does it get any easier?

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just walked out of frankly probably the worst interview I have ever experienced.

Was a second interview with Fujitsu. The 2 interviewers were pleasant, patient, jovial even.

The idiot on the other side of the desk however, was my biggest issue....
I got completely flummuxed by a couple of questions, one such was naming the troubleshooting tools available to an XP Pro user. What did I come up with? Er, command line tools (listed a few).
Didnt mention chkdsk, defrag, disk cleanup,safe mode etc etc.

Where I did not know an answer, I considered my response then explained that I did not have that knowledge, a couple of questions I even had to leave and come back to.

While I was nervous (not exceptionally so) what causes your brain to shift into reverse gear,or in my case, completely stall? It was so bad I was actually embarrassed for myself....

All in all, a fantastic morning thus far......

 

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sorry to hear mate...good luck though

 

Sorry to hear it didn't go so well.

When i was starting out first, I'd do practice interviews, which although it sounds stupid, it actually helped me alot. I got a friend of mine who was in IT at the time to do a mock interview, he had the knowledge to ask the questions. So i'd sit down with him, and he'd ask me things like:

How would you set a static IP address in windows XP?
or
What do you understand about how firewalls work and what they do?

Just asking these questions in a practice mode a few days before - i find helps (certianly did for me) you in answering a question, and helps you vizualize yourself sat in front of a computer whilst answering the question.

Going onto that interview afterwards aswell, i was asked a few similar questions along the same lines, ended up getting the job, and I'm still here 3 years down the line, and saying that I've got an interview next week for an infrastructure role, so i'll be sorting out some mock ones! hehe

Good luck, It'll get easier

Jack

 

I wouldnt beat yourself up too hard, everyone has what they consider bad interviews, at least you have gained some Interview experience.

Most interviewers will realise people have off days and allow a bit of leeway, so you never know, at least getting to the 2nd round bodes well.

Chin up and keep looking

Good luck

 

Veloce

Like all things interviews take practice, and knowing how to handle akward questions that come with that practice.

if you asked me to reel off a load of in built troubleshooting tools with windows I would likley go about as far as you and have to think long and hard about it which in an interview isnt great.

Now I have done the MCDST and have been doing desktop support for a few years and there are loads of tools around, but that doesnt mean they are all appropriate - in an inteview I would have listed a few, made that point and then asked them for an example to highlght your troubleshooting method, which will have you selecting the tools.

But what ever you do - dont try and bull**** the interview pannel as atleast one or more of them will know far more than you and could smell it a mile off.

When I had my techincal interview for my current post I got put through the ringer on everything from Desktop support through server support, Active Directory and Exchange, most of which I hadnt done at that point. The interviewer knew I dodnt have the answers and asked anyway as they want to see how you deal with the pressure as well as how you approach it, which for me normally ends somewhere arround asking google and then checking with the technical lead if I think those changes may have adverse affects.

Stay with it Chief I am sure you will nail the next one!

 

To be honest I still get nervous and I am one of the most confident people out there.

It happens so don't worry about it.

 

I'm usually very good at interviews but it also depends on the interviewer as well as if they are bad then sometimes it's hard to bounce off them and give good answers so your screwed from the start. I agree with Simon it happens and you can't win them all.

 

thanks for the responses guys. I dont feel quite as peeved as I did this morning.

I think (as apexes suggested) that maybe doing a few interview mock-ups might help with confidence.

 

These kind of questions get easier with practice and experience. The more you use those troubleshooting tools, the more likely you are to rattle them off the top of your head.

Don't be so hard on yourself. It happens. Nobody knows everything. Just do the best you can.

Thats something that gets easier with interview practice and more confidence.

If you do, you'll need someone who isn't just going to throw you a bunch of softballs. Make sure to get someone - preferably, a higher-level tech - who will ask you the tough questions and be "the idiot on the other side of the desk" (who I suspect isn't *really* much of an idiot at all). Without tough questions, it's hard to practice handling situations where you don't know the answer.

I'm sure there are plenty of us on here who could come up with some zingers.

 

thanks for the insight BM. I don't doubt there are peeps on here who would make me squirm alright, yourself included!

again thanks to all for making me see that with better prep,interviews like that should be a one-off

 

Well, just don't think that you're abnormal for being nervous. That's entirely normal. Even experienced techs can feel the butterflies going into an interview situation.