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General discussion (archive)Advice Needed: Job Interview - Service Desk Support Officer(55 posts)solved(55 posts)solved
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Posted January 28, 2011
I've been shortlisted for an interview next Thursday, but I'm a bit worried about the 15 minute written test before the interview itself.

On the job description, it states the test will be on 'troubleshooting skills for the network & telephony infrastructure' and 'knoweldge of ICT hardware'. Does anybody have any idea about what kind of task that might be set?

My only guess is they might give an example of a fault (a PC not being able to connect to the network, maybe?) and asking me to list potential issues and the troubleshooting steps:

Issue: network card not connected properly, bad network card drivers or software settings, firewall preventing computers from seeing each other, connection related issues, bad network hardware.

Solution: verrify connection / LEDs, adapter resources, adapter functionality, protocol, firewall, ping, tracert, etc.

Does that sound likely?

I know some people here do similar jobs, so figured this would be as good a place as any to pick up some tips!
This question / problem has been solved by Soggy_crackersimage
Posted January 28, 2011
A written technical test? What's the point? Are you sure it won't just be some default written aptitude test, like sentence recognition or basic maths or something?

Although frankly, those are even more bullshit than a written technical test.

My best suggestion is for you to study the base material you suspect you will need, such as network configuration and hardware. Buy a book.
Posted January 28, 2011
It'd have to be fault diagnosis & resolution, the only other primary skill a helpdesk officer needs is the ability to barrel through a script whilst ignoring the customer saying they've done all that
Posted January 28, 2011
Regardless of the nature of the problem make sure you ask them to update their drivers first. Router on fire? A firmware update will solve that. Or better yet, a firewall.
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Aliasalpha: It'd have to be fault diagnosis & resolution, the only other primary skill a helpdesk officer needs is the ability to barrel through a script whilst ignoring the customer saying they've done all that
"But, but, but... we've got to do this test or else I can't move onto stage 6 of the Generic Problem Alleviation Guide!"
Post edited January 28, 2011 by Navagon
Posted January 28, 2011
For what it's worth here is my 2 cents!

Just to add a little background of where I am coming from, I'm 10 years into an IT career and I started out as a help desk guy for a company's internal IT team. For the first 4 years I was responsible for all associate PC issues (~17,000 employees, with ~2000 operational PCs) active directory and exchange. From then on, I've been doing that and all server support, configuration and deployment as well as a host of other IT tasks.

What I would look for in a support tech would depend on the type of support job it is, so I'll give advice both ways for now, and as we can get more details, I'll be happy to expand!

If the job you are applying for is script based job (a call center for example) the following are the most important skills to have:
- Ability and willingness to follow scripts (do you recognize the importance of following a script as given?)
- Customer relation skills (will the customer feel they were handled in a polite, efficient manner?)

Remember in a call center there are people that their sole job is to find the best, most efficient, way to resolve the common issues that arise.

If the job is more free form troubleshooting (not script based, you are given an issue and need to resolve on your own) I would look for the following:
- Troubleshooting style, and skill (when given an issue will you be able to, by yourself, use the resources at your disposal to make logical decisions to build an action list). A lot of the time when I see people fail in this type of position it's because they are not able to past the "well, that should have worked...." and are stuck on the one solution they know and are comfortable with.
- Technical knowledge (in this position you are expected to have the knowledge required to troubleshoot the technology at hand since no scripts will be provided)

In this type of position it is very important to have someone with the right mindset for the job. Demonstration (like you listed in your original post) of what action items should be taken, in what order and more importantly why those actions should be taken would be paramount. A person with the right troubleshooting skills is (IMHO) more important that straight up technical knowledge. I know there are people that will disagree with that, but I can tell you it's the most frustrating thing in the world for me to have an issue escalated to myself only to find out the one item that the persons knows should work was the only thing attempted, because they relay solely on their technical knowledge and are unwilling to think outside the box when the tried and true fails.


So, at a brief level there is the advice I can give. If you have any more detail about the position itself (even the job listing if available) I'd be happy to add as much as I can!
Posted January 28, 2011
No clue, just here to wish you good luck!
Posted January 28, 2011
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Soggy_crackers: Snip
Thanks, this is very helpful. The job in question, I think, fits into the "free form troubleshooting" category. The job advert is here.

From what you've said so far, and re-reading the competencies section of the application pack (accessible via the link above), it seems like I was spot on with my assessment of the 15 minute written test.

I have worked in a similar role before, but that was almost ten years ago, so I'm a little out of practice. I have good working knowledge of Windows Server, Active Directory, Citrix, etc, all of which are mentioned in the job description.

I'm pretty good at trouble shooting - in my current job I'm called the "IT Guru", so am constantly fixing various problems for colleagues in my vicinity (since that gets problems resolved alot quicker than going through the external IT support service), so I'm fairly confident that this is a job I can do well. I just need to get through the interview first!
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Zchinque: No clue, just here to wish you good luck!
Thanks man! :)
Post edited January 28, 2011 by nmillar
Posted January 28, 2011
Yeah, after reading that job posting I think you are right on track! My suggestion for that would be to have a couple of "great success" troubleshooting stories ready for the interview. Don't be afraid to say the first thing I tried didn't work...but... that gave me a clue to try action #2 and that worked! That's the kind of thing I would be interested in hearing anyways (and from past interview experience I'm always asked the question of "Tell us a great success story")

Best of luck, and let us know how it goes!
Posted January 28, 2011
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Soggy_crackers: Snip
Thanks, good to know! :)

I'll leave the question open for now in case anyone else wants to input, but the rep points are pretty much yours!
Posted January 28, 2011
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Soggy_crackers: Yeah, after reading that job posting I think you are right on track! My suggestion for that would be to have a couple of "great success" troubleshooting stories ready for the interview. Don't be afraid to say the first thing I tried didn't work...but... that gave me a clue to try action #2 and that worked! That's the kind of thing I would be interested in hearing anyways (and from past interview experience I'm always asked the question of "Tell us a great success story")

Best of luck, and let us know how it goes!
Ahhhhh I hate these kind of interviewers. What if I don't have an interesting or great repair story and I just know how to repair in a boring way? Is that bad? :(
Posted January 28, 2011
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Soggy_crackers: Yeah, after reading that job posting I think you are right on track! My suggestion for that would be to have a couple of "great success" troubleshooting stories ready for the interview. Don't be afraid to say the first thing I tried didn't work...but... that gave me a clue to try action #2 and that worked! That's the kind of thing I would be interested in hearing anyways (and from past interview experience I'm always asked the question of "Tell us a great success story")

Best of luck, and let us know how it goes!
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RUSBoris: Ahhhhh I hate these kind of interviewers. What if I don't have an interesting or great repair story and I just know how to repair in a boring way? Is that bad? :(
No, I don't think so. Be inventive and your great success is (instead of one or two projects / issues) the fact that you were able to maintain a level of service that was fast, efficient and had little to no impact on the end user. The only bad answer would be non at all, so if an overall excellent service record is what you have, sell that!
Posted February 03, 2011
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Soggy_crackers: Snip
Well, today's interview day. If I get the job, I'll buy you a GOG! :)
Post edited February 03, 2011 by nmillar
Posted February 03, 2011
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Soggy_crackers: Snip
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nmillar: Well, today's interview day. If I get the job, I'll buy you a GOG! :)
Wish you all the best for the interview... I believe you will get the job!
Posted February 03, 2011
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Soggy_crackers: Snip
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nmillar: Well, today's interview day. If I get the job, I'll buy you a GOG! :)
Im a bit late but I used to work at BSKYB about 5 years ago, our tech support was as follows:
Me: please switch the sky box of at the plug socket.
Customer: OK done.
Me: now we wait for 30 seconds.
Customer: ok.
Me & Customer: *difficult silence*
Me: ok please switch it back on.
Customer: Done
Me: and is it working?
Customer: no.
Me: OK thatll be £65 to send an engineer out to fix it.
Customer: FUCK YOU I WANT TO CANCEL.

From what I gather they do have a couple more thing they try now.



Edit: Oh and GOODLUCK
Post edited February 03, 2011 by reaver894
Posted February 03, 2011
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reaver894: From what I gather they do have a couple more thing they try now.
Something like:
Please try to plug in the power cable.
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General discussion (archive)Advice Needed: Job Interview - Service Desk Support Officer(55 posts)solved(55 posts)solved
(55 posts)solved