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I have a unique professional problem that I’d love your input on. I have an interview coming up for an IT service specialist position. My position will encompass all sorts of things, from building machines to diagnosing system failures to helping people fix their computer problems over the phone.
I’m really excited about the opportunity and I’m highly qualified, but I’m not sure what the interview is going to be like. I have been doing desktop support work for years, but I was promoted into the position. I never interviewed directly for it, so I don’t know what to expect during the interview. I’d love some advice.
1. The opening is at a state, not corporate, institution supporting a whole range of personnel, from novice end-users to experts. What should I expect the interview to be like?
2. What sort of questions might I be asked? What should I be prepared to answer?
3. Will there be any “tests?” – any “What would you do in the following situation?”
4. What materials, if any, should I bring to the resume? Copies of my resume and lists of references, surely. What else?
5. What things should I be sure to emphasize? What are the things to avoid saying or doing?
Any other advice would be really appreciated. If you have any questions, too, post them. Thanks!
Congrats on getting an interview! In my experience, interviews are all different! They totally depend on the person doing the interviewing, and many intervewiers aren't necessarily very good at interviewing.
That leaves it to you to make sure that YOU explain to the interviewer what you can do before the conclusion of the interview.
I like to look at it like this:
Perhaps the interviewer is competent and knowledgable. Perhaps they know what they are looking for in an employee, technically and personally, and perhaps they are good at interviewing. In this case, the interview is probably easy. They know what questions they want to ask and they ask them. You use the "answer" to highlight your experience and ways of thinking - a specific example from what you've already done is good. You don't want to go overboard and talk about "those idiots" you had to help, but if some poor dude spilled his coffee on his laptop AGAIN and as a result you finally set up a laptop ghosting system so you could hand out replacements as quickly as users destroyed them, that's memorable in a postive way.
A person less good at interviewing won't be able to "lead". If it's clear they're kind of floundering, asking generic questions like "tell me about yourself" and "Do you know how to set up a new computer?", you want to give a broad answer and then make sure you hit your personal bullet points. You'll be doing more of the talking and doing the leading in that case... you don't want to monologue for too long, but if YOU'RE good, you can make the next question obvious to the interviewer, and then you have a conversation. You don't want them to know you're leading... you're just helping the conversation along.
I would not be surprised at "what would you do it" questions. I think the trick is to avoid rushing into an answer. A little bit of silence is OK -- take a moment and consider your answer rather than jumping in. Some people will let an awkward silence hang a moment hoping the other person will rush to fill it. Don't fall for that. You don't want to be annoyingly quiet -- you just want to be deliberative. Be aware of the "probing silence". In the event the CEO has just discovered someone has hacked his machine, you don't immediately run in and start deleting files. You quietly disconnect it from the network and then ponder what to do next (using a different machine to research possible solutions). You stop and think a minute. That would be appropriate personality trait for an IT support person. People often rush in and make a mistake; so, if they ask you a "oh-no-what-do-you-do" question, it's OK to inhale, exhale, ask a followup (are you sure you connected to the right wireless network?), and then give your strategy for fixing a problem. There may be technical hard-and-fast things you'd need to rattle off, like identifying the innards of the PC, that you wouldn't want to look uncertain with, but I only faced that in an interview once and it was laughably simple after only working with my personal machine for a year or so.
Materials to bring -- resume yes, references yes. Beyond that, I don't think you need anything but your sense of humor and perhaps some altoids.
Be sure you emphasive that you've worked with a wide variety of users in the past and that you really like being able to help people. De-emphasive negatives of the past, like unpleasant bosses and demeaning coworkers -- they're past and forget about 'em. You can always count them as learning experiences in tolerance and different backgrounds/whatever.
I know it's generic advice but hope it helps some. Good luck in your interview.
Congrats on getting an interview! In my experience...
Hey! Just an update -- you gave great advice. Almost everything you mentioned turned out to be the case. A week after the interview (which went very well), yesterday, I was offered the position!
Hamza, I'm glad! Congrats!! If you accept it, good luck in the new position!
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