Can Someone Please Help Me IT Technicain Interview

[stevenrichard]

Hi all,

I have got an interview coming up on Friday 12th December for a trainee IT technician position. I have got good hardware and software skills and I have got basic knowledge of networking but the school will provide full training to the successful candidate.

The school technician has given us 20 sample interview questions that they could ask I am familiar with all of these technical questions apart from the following four. Can someone please help me out can you tell me how I would troubleshoot the following problems and how I would fix them:

1. A member of the staff rings you and says that he/she cannot log on to the network what would you do?

2. A member of the staff cannot access the Internet what would you do?

3. A member of the staff cannot print their notes?

4. A member of the staff phones you and says their computer is running slow what would you do to find out what is wrong with the computer?

Thank you in advance!

Kind Regards,

Steven Richard

[jamesb]

1 & 2 What's the network environment? What error message are they getting, if any? Are all of the cables plugged in? Does this member of staff regularly have problems logging onto the network?

There could be all sorts of reasons for this one, and to be honest the same with the internet one. More information is needed for this question to make sense but sensible ways to test would be to check that the computer is actually connected, say by pinging it from your own workstation. Check that the teacher's account is not disabled or locked out for some reason. Check that they are entering the correct password.

A lot of the same applies to the internet problem.

3 Is it a local or network printer? Is there a printer credits system in use that may have run out? Is the printer switched on? Is the printer out of ink, jammed, out of paper or similar? Is the teacher actually sending their notes to the right printer?

Just a few ideas, stuff I used to come across quite often.

[stevenrichard]

Thank You Jamesb for the answers that you have given me I really appreciate it.

[jcollings]

For me, when I'm interviewing for a trainee post I am much more interested in the people skill side of things.

Those are very important for 1st line support and much more so than your current technical skills.

I have always believed it is much easy to teach technical skills to someone with the right people skills/attitude and almost impossible to teach good people skills to someone who doesn't have them no matter how technically brilliant they are.

So for the questions above I am more interested in seeing how you handle people rather than coming up with the correct solution.

[tmcd35]

There are generally two type of answer to these questions. The first, and most likely in this case given the similarity in all four questions, is about fault finding. Your not expected to know exactly how to fix the problem there and then. The reason for the question is for you to explain how you would work out what the problem is. Would you check cables, would you check software, would you check any particular area of windows, are there any tools such as ping you'd try? and what order would you try these in.

The other answer to this type of question, especially network specific questions, is to see if and when you'd ask for help. Again you won't be expected to know all the answers to all the problems you'd encounter. The question is, how much time would you waste trying to find an answer when all you need to do is ask another member of the team?

[sparkeh]

A few of the top of my head:

1. A member of the staff rings you and says that he/she cannot log on to the network what would you do?

Depends on setup really. Things that spring to mind
*Find out if this is particular to one machine or a general problem
*Check the workstation is connected to the network by whatever method available (trusty ping should do it) - if not take a wander over and check out if it is connected and work out through the infrastructure
*Check the teacher's account is ok in AD.

2. A member of the staff cannot access the Internet what would you do?

Again depends on setup
*See if this is effecting others or particular to user
*Check the account doesn't have an restrictions placed on it
*Check station network connection
*Check proxy settings

3. A member of the staff cannot print their notes?

*Check printer is functioning correctly (and for other people)
*See if there are any restrictions placed on the account
*Is the user actually printing to where they think they are?

4. A member of the staff phones you and says their computer is running slow what would you do to find out what is wrong with the computer?

*Check for malware
*See what processes/services are running on the machine and perhaps disable any of the useless ones (eg update notifiers)
*Run defrag analysis and defrag a few times if neccessary

[elsiegee40]

With all of these you will need tact, diplomacy and the ability to communicate without implying the staff member is an idiot (even if you think they are) All of these are day-in day-out regulars and usually have very simple solutions... you have to deal with them calmly (and then let off steam here if necessary!) Look for the obvious answers before getting bogged down with detailed analysis.

1. A member of the staff rings you and says that he/she cannot log on to the network what would you do?

This is usually because, the staff member cannot remember their password or has typed their username incorrectly (A space before it is the most common one here)

Reset their password to something safe (like 'password') - checking the box to make sure the user has to change it when they next logon. Get them to backspace through their logn name to completely empty the box and then login using the new password...

If this doesn't work, you'll have to go and see them. Sometimes it's easier to anyway. Be prepared for the PC not to be booted up - usually caused by the failure to switch it on at the mains. Sometimes the monitor isn't switched on at the wall or the power cable is loose.

2. A member of the staff cannot access the Internet what would you do?

Check first that they have logged on OK...
If you're in the room, with them double-click on the Internet Explorer icon and see what happens. Be ready to explain that not having Google as your home page doesn't mean that the internet isn't working. If this is the problem , show them how to bookmark google/ where the google bookmark is.

Failing that: Check there's still CAT5 plugged into the wall and the PC (or check the wireless connection). check you can access the internet from wherever you are just in case you really have lost the router

3. A member of the staff cannot print their notes?

1. Is there paper in the printer?
2. Have they used up their print quota?
3. Are they printing to the correct printer (the one next to them rather than the one at the ther end of the school)
4. Is there any toner in the printer?
5. Has the printer jammed?

All of these need to be checked using all the tact you can muster.

4. A member of the staff phones you and says their computer is running slow what would you do to find out what is wrong with the computer?

firstly talk to the staff member and find out exactly what is running slow.

Is it slow to logon?
Is it slow on the internet?
Is it slow in a particular application.

Do go and see them and get them to demonstrate.

It could well be a case of the user having 20 windows open simultaneously, their profile being massive due to huge numbers of files saved on the desktop...

[stevenrichard]

Thank You jcollings, tmcd35, sparkeh and elsiegee40 for the answers I really appreciate it.

[j17sparky]

As said i cant really see them wanting specific answers to their un-specific questions, just a general idea of what is going on and where to look next (all been mentioned above).

To add to the above id say they are looking for metholodgical and procedural thinking;

Is the probem local, network wide, etc?
Have previous problems been reported on that machine/printer/etc? Are they recorded on the helpdesk?
Gathering relevent information/asking the right questions in the right way (teachers and pupils arnt techies and shouldnt be expected to think as such so defining "broken" is often 99% of the battle)
Where do you start trouble shooting? Depending on the interviewer mentioning things like the OSI may score brownie points
Does the problem move with the user...

[dh241]

1. A member of the staff rings you and says that he/she cannot log on to the network what would you do?

Check username and password are entered correctly. Check connectivity- maybe it's not plugged in or is on an unpatched port. Check for bans/restrictions. If there was connectivity, check whether others can log on to that machine and whether that user can log on to other machines. Try reset password, reset profile.

2. A member of the staff cannot access the Internet what would you do?

Check if it's the user's misunderstanding. Check whether they have access to home directories and/or SIMS. If not, check connectivity etc. If so, checking what they want is allowed and possible, checking quotas and restrictions, reboot machine, reset profile.

3. A member of the staff cannot print their notes?

The printer in our marking room is dodgy, we know that. If it's a simple solution, go fix the printer. Recommend an alternative printer to use. Check connectivity etc. Check printer allocation.

4. A member of the staff phones you and says their computer is running slow what would you do to find out what is wrong with the computer?

Check apps running. Save and reboot. Check connectivity. Probably extra software installed by the user, and God knows how much crap stored on the desktop instead of the home directory (our record is around 9GB). Is it an old machine. Machine may need rebuilding if the issue is isolated to the machine.

Don't say this in an interview, but: don't attribute to an infrastructure problem, that which can be attributed to the user being a muppet.

[stevenrichard]

Thank you j17sparky and dh241 you have given me useful info.

[elsiegee40]

Let us know how you get on

[duncane]

Question 3: Perhaps I'm not tough enough, but I'd offer to print the teacher's notes out for them if they were really in a bind.