Interview questions?

[SkuLLyRT]

We're looking to hire a couple of entry level techs, and I've been asked to help come up with a troubleshooting scenario to use during the interviews. In the past they've used network printer installs/troubleshooting, and this time they'd like to avoid using printers.

I'm having a tough time really coming up with any ideas. Hardware is a lot different now than it was when I started in the industry (I recall having to troubleshoot a PC that wouldn't boot because of the jumper configuration on IDE HDDs). I've been told that whatever scenario we use must be based on what you would find in an A+ test.

Those of you that have been in a similar situation, what kind of troubleshooting scenarios did you come up with?

Apologies if this isn't the right forum for this type of question.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I'd say present them with actual scenarios technicians at your company typically face.

 

[Juddog]

Mix in some old school doozies: If the printer queue gets clogged up in Windows XP, how would you go about deleting the spooler files?
Appropriate answer: stop the print spooler service, remove the spooler files, restart spooler service.

 

[Brovane]

I would ask some basic questions to get there troubleshooting skills and see what type of process they go through.

For example you are troubleshooting a computer that will not connect to the network. Ask them how would the start troubleshooting.

IE do they start with they physical layer first, is the network cable plugged in, do you have link light.

Then go from there. See if they know about pinging the IP of the NIC and then trying to ping the gateway. See if they follow a logical progression in the troubleshooting.

 

[mvbighead]

Take a look through your ticket queue (I assume you have one), and find something that is not related to a specific application process that only someone in your company would know. Fair enough question, right?

 

[ViviTheMage]

Hardware tests?

Pull a stick of memory, half inserted ... ask why it's only showing half memory?

Change BIOS to AHCI, format the PC for IDE/COMPATIBILITY and see if they can resolve?

Change boot options in BIOS to CDROM and disable the HDD?

 

[desertdweller]

I've been in more than one field that requires trouble shooting skills, including IT. I'm much more interested to know if someone knows how to trouble shoot rather than being able to give me a specific example of something they may know off the top of their head. I would ask them one question, "How would you trouble shoot a failure you've never experienced before?"

If you want to know their specific skill set, have them take a small exam.

 

[SkuLLyRT]

I'd say present them with actual scenarios technicians at your company typically face.

Take a look through your ticket queue (I assume you have one), and find something that is not related to a specific application process that only someone in your company would know. Fair enough question, right?

Unfortunately most of the tickets our techs take care of are application specific. While some of the applicants made mention of these applications (Altiris for example - our techs create and deploy a lot of software packages), they were not mentioned in the advertisement of the position and therefore I can't ask questions related to them. Maybe I could drop some MSIs on our interview PC and see who knows how to run a silent install via the command line.

Mix in some old school doozies: If the printer queue gets clogged up in Windows XP, how would you go about deleting the spooler files?
Appropriate answer: stop the print spooler service, remove the spooler files, restart spooler service.

This is what they used last time.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I've been in more than one field that requires trouble shooting skills, including IT. I'm much more interested to know if someone knows how to trouble shoot rather than being able to give me a specific example of something they may know off the top of their head. I would ask them one question, "How would you trouble shoot a failure you've never experienced before?"

If you want to know their specific skill set, have them take a small exam.

Exactly, the point of a specific hardware issue, is you know the problem. The tester then has to tell you, or go through the steps...even if he gets it wrong, you know he knows how to troubleshoot at least.

 

[SkuLLyRT]

I would ask some basic questions to get there troubleshooting skills and see what type of process they go through.

For example you are troubleshooting a computer that will not connect to the network. Ask them how would the start troubleshooting.

IE do they start with they physical layer first, is the network cable plugged in, do you have link light.

Then go from there. See if they know about pinging the IP of the NIC and then trying to ping the gateway. See if they follow a logical progression in the troubleshooting.

I've been in more than one field that requires trouble shooting skills, including IT. I'm much more interested to know if someone knows how to trouble shoot rather than being able to give me a specific example of something they may know off the top of their head. I would ask them one question, "How would you trouble shoot a failure you've never experienced before?"

I like these ideas. On top of getting an idea on how they troubleshoot we can also see how they communicate, which is extremely important when they have to bump issues up to one of our win/network admins.

We expect our techs to cover a wide range of jobs, anything from pulling paper jams to imaging/installing PCs to troubleshooting intermittent network connectivity down to a bad patch cable in the switch room, so I have a lot of material to pull troubleshooting theory from. Great suggestions.

Hardware tests?

Pull a stick of memory, half inserted ... ask why it's only showing half memory?

Change BIOS to AHCI, format the PC for IDE/COMPATIBILITY and see if they can resolve?

Change boot options in BIOS to CDROM and disable the HDD?

Can I get a PC to post with a memory stick half inserted without it beeping? I will have to try that this afternoon. I like these BIOS ideas too. It would be interesting to see how quickly someone goes into the BIOS to resolve a "Non-System Disk error".

 

[TechAZ]

Maybe these are too simple?

1. A user is experience unusually slow performance on his/her computer in both internet and desktop applications. How do you go about troubleshooting this?

2. A user is experiencing random pop-up errors regarding permissions and missing files. How do you go about trouble shooting this?

 

[ViviTheMage]

I like these ideas. On top of getting an idea on how they troubleshoot we can also see how they communicate, which is extremely important when they have to bump issues up to one of our win/network admins.

We expect our techs to cover a wide range of jobs, anything from pulling paper jams to imaging/installing PCs to troubleshooting intermittent network connectivity down to a bad patch cable in the switch room, so I have a lot of material to pull troubleshooting theory from. Great suggestions.



Can I get a PC to post with a memory stick half inserted without it beeping? I will have to try that this afternoon. I like these BIOS ideas too. It would be interesting to see how quickly someone goes into the BIOS to resolve a "Non-System Disk error".

If you leave the memory partially out, it shouldn't beep, and should still boot. If not, you could just seat the memory on top of the DIMM slot so it's not even attached, but is still in position.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

You have an AMD catalyst driver installed on your computer. A new update comes out, but when you install it, the Catalyst version does not change. You uninstall the driver normally and reinstall the updated driver, and yet it still has not updated.

What do you do. Besides punching a hole in the nearest wall.

 

[ViviTheMage]

You have an AMD catalyst driver installed on your computer. A new update comes out, but when you install it, the Catalyst version does not change. You uninstall the driver normally and reinstall the updated driver, and yet it still has not updated.

What do you do. Besides punching a hole in the nearest wall.

driver cleaaaaaaaaner