Skills test

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Hi,

How long would you recommend is ideal for a written / oral skills test for a first interview (after an initial telephone chat)?
(set of, say 20 basic networking, Windows, and Domino questions to make sure the interviewee is not a "fake")?

Cheers

Leah

 

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Lee

About 30 minutes is what I usually give. Start them off with some basic stuff, then move onto the harder questions near the end when they've 'warmed-up'. Best thing about this approach is that you can get rid of the chancers early doors - though it can be soul-destroying to see the amount of correct answers to what you thought were reasonably easy questions...

As an example, the last round of interviews I gave, we had seventeen questions - including some basic DHCP, DNS & WINS, AD, GPOs & VERY basic Firewall/Security stuff. Bearing in mind this was for a second/third line role, paying about £25 an hour - I had one tool not get a SINGLE question right. He couldn't even match port 80 to HTTP or 21 to FTP...

What sort of role are you looking to recruit for?

 

Thanks

Wow - that's bad!

Someone who can help run our IT department / support the customers whilst i'm away on wedding /honeymoon etc...and then work with me when i'm back...but not a manager as we are cutting costs and my MD used to manage/ is now doing the really hardcore stuff...plus I'd like to get more experience, as no plans for anything other than career/ bigger house for next two or so years!! :0)...they need to know all the basics and be confident with facing new issues...kind of a second/third line support engineer...

 

Doesn't sound too hard.

I'd start em off with some basic Workstation/Server admin (disk configurations, local policies, configuring proxy settings etc)

Then move onto some simple networking (an easy subnetting question, DHCP, DNS/WINS) then some slightly more difficult networking questions where they have to do a bit of brainwork.

Finish them off with some AD stuff (GPO processing order, specifics around a couple of common areas like different kinds of user profiles and desktop lockdown) and a couple of 'user facing' questions like the ol' chestnut about choosing the most important out of: the MDs printer going down or Lots of 'regular' users reporting network problems

 

Well the answer to that would likely depend on the role you are hiring for.

IMHO without knowing anything about your network the 'correct' answer would be that the print server the MD uses is unavailable due to the aforementioned network issues.

If you were recruiting for a desktop role then I would be inclined to send them to the MD's office for 'visibility' whilst the network folks try and sort the underlying problem

 

As far as I'm concerned, there is no 'right' answer to this question - it's designed to test the interviewee's analysis skills.

I would always answer "without further information it's impossible to make the call - although my gut instinct tells me to go with the network problem and fix that first as it sounds more important - if the MD is printing something out that is of paramount importance to the business, then that may take preference". That's what I always look for in that question - whether people are prepared to be analytical instead of simply jumping to a conclusion.

 

Thanks you for your advice - have taken onboard,

L

 

Do you reckon a couple in this kind of format (need to do a few on Lotus Notes, along with the other stuff, as that is the company's speciality):

"A user has just undergone a name change. It appears to have run through successfully, but something has gone wrong as they call to say that they cannot access anything. You dial into their PC and find out that they still have their old Notes ID. You get the correct ID from where it is stored on your domino server and put it in C:\Lotus\Notes\Data (the file path that you use for all users). However, when you go back into Notes, and try to open any database from the welcome page, you get “unable to find (new mailfile name)…”. What is the quickest way to solve this?"

would be ok? ... I'd like them to demonstrate their way of thinking / troubleshooting...also, if they're clued up, and it doesn't make sense, then they should hopefully question / challenge it shouldn't they?

 

Is it, click on "file" then "tools" then select "switch id" and choose the path to the new file ?

 

:0) Good answer, but you are already associated and logged in with the new user Id (that was the C:\Lotus\Notes\Data bit)...so what i'd first do is go into the users location doc, and check the mail tab - check that the mailfile location is pointing to the new mailfile (most likely it will still be pointing to the old one, and you'll need to ammend this, and, "Bob's your uncle")....if it is pointing to the correct location, then most likely the actual mailfile has somehow not been ammended to give the user id permission to access it, so you will need update it to give them the permission...

 

Thanks Leeha, I am about to start 1st line at a place that uses lotus domino mail.

Is the mailfile the Lotus equivalent of the MS .pst file ?

 

No worries..

Good luck!!

names.nsf would be the equivalent to the outlook pst I think...as names.nsf contains all the contact details...