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[๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿ”˜๐Ÿ”˜๐Ÿ”˜] Applicants can't answer these questions...

https://old.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/vhoqfl/applicants_cant_answer_these_questions?sort=controversial

Most Based Comments

Basedness: ๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿ”˜๐Ÿ”˜๐Ÿ”˜

I know what your mean, and my question library is 99% scenarios - here's the problem, symptoms, how would you go about troubleshooting it? What tools would you use? What sources of information are you looking at? - but people can't answer those either.I think things like "What does DHCP do?" Or "What does DNS do?" are absolutely fair game for anyone above level 0 (to clarify, imo level 0 is phone jockey and info gathering, level 1 should have a mental library of basic tools like ping and nslookup at the barest of minimums). So maybe not specific definitions but FFS you should know DHCP is dynamic IP addresses and hopefully that it provides config like the DNS and gateway (57)

Honestly these boiled up to the top questions because if I can't get reasonable answers out of someone for them I probably wont get reasonable answers for the rest of my questions and I can save the hour interview. (-59)

Basedness: ๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿ”˜๐Ÿ”˜๐Ÿ”˜

I wouldn't say that these are "insanely hard" as much as they are just plain ...irrelevant.I've designed, deployed, and managed DNS and DHCP for 4,000+ endpoint environments and even I don't remember off the top of my head what DHCP stands for. Something something protocol (?) More importantly, why does it matter. There's no practical benefit to knowing what DHCP stands for, so why bother asking? Do you know what it does and how to configure it? That's the question. It's like asking what the word LASER stands for. It doesn't matter. Everyone calls it a laser.A better question would be to ask the candidate to give an example of when they would set DHCP Option 66, or something like that. Something concrete, where you could measure experience. Knowing the answer to most of these questions just doesn't correlate in the way you think it does with experience.Likewise, DNS = domain name services, good question. That's relatively common knowledge. What does DNS do? Also a good q... (349)

Just to be clear these aren't the only thing I ask, just the first things. I don't particularly care if they know the acronym perfectly but knowing its for configuration and not just IP is important to me. Number 6 is for troubleshooting. The basic steps a query makes are important to be able to check where something resolving fails.I do appreciate the feedback though and I will likely alter some of the questions due to it. (-40)

Basedness: ๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿ”˜๐Ÿ”˜๐Ÿ”˜

meanwhile Job Postings can't answer these questions....1) what is the pay range?2) why is this position open?3) tell me about the team, how many staff, how long have they been here?4) user/client submits a ticket afterhours, how is that handled?5) what is the SLA for responding to issues during business hours?6) tell me about the benefits you offer outside of pay? (61)

They do. During an interview. (-27)

Angriest Comments

Angriness: ๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก

1) wtf kind of company is this, asking L1 questions for a $100k job? Don't get me wrong, I'd take $100k to do L1 work all day long; where can I sign up? I don't even see "what does DHCP stand for" as an unreasonable question for an L1 position, but more of a "let me gauge your reaction to an IT 101 question". If you can't answer it, then maybe you need to ask ITT Tech or University of Phoenix for a refund. 2) SO many people claiming decades of alleged experience, but still can't answer some or all of these simple questions? You people are the bane of my existence. Pretenders, imposters, monkey-see monkey-do all the while not truly understanding WTF you're doing and making life harder for everyone else. "Imposter syndrome" really isn't a "syndrome" in these cases, but the actuality of it instead. I deal with this shit EVERY DARN DAY; assclowns who mostly know what to click when X or Y happens, but have no grasp of the base underlying concepts. So instead of doing everything I need t... (3)

Angriness: ๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก

Maybe I've lived in networking for to long but the sheer number of people in here saying "I don't know what DHCP stands for" is god darn frightening. And no... I get it. Being able to recall any/all IT acronyms at the drop of a hate (especially in an interview setting/high pressure) is hard. There are plenty of acronyms I can't recall but DHCP is foundational for how ever machine works and in turn the whole internet. But FFS I think I'm with OP when if someone can only tell me what it does and not what it stands for I would be concerned. Not necessarily end the interview but I would start asking a lot more probing questions around their knowledge. (3)

Angriness: ๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก

Since there are multiple ways to tackle a technical issue, I'm less concerned about the "right answer" (aka how I would handle it, which isn't always the best way). I'm more interested in someone's thought process. I tend to throw them a scenario where something is broken, and ask them what steps they would go through to troubleshoot. There could be multiple right answers, so I want to confirm their brain actually functions.I hate being in the receiving end of gotcha questions, so I don't ask them. Having it more open ended sometimes sparks a deeper conversation in to something, so then I really get to see if there is a subject the candidate is excited about. You can tell when people get fired up about something and want to talk about it. It could be bragging that they fixed some really wacky thing, or complaining about some stupid butt feature on a random platform, like, oh I hate that function on that firewall. The GUI doesn't work! You have to command line it every darn ti... (1)

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Score: ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿ”˜๐Ÿ”˜๐Ÿ”˜

Number of comments: 10

Average angriness: ๐Ÿ”˜๐Ÿ”˜๐Ÿ”˜๐Ÿ”˜๐Ÿ”˜

Maximum angriness: ๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก

Minimum angriness: ๐Ÿ”˜๐Ÿ”˜๐Ÿ”˜๐Ÿ”˜๐Ÿ”˜

:marppy: autodrama: automating away the jobs of dramautists. :marseycapitalistmanlet: Ping HeyMoon if there are any problems or you have a suggestion :marseyjamming:

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I do technical interviews all the time without asking a single technical question.

I start out every interview by saying I'm not HR, I'm not looking for a politician give me some real answers.

Asking a candidate if he's been in a situation where a new technology was dropped on his lap and how he handled it says alot more than asking if DNS is tcp or UDP.

Asking a candidate what his favorite job was and then asking what the least favorite part of that job really says alot.

What I try and figure out during the interview is will the person be a HR liability, ie narc. Will he work outside of the scope of the contract to keep the customer happy and is willing to learn or is he stuck in his box. Also is he a conservative from the Midwest, normally hardest workers in defense.

Need to creatively get that information out of him without getting HR pissed about my line of questioning.

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This is a first rnd interview weed out question, it's not meant to actually test a candidate it's just to see if they completely lied about everything on their resume. Just got done interviewing a guy who basically slipped through the first rnd interview somehow and didn't know basic shit like this

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So I ask candidates what they day to day is like at previous jobs.

So if they were a SATCOM controller I ask them what their site used for timing, what bands were they utilizing on their SHF terminal.

I do it in a more shooting the shit format, I'm hiring senior level techs and engineers who most the time are turbo autists that can be super nervous during an interview.

I'm pretty good at connecting with people and figuring out if the person knows his shit or not just by a conversation.

Speak to what you've done and make me believe you're passionate about defense telecom like I am. That's what I want.

I don't hire anyone fresh outta school so that helps.

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We're hiring lower engrs out of college or out of their first real job, so that's probably the main difference. Harder to have a passion for something you've never done outside of school, and best way to see if people care is to just ask Q's that are stupid easy to answer if you've been alive and in an engr class at the same time.

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We hired an EE fresh outta school as a SATCOM maintenance guy who was awestruck when he learned that SATCOM maintenance involved turning wrenches. Only lasted a few months.

Smart dude, but just thought some work was beneath him. That was before I was in the hiring process and the jobs came real easy out here in the MENA region.

He was in the $125+ range in the early 2000's, lose the college educated chip on your shoulder.

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Darn I went into the wrong field apparently, 125$/hr and I'd be someones personal jester. Frickin hate engrs that won't turn a wrench, I always like asking what someone would do if they had a bolt head break off. Tells me really fast how much hands on they had, if they answer with a groan and "oh Jesus Christ frick that" I know they've at least used an Allen wrench before lol.

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Lol my bad, forgot the k as in $125k. Could have been as much as $185k wasn't involved in financials then.

But that's when pay out in the middle east was stupid.

Since the wind down all of us old heads have taken a pay cut or two.

I'm just lucky enough to have been in enough different roles to be a swiss army knife of telecom. Keyboard to antenna and everything in between.

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left handed drill. If that does not solve the problem, completely drill it out and put one oh those thread adapter things.

I am a nerdy programmer. Would love to have to work with wrenches as part of my job.

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I ask them what their site used for timing, what bands were they utilizing on their SHF terminal.

Sorry sir, that's classified.

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I say good answer while thinking HR liability knowing that frequency planning is public knowledge.

Means not recommend for hire.

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shit

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midwest defense only midwits end up working for companies like that

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