What to Expect During the Technical Interview

When you're interviewing for a technical position, you'll likely have one or more interviews where you'll specifically need to demonstrate your technical skills and knowledge. These interviews may take the form of technical troubleshooting scenarios or explanations of technical concepts and subjects. As we've said, you want to have a solid foundation for all the fundamental concepts. A good interviewer will push you to the limits of your knowledge. This means it's very likely that during an interview you'll reach a point where you're not sure you know the right answer, this is expected. But you shouldn't just say, "I don't know." If you were supporting a user, you wouldn't say it then either. It's okay to admit you're not sure, but you should then explain what you would do to find the answer. As an IT support specialist, you should expect to often face new and unfamiliar problems. Having a good problem solving strategy is more important than knowing all the answers. If the question you're answering is big and complex, outline how you'd break down the work needed to solve the problem before going into the exact details of what needs to be done. If you're thinking about what the best solution could be, share your train of thought with your interviewer so they can follow along. Thinking aloud not only helps the interviewer see your thought process, but it also helps you work through the problem. For example, if you get stuck with a technical troubleshooting scenario, you can try and recap what information you've gathered and state potential causes that can be ruled out with certainty and then try to figure out what info is still missing to rule out other causes. When you mention concepts or technologies, you should be ready to explain them and articulate why you might choose one thing over another. For instance, if you're working through a networking problem and say something like, the problem might be related to the DNS settings. Be ready to explain what DNS is, and why it relates to the issue. You should also clarify the questions constraints. Don't assume anything, it's okay and even expected to ask the interviewer follow up questions to ensure that the problem is correctly framed. Always use the data and evidence you have from the interviewer to inform your next steps. For example, if you need to solve a problem about a user being unable to connect to an internal system, you should ask follow up questions like, what operating system the user is using, how their computer is supposed to connect to the network, what error messages they are getting, whether other users are affected? Your goal is to narrow the scope to find the root cause. If the question is very complex, it might become difficult to follow or explain the solution. In this case, it's useful to take notes and use diagrams to illustrate the problem. You can use this process when it makes sense. It doesn't mean you need to write everything down during an interview. Sometimes the answer is straight forward and you can just go ahead and explain it without writing anything down.