Troubleshooting questions for an interview

[DirtyDane]

I've got an interview coming up for my first position out of college. It will be a support technician sort of as a generalist for users within the business. 

 

So I want to sharpen my troubleshooting skills that I admittedly feel I have not trained very well. please give me technical help desk type questions.

 

I will respond with what comes to mind as things to check or how I would approach solving it. If you could then respond with things I may have missed or might have gotten wrong please let me know. 

[Spotty]

2 minutes ago, DirtyDane said:

 

So I want to sharpen my troubleshooting skills that I admittedly feel I have not trained very well. please give me technical help desk type questions.

Visit the Troubleshooting forum 

 

https://linustechtips.com/main/forum/46-troubleshooting/

[DirtyDane]

Just now, Spotty said:

Visit the Troubleshooting forum 

 

https://linustechtips.com/main/forum/46-troubleshooting/

Forgot about that, I will look there as well

[TrigrH]

39 minutes ago, DirtyDane said:

I've got an interview coming up for my first position out of college. It will be a support technician sort of as a generalist for users within the business. 

 

So I want to sharpen my troubleshooting skills that I admittedly feel I have not trained very well. please give me technical help desk type questions.

 

I will respond with what comes to mind as things to check or how I would approach solving it. If you could then respond with things I may have missed or might have gotten wrong please let me know. 

a user complains that they dont have network access on their office pc, what steps do you take?

[Arika]

5 minutes ago, TrigrH said:

a user complains that they dont have network access on their office pc, what steps do you take?

install adobe reader on their PC

[DirtyDane]

1 hour ago, TrigrH said:

a user complains that they dont have network access on their office pc, what steps do you take?

My first step would be to make sure that the Ethernet is firmly plugged into the port and that the cable isn't damaged on the users end. From there I would disable and renable the network adapter and make sure that a static IP wasn't set accidentally somehow. Additionally releasing and renewing the lease on the users address is a possible solution depending on what i see. And of course the tried and true, turn it off and on again. 

 

Those are the first things that come to mind. 

[DirtyDane]

1 hour ago, Arika S said:

install adobe reader on their PC

Then install McAfee

[TrigrH]

3 minutes ago, DirtyDane said:

My first step would be to make sure that the Ethernet is firmly plugged into the port and that the cable isn't damaged on the users end. From there I would disable and renable the network adapter and make sure that a static IP wasn't set accidentally somehow. Additionally releasing and renewing the lease on the users address is a possible solution depending on what i see. And of course the tried and true, turn it off and on again. 

 

Those are the first things that come to mind. 

you'll be fine

 

Attempt to connect remotely first.

 

Make sure there is light activity on the NIC.

 

i wouldn't worry about release and renew, but what u can do is make sure its set to DHCP run ipconfig /all and make sure its getting the right IP.

[DirtyDane]

2 minutes ago, TrigrH said:

you'll be fine

 

Attempt to connect remotely first.

 

Make sure there is light activity on the NIC.

 

i wouldn't worry about release and renew, but what u can do is make sure its set to DHCP run ipconfig /all and make sure its getting the right IP.

Thanks

[Nebari]

if I might ask, what's the business type (Education / Construction / Financial, etc) and what's the user population like? (Teachers / Workmen / Office staff, etc)

 

Can give you some better focused questions if we have an idea of what you're walking into.

[DirtyDane]

2 hours ago, Nebari said:

if I might ask, what's the business type (Education / Construction / Financial, etc) and what's the user population like? (Teachers / Workmen / Office staff, etc)

 

Can give you some better focused questions if we have an idea of what you're walking into.

The company has to do with providing an equipment service to its customers but my clients will be all within company. 

[Nebari]

<taps finger>

 

Network related issues are a good place to start, like TrigrH started with. The most common issues you're likely to see are going to be:

• Network
  • Is it the OS? (Network settings what they're supposed to be?)
  • is it the NIC (Are the lights blinking?)
  • Is the the cable? (Get a spare to check with)
  • Is there an point of failure between the computer and the wall? (8-port switch? VoIP Phone?)
  • Is it the network drop? (Anything else work on the same drop?)
• Printing
  • I printed but nothing happened!
    • Got the right drivers?
    • Print spooler stuck?
    • Connecting via IP / Queue on a print server / Cloud printing?
    • You sure you're printing to the right printer?
    • Is it DNS?
  • How do I install my printer?
    • Drivers
    • IP / Print Queue / Cloud?
• I forgot my password!
  • Process for password resets vary. Would be good to ask the interviewer what their policy is for password resets.
• Email
  • Why isn't my email showing up?!
  • Exchange? Google?
  • Someone change their password but Outlook still has the old password cached?
  • Mobile App settings incorrect?

 

Specific "How do you fix ________ ?" questions they may ask you aside, the major two things that an IT department worth its salt will be looking for are an applicant's Soft Skills and their level of customer interaction.

• Leadership - Can you lead and mentor others within your team?
  • Something as simple as finding a solution for a super weird problem and then documenting the fix to share with the team.
• Teamwork - How can you work within a team? Do you know when to utilize the resources and strengths of your team members?
  • "I don't know the answer to your question, but I've escalated it to the right person so we can resolve your issue quickly."
• Communication - How well can you communicate with both the tech savvy and the not-so-tech-savvy?
  • How do you explain what an IP address is to your Grandmother? (I've used the analogy of a letter going through a Post Office with fairly good success)
• Problem Solving
  • What's your troubleshooting process?
  • Example, one interview I had they asked me "you walk into your house and the lights aren't turning on. What do you do next?" (hint: "I get my baseball bat" may get you creativity points or a really worried look. Also, never overlook something stupidly simple like "does the house next door have power?". It's the simple things that will get you.)
• Adaptability
  • The day will come when half the staff will respond to a phishing email. You'll have to be able to switch from what may have started out as a low-key day of rolling out new computers to a high-stress, fast-paced all-hands-on-deck to help contain the issue, secure user accounts, and get them on the phone to reset their passwords asap.

And the biggest one for last:

• Hospitality-class Customer Service
  • User comes in screaming at you because after they sent their login credentials to Not-Actually-Their-Boss, they can't use the VPN, get to their Email, their bank just notified them that their checking account was just emptied, they have a presentation in 5 minutes, and clearly you are personally to blame because "why isn't IT blocking this stuff?! Don't you know what the <expletive of choice> you're doing!!?!". Are you able to stand there with the poise and patience of 5-star hotel desk agent, know that the user is just freaking and they need someone other than themselves to blame, let them have their rage moment, and then calmly let them know, "yes, this is a terrible thing. Our Information Security / System Admin / etc team is working on the issue as we speak. Here's what we need to do to get you back up and running again"?
  • In most cases, the user isn't going to care about anything other than "what's the next step to make this right again?" and you are the lucky one they grabbed.

 

Hopefully that should give you an idea of what to expect. Only other thing I can think of is to ask really good questions like:

• What's your environment like (Apple / WIndows)?
• What's your user-base like?
• How many machines are in the environment?
• How do you handle repairs (in-house or out-sourced)?
• How big is the support team?
• Can I see your team's work environment? (Depending on security, they may or may not allow it but you may get points for asking)
• What are some of the major issues you're dealing with today?
• What projects are your team currently working on?

 

 

 

 

[DirtyDane]

15 hours ago, Nebari said:

<taps finger>

 

Network related issues are a good place to start, like TrigrH started with. The most common issues you're likely to see are going to be:

• Network
  • Is it the OS? (Network settings what they're supposed to be?)
  • is it the NIC (Are the lights blinking?)
  • Is the the cable? (Get a spare to check with)
  • Is there an point of failure between the computer and the wall? (8-port switch? VoIP Phone?)
  • Is it the network drop? (Anything else work on the same drop?)
• Printing
  • I printed but nothing happened!
    • Got the right drivers?
    • Print spooler stuck?
    • Connecting via IP / Queue on a print server / Cloud printing?
    • You sure you're printing to the right printer?
    • Is it DNS?
  • How do I install my printer?
    • Drivers
    • IP / Print Queue / Cloud?
• I forgot my password!
  • Process for password resets vary. Would be good to ask the interviewer what their policy is for password resets.
• Email
  • Why isn't my email showing up?!
  • Exchange? Google?
  • Someone change their password but Outlook still has the old password cached?
  • Mobile App settings incorrect?

 

Specific "How do you fix ________ ?" questions they may ask you aside, the major two things that an IT department worth its salt will be looking for are an applicant's Soft Skills and their level of customer interaction.

• Leadership - Can you lead and mentor others within your team?
  • Something as simple as finding a solution for a super weird problem and then documenting the fix to share with the team.
• Teamwork - How can you work within a team? Do you know when to utilize the resources and strengths of your team members?
  • "I don't know the answer to your question, but I've escalated it to the right person so we can resolve your issue quickly."
• Communication - How well can you communicate with both the tech savvy and the not-so-tech-savvy?
  • How do you explain what an IP address is to your Grandmother? (I've used the analogy of a letter going through a Post Office with fairly good success)
• Problem Solving
  • What's your troubleshooting process?
  • Example, one interview I had they asked me "you walk into your house and the lights aren't turning on. What do you do next?" (hint: "I get my baseball bat" may get you creativity points or a really worried look. Also, never overlook something stupidly simple like "does the house next door have power?". It's the simple things that will get you.)
• Adaptability
  • The day will come when half the staff will respond to a phishing email. You'll have to be able to switch from what may have started out as a low-key day of rolling out new computers to a high-stress, fast-paced all-hands-on-deck to help contain the issue, secure user accounts, and get them on the phone to reset their passwords asap.

And the biggest one for last:

• Hospitality-class Customer Service
  • User comes in screaming at you because after they sent their login credentials to Not-Actually-Their-Boss, they can't use the VPN, get to their Email, their bank just notified them that their checking account was just emptied, they have a presentation in 5 minutes, and clearly you are personally to blame because "why isn't IT blocking this stuff?! Don't you know what the <expletive of choice> you're doing!!?!". Are you able to stand there with the poise and patience of 5-star hotel desk agent, know that the user is just freaking and they need someone other than themselves to blame, let them have their rage moment, and then calmly let them know, "yes, this is a terrible thing. Our Information Security / System Admin / etc team is working on the issue as we speak. Here's what we need to do to get you back up and running again"?
  • In most cases, the user isn't going to care about anything other than "what's the next step to make this right again?" and you are the lucky one they grabbed.

 

Hopefully that should give you an idea of what to expect. Only other thing I can think of is to ask really good questions like:

• What's your environment like (Apple / WIndows)?
• What's your user-base like?
• How many machines are in the environment?
• How do you handle repairs (in-house or out-sourced)?
• How big is the support team?
• Can I see your team's work environment? (Depending on security, they may or may not allow it but you may get points for asking)
• What are some of the major issues you're dealing with today?
• What projects are your team currently working on?

 

 

 

 

This is a really helpful list thank you for that.

[Nebari]