Calling all 1st /2nd line support guys

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Hi I am new to the site.

I was previously in IT nearly 10 years ago now and have decided to get back into it.

I did a couple of years of 1st / 2nd line support and helpdesk.

As things have changed I am currently home studying Windows 7 Configuration for the exam 70/680.

My question is I have had one interview last week which did not go very well at all. I was asked pretty basic IT questions that I just couldn't remember how to fix.
I have another interview on Tuesday and want to be a little more prepared as I know once I get the job I would be fine and be able to do it no problem.

Could you guys please give me some common 1st line support queries and answers.
For example I had a question in my last that what would I do if the network printer had a black smudge down it when printed.
I forgot all about network printers and started talking about my ink jet !!!!!!! Not Good !!!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Regards Claire

 

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Welcome to CF Claire

Have a look at the job description, and try to decipher what sort of questions they may ask.

For example if that printer had a smudge, depending on what sort of printer it is (i.e a multifunctional large printer in most corporate offices) It could be one of many things - rollers / fuser etc - usually if it's a large printer like that then it'll be on a lease/contract and i'd call canon out to do ours!

On the other hand if it was a normal laser jet etc - i'd of said to take the toner out, check the rollers and see if there is any build up of dirt / toner / ink on it, clean the usual parts and retry it again with another toner cartridge.

Post some aspects of the job description on here and i can take a look and perhaps fire some example questions and answers on here for you which'd be good for you to read up on and study a bit more further in preparation for the interview.

 

Thanks for you comments so far.
I know I could easily do this position but I know they will stump me on questions I haven't done for years.
Below is there job specs.

Regards Claire


Primary functions for the IT support technician include:

• PC / Laptop support
• Printer support and maintenance
• Preparation of new hardware
• Supporting the roll out of new applications
• First line support call logging and resolution
• Basic network support
• Telephone system support and maintenance

 

Ok, so - for example, basic 1st line questions (I've just had a look at our helpdesk guys queue in work)

1:

How would you install a local printer?

2:

How would you enable bluetooth on a supported laptop?

3:

How would you reinstall printer drivers on a desktop?

4:

How would you map network drives on a computer?

5:

How will you allocate hardware to staff depending on what they require to use?

Bear in mind these are only examples of some helpdesk stuff that goes on in my works 1st line - it's really difficult to tell you exactly what they'll ask, cos it could be anything on any one of those subjects.

Advice: Read up on each subject in the job descripion breifly and try to memorize some points which could be brought up.

PC / Laptop Support - Check out the current hardware, processors - x86 and x64 architecture, alot of our machines now are using the intel Core i3 i5 & i7 technology, read up on the CPU's and which family has how many cores etc - this will help with hardware. Check out memory & storage also.

Applications - not really easy to tell what they could quesiton as it could be any app depending on the nature of the business.

Network Support - read up on things like TCP/IP, IPV4 & IPV6 (Although i'm not sure ipv6 is relevant right now) Creating / modifying network shares, check out network permissions, adding and removing users and modifying their access to certain area's - DHCP standards - Basic DNS settings (i.e specifying a manual dns server)

Basic network support won't go much beyond this.

Printers are always a bugger - i hate them, but you've got to know basics about taking them apart and cleaning them for maintenance, if they run on a network they need to be setup on a print server. or if they're local, make sure you read up on installing drivers locally on a machine.

Telephone system support - entirely depends on what systems used, not easy to read up on if you don't know what they run.

You won't be able to cover every base of what they'll ask you, but you can read up on the major points of the job description.

Personally having seen some of the tests they'll ask basic knowledge questions.

On my first one i had to answer such things as:

How many MB's are in a GB?
What does RAM stand for?
How would you prioritise an email server going down, and a director unable to boot his PC?
What does a DHCP server do?
what does LAN stand for?

Bear in mind it's gonna be different for every interview and every company will have a different range of questions / tests - the information i've listed is just in general and may be covered - spend a few hours reading up on things you're not too comfortable on and sink some information in

Good luck for tuesday

 

Thanks alot for your detailed help I will get studying before Tuesday.

Regards Claire

 

I swear ive applied for that job too, the description looks familiar! i aint heard nothin so good luck!