1st Line Phone Interview

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Hey,

I was interviewed in person today and that went ok I think. Aparently I am not chatty enough but that is somewhat down to nerves I assume. The HR lady wanted to know more about the CCNA yet did not know what CISCO was which caused some issues in so far as me having to explain things simpler than I would have liked to.

My main issue now keeping me from the job is the phone interview with the IT boss. Has anyone ever had a phone interview with a "skills test"? I feel pretty confident supporting friends and family in a wide range of issues but what sort of things would they ask in an interview for 1st line?

Well worried :S

Thanks

 

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I've had a few of these before, they're generally going to be fairly simple questions if it's a 1st line interview - i very much doubt you'd get questions about cisco related kit/support if it's only a 1st line support role.

He'll want to know how competant you are with regular issues that arise in the company - depending on what applications and processes they use, it could be a whole range of different things.

He's also going to want to hear your personality - try to put the nerves to the back, and sound confident - always make sure you sound confident in what you are saying, and that you yourself beleive you are right. Don't try and blag anything, as if he's the IT boss he's more than likely going to know the answer to a question he's asking you if it's specifically IT related. i.e. How much ram can a 32bit OS utilize etc.

Was the IT boss not in the original interview?

 

Great Tips!

Na just a lady from HR, I think it was more to see if I am presentable, legal to work etc. I made the assumption to start with that she knew something about IT but clearly not.

 

Ah ok - well you got the phone interview so that's a good sign!

Good luck for whenever it is

 

Well if it makes you feel any better I had an interview recently with an IT consultant who owned his own outsourced IT management company with 12 years experience and had not a clue who or what CompTIA are/is.

 

Most of the rec agencies I have spoken to have no clue what CompTIA is either.

*Edit* All of the agencies I spoke to.

 

If there are really that many agencies out there who know that little about their target audience, it sounds to me like this is a great opportunity for some intelligent techs who want to start a recruiting company.

Be sure to send me my standard cut.

 

A common technique for sales people is to stand up while on the phone and it could serve you well during the phone interview. There's plenty psychology written about this. Give it a go and see if it makes you feel more confident!

 

Unfortunately, even for entry level positions the person who has experience will get the job every time. So recruiters dont really need to pay attention to certs.

 

No, not necessarily. For example, I don't need someone with a bunch of server administration experience to do PC builds.

Recruiters don't HAVE to pay attention to certs... but GOOD recruiters WILL. Like I said, there's an opportunity out there for someone who wants to be a good recruiter.

 

As already said do not try to Blag anything, just be yourself, if your the type of person they think will fit in, then you stand as much chance as anyone else. I got my job for being myself in the interview, My boss said my score in the technical test was very,very low I got the job because I was upfront and honest, they beleived I could be trained and would fit in. I had no qualifacations at the time, and beleive me, you would struggle to fill a postage stamp with the I.T stuff i knew at the time! Think I could manage a post card now maybe lol

 

First of all, you can't know everything, so if the skills test presents you a problem you cannot answer, don't lie or try to work your way through a bogus answer. Be upfront but tell the interviewer that you have resources to find the right answer in a very short time, either via books, web searches, internal knowledge bases or knowing to ask the right colleague for tips, hints or answers.

I once had an interview over the phone for a company (they hired me) during which one admin asked me a question which I don't think he quite understood himself. It was simple, something to do about joining computers to a domain. But as I gave answers, he kept interrupting and saying things like "no, that's not what I meant" or "no, I'm looking for x or y".

It was confusing, but was not a deal breaker.

Anyway, he was a domain admin and just not up to the standard I would have expected. I suspect he cheated his way to an MCSE and some of the things he did in the AD forest was simple wrong and against recommended practices. I'm still baffled how a company of that standing coulda kept him so long. I suspect nobody called him out on his errors and very poor reactivity.

So these things happen. Don't be surprised if the interviewer is not technical but may try to come off as one. There's the good and the bad and I've also had very technical interviews which were fantastic (two especially come to mind).