i like you

LeBroke · December 2015

aschenbecher wrote: »

lol --- i like you

I think we should just stay friends for now.

UncleB · December 2015

If you don't know the answer, the first response should be "I'll ask my colleagues and check our known errors database for a fix or workaround"
Then if this doesn't do it, say you would google the symptoms - these two steps really are industry standard practice.
Good luck by the way
Iain

renacido · December 2015

Relax. If the interviewer has half a brain they know when their questions are really in the weeds and they know on the job everyone needs to Google something now and then. They very well may have been assessing many other things: how you handle stress, your demeanor when under pressure, etc. Did you roll your eyes, did you get frustrated, did you make attempts to get clarification on the question, did you have a good response even if you didn't answer the question?

One thing that works well when you're stumped is ask for context in a way that shows you are at least knowledgeable of the topic. Or say, "That's a good question, could you put that in the context of a scenario so I can understand the problem to solve or the task to perform?" Side benefit is if the interviewer can't put the question into context, it might clue them in that the question is asking for information that has no intrinsic value.

Anyhoo, shake it off and march forward. It's all part of the game.

renacido · December 2015

UncleB wrote: »

Then if this doesn't do it, say you would google the symptoms
Iain

This is true, and though it's not the answer they're looking for it's honest and realistic.

Bad interview

Comments