Tech interview pulled, now to tank it...

RobAnybody

There have been a couple solid threads on interview help recently, but I'm hoping that my question is different enough to warrant some feedback.

Basically, I have been working retail for the last 3 years, since graduating from college. I have an interview on Tuesday at a different university to do tech support for them. It is a great job, and I really want it.

- I spent all four years of college doing this exact kind of job in a work study role.
- I have continued to do some volunteer tech work while doing the retail thing.
- In my various retail capacities, I have always been the in-store "tech guy".
- I've interviewed with this college before, they liked me, but gave the job to someone else. They mentioned the last interview positively while talking about current interview times.

I'm very hopeful that this comes through, but I'm getting progressively more and more anxious about the technical questions they might ask. I know honesty is the best way to go, but I've been trying to come up with ways to prepare and coming up with zilch.

Does anyone have some advice or insight as to what I could do to prepare for this interview, or even what might be some standard or "Duh" questions that might get thrown my way?

tl;dr - Got a tech support interview with a college in two days, how can I prepare for the tech questions they have?

Thanks much in advance!

exis

Are you interviewing for the same/similar position as last time? If so, what sorts of questions were they asking? Was there anything you felt you could do better?

Kakodaimonos

What sort of tech support is it? Hardware, software, lab support. Interview will change based on what position it is.

When I was interviewing for support people, I'd start out with basic questions. Find out how familiar they are with the OS, how much they new about basic troubleshooting (where are the syslogs, how to monitor process resource usage, cron/task scheduler). Scripting: can you scrub data files, write basic copy scripts, things like that.

I would also sit them down in front of a machine that I had deliberately broken/disabled something on and have them fix it. I'd usually give them 30 - 60 minutes, depending on what I had broken.

Qliphoth

I had an interview recently which was the second interview with that company after interviewing for and not getting another position. They asked me to evaluate my previous interview and what I thought I could've done differently/better and why I thought I didn't get the job. This was a giant pain in the arse to answer and hopefully for your sake you don't get similar but at least you can be prepared for it (or other similarly harsh questions on your previous application). I'd also make sure to highlight anything you have done in between the interviews that would make you more employable.

PolarBear

I think it really depends what they want you to support. In the end it really comes down to how well you troubleshoot in general and how quick you can learn new things. Having experience with what they are using is a major plus and will be the biggest "tie breaker" between candidates, but long term products and stuff will change over time and people need to know how to adapt.

In most past tech support interviews I have had to go through a chart listing my perceived aptitude in different areas - like "How would you rate your skills in Windows 2003 on a scale of 1 to 10" type stuff. I would rate myself honestly which would mean a bunch of them in the upper range, some in the mid range (have used but not supported) and some very low or N/A for I don't know much about that at all.

Then in the interview they will invariably pose some sample type questions pertaining to a generic situation or in an area that you are familiar with, like "say someone called you and said their email stopped working. Explain the steps you would take to solve the problem", and my answer would be:

Ask if they see an error message and what it is.
If so, go from there based on the message.
If not, ask if they can get to internet sites.
If so, check mail settings (assuming they are not using gmail or other web mail of course)
Fix mail settings if incorrect. Have them try to check mail again.
etc....

If you know the types of products / situations you will be supporting, you could try to brush up. Otherwise, just be honest and push your naturual troubleshooting talents, maybe using examples of similar products that you have supported to emphasize that you are not a total noob at this, just that you are not familiar with their preferred product (yet). You mentioned that you have work study experience doing this, so I would try to use examples from the work study every chance you get, particularly if they are familiar with it.

If they are the type of people that are nuts about "certifications" then I can't help you with that. I never understood the fascination with that stuff and have managed to get jobs where those did not matter.

RobAnybody

@exis - The job is largely similar to the last one I interviewed for. Shift in focus from working with their computer refurbishing store to a larger support and repair role. I will try to remember those questions, but it was probably almost a year ago that they interviewed me last.

@Kakodaimonos - The job will be primarily consulting and training people to handle their computer needs, trouble-shooting and setup of machines, and record maintenance. All stuff I've done before, just a while ago. That sounds like a good interviewer strategy, so I wouldn't be surprised if some of those questions came up.

@Qliphoth - Ugh, that does not sound fun at all. I'm hoping that they don't do that, but it's good to know so that I can at least try to prepare for it. Thanks!

@PolarBear - The certifications thing does bother me. I kinda wish I had gone to the trouble of picking a few basic ones up, but it always seemed like a waste of money and time to me. Who knows, maybe now they'd be a really good refresher course. I don't know specifics of what programs they use on their campus, but I would assume either Win7 or Vista with the Office Suite. Thanks for that basic run-down of an interview tho. Sounds pretty reasonable, and largely like something I could handle.

Thanks all for your quick and very helpful replies. I think I'll sit down and try to remember what they asked me last time, what I've done since then to improve my skills, maybe mess around on my home computer and break/fix something, and try not to get too nervous.