Stumped by Interview Questions

Discussion in 'Employment & Jobs' started by TimoftheC, Sep 8, 2008.

  1. TimoftheC

    TimoftheC Kilobyte Poster

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    Hi all,

    I had the interview from hell on Friday and when you factor in all the rain, was a pretty miserable day all round :(

    Anyway, I was asked two questions that completely stumped me, as follows: -

    My first response was typically, "please make sure that the Caps Lock key is not on" -
    .
    Hmm, are you sure that you are entering the details correctly, can I ask you to re-enter the details taking as much care as you can -
    "OK, lets try it with the caps Lock engaged" (desperate now) -
    At this point I said that I did not know the answer and would need to seek guidance on it. At the end of the test the guy said that I should have made sure that Number Lock was not engaged as the laptop had numbers that appeared on the letter keys and with Num Lock on, a key stroke will produce a number.

    Ah well, learnt something new there but, how many of you would have suggested Num Lock as the answer - and be honest?

    The other question was that user contacted you to say that she was printing from Word to a group printer. However, when she printed the printer did not output until she manually pressed the GO button on the printer. Nobody else had this problem and she wanted to know how to resolve it. I had no idea on this apart from saying it must be a setting within Word but I did not know how to change it.

    I never got the answer to this one - anybody out there know it?
     
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  2. Qs

    Qs Semi-Honorary Member Gold Member

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    If it were me.... I'd have probably jumped ahead and assumed that the client was off-site (that's why they had a laptop and not a PC) and that their password had been reset in AD whilst they weren't connected to the domain.

    :p


    Anywayyyyy... yeah I probably would have checked the Num-Lock and Caps-Lock key. Laptops are annoyingly notorious with their integrated numlock over the top of their normal QWERTY keys (it's normally in blue) and can screw stuff like this up. Have a look next time you get hold of a laptop which doesn't have a separate numlock (a lot don't).

    Nevermind - least now you know.

    Qs
     
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  3. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    Maybe the person trying to print does not have as high as a priority as others or that the settings for the printer are set so she has to manually print the job.
     
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  4. Qs

    Qs Semi-Honorary Member Gold Member

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    Just realised I didn't answer your second question lol.

    My assumption would be something along the lines of GBL's response. Something to do with priorities. In all honesty I've never seen that example question happen IRL whereas I have with your first.
     
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  5. natkay2603

    natkay2603 Bit Poster

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    I prob, would have said num lock but only because i have had that before and i didn't have any idea what it was at first.
     
  6. westernkings

    westernkings Gigabyte Poster

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    I would of just said "**** it, ill reset the password and tell you the username from AD" haha
     
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  7. Tieken

    Tieken Bit Poster

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    as for logon troubles, one of the most popular reasons thereof is mistakenly choosen input language. So the user believes he is typing a password using the british keyboard layout whereas actually typing in french. As a rule, the simplest way to determine the reason is to ask the user to type his/her password in the username filed so that he/she could see what actually is being typed...
     
  8. twizzle

    twizzle Gigabyte Poster

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    to say that the 2nd question about the printer does not happen is incorrect, in fact it happens to me everyday.

    When ever i print from my PC to teh Networked printer in our office i normally have to go over to it and press teh OK key. Others in teh office dont, and all my settings have been checked and compared with others but no difference has been spotted. To put another fly in teh ointment, sometimes the printer will print fine for me without having to press teh button, but thtas on rare occasions, and the next time i go to print i have to walk over and press it again! So far no answer to this.

    As for teh first one, i probably wouldnt have thought of teh Num Lock for at least anotehr 5 mins, then suggested it as a desperate last attempt.
     
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  9. nugget
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    nugget Junior toady

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    It's possible that the page setup is set incorrectly for the size of the page, eg the document that you are trying to print is letter format any you have A4 paper, and then you have to start the job manually.

    As for the Num lock problem, I would not have guessed it straight away. I would have said that it was a password problem. Maybe if all else failed and all other possibilities were explored I would have asked what was showing on the keyboard (lights etc) but I doubt it.
     
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  10. TimoftheC

    TimoftheC Kilobyte Poster

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    Thanks for the replies, glad to see one or two others would have stumbled on the log in question. I was thinking of the Num Lock key but that was just in case the password had numbers in it and they were using the number pad. I have used lappies before and deal with them a bit at the weekends, but that is just troubleshooting em as stand alones and loading software. One things for ceratin, the next time that question comes up in an interview I'm gonna be ready :p

    I though about priorities for printing but even if it's set to 1, surely it will still print when there are no higher priority docs in the queue?

    Very good point Nugget, that may well have been the answer - I should have asked the interviewer to put me out me misery on that one but I'd pretty much lost it by that point and just wanted it to be all over :biggrin Have googled it a couple of times now and have yet to get a definitive answer - there must be one as they were asking the question
     
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  11. dales

    dales Terabyte Poster

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    personnally I would have thought the numlock question a little unfair, chances are that the username might include a portion of the keyboard affected by numlock. I suspect I might have thought of it as when TS onto my servers the connections are always turning on numlock on my keyboard! But its certainly a cheeky question.
     
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  12. tripwire45
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    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    At first blush, I would have thought that the user's credentials had expired (usually happens every 90 days) and they needed to create a new password. Of course, they *should* have been notified of this. The other thing is that they fat fingered their login before and are now locked out of the system. That would give them the error message they received.
     
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  13. Qs

    Qs Semi-Honorary Member Gold Member

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    I intitially thought this too trip - though due to the notification edited my post and only listed the password change. :p

    Great minds eh?
     
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  14. Paul_o

    Paul_o Nibble Poster

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    was this the Job at the fire service, if so I'm glad a gave that one a miss. The Job we applied for at the space centre i got as far as a second interview but missed out. apparently they had 25 apply initially so i am happy to get to the final two, even if i didn't get it.
     
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  15. TimoftheC

    TimoftheC Kilobyte Poster

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    Well done Paul, I got a thanx but no thanx letter from the Space Centre on that one, didn't even get as far as an interview :(

    Yeah, was the fire service job, they all seemed pretty nice but it was just one of those interviews. It all started going wrong when I was upgrading the ram on one of their desktops as a test and I broke one of the retaining clips. That sorta got to me and it was all down hill fro there :(

    Was an experience though and there was stuff I could learn from so not a total waste.
     
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  16. Markyboyt

    Markyboyt Kilobyte Poster

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    I have also seen this in our workshop, the one computer wouldnt output the document until you pressed the go button to accept it printing on a different size of paper andd that was because of this reason.

    I wouldnt have got that num lock question right, but now it makes so much sense. Its one of them things that you wont forget now though
     
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  17. derkit

    derkit Gigabyte Poster

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    I've come across both before:

    1) Laptop - my first guess would have been details incorrect, then credentials different to that on the domain (which we have quite often!!!). Num-Lock I've come across before, but I worked it out when they typed the username and password as cleartext and the numbers appeared.... that gave it away :D

    2) Printer - I had this problem today, ended up being as Nugget (I think) said, incorrect paper size selected by the user.

    If nothing else, you'll be aware of similar type questions, especially the Num-Lock scenario now :)
     
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  18. Sparky
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    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    Ask the user to type their password in the USERNAME field (so they can see what they are typing) and make sure it is displayed correctly. I know there is a slight security risk but not the end of the world.

    For the printer question it has something to do with the paper size in word not matching what the printer is set to, or even margins. Basically if its A4 then make sure the printer settings are A4. Also try printing a test page as well.

    Do I get the job? :biggrin
     
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  19. ScoobyDoo

    ScoobyDoo Byte Poster

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    I had this a while ago. I sorted it by configuring a setting on the printer driver - something to do with manual/auto feed I think.
     
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  20. steve_f

    steve_f Byte Poster

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    Exactly what I would say.
     
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