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Questions for Entry Level PC Techs?
Rick Zeman asks: "For the first time ever, I have to interview and hire (I'm not management, so an exception is being made) what we call a 'PC Technician', which is an entry-level IT person. While actual computer knowledge and how we do things can be taught, how to think, and the aptitude for troubleshooting can't be. In the readers' experiences, what are the best (legal in the US!) questions to ask an entry-level candidate to really evaluate them? They don't have the resumes, the skills, or the experience yet, so I think they have to be judged on other factors that are harder to qualify."
Dont worry about the technical skills, you can teach them that. Responsibility, problem solving, and ability to learn along with social skills are more important and will lead you to a candidate that you can teach to do what you need.
Give them a rather nasty technical question, even something that is beyond your experience or is totally made up (SQL Server on Slackware 4). Instead of asking them for an answer ask what steps they would take to find the answer. An entry level anything is going to have to learn a lot on the job.
Entry level implies that you want someone who can grow, so try and find out where they started and how they got there. Should show you a little about their learning style and curve.
The rookies will also run into situations that they haven't been trained for. You need to see if they can step through it and get a partial solution before going up a level and that in the interest of customer service they can recognize when they're getting in too deep and need some help.
They don't have the resumes, the skills, or the experience yet, so I think they have to be judged on other factors that are harder to qualify.
I tried to think of a good answer, and had decided on "fix this PC" (where it has some glaringly obvious problem that should take any decent tech under five minutes to find and fix, such as a dead HDD), but then re-read the part I quote above...
What requirements does this job have, that you expect applicants lacking the skills and experience to do the job?
I would agree completely that overall familiarity with PC architecture and problem solving skills in general matter far more than having the LED error codes for a Dell Dimension 4300s memorized - But it sounds like you expect to not only interview, but hire, completely clueless individuals.
At the very least, you should have no trouble finding people who can demonstrate simple tasks such as installing RAM or setting up a modem connection on XP. Don't settle for less in the hope that you can train someone up the level of basic competency the job demands.
Unless, of course, you plan to have these people do nothing but take calls and read scripts - In which case, for all our sakes, just make sure they can read and speak reasonably clear English. Although that particular "test" would probably break the law, you can easily give it in a roundabout way that answers the question without raising any eyebrows.
1. What is the Device Manager and how do you access it? 2. What are the differences between IDE and SATA? 3. What is the process of installing Windows XP on a blank hard drive? 4. What is Safe Mode? 5. What does RAID stand for? 6. Why should a PC tech wear an anti-static wristband? 7. How do you reinstall a printer driver? 8. What is POST? 9. How do you access "msconfig" and why would you use "msconfig"? 10. How do you change the screen resolution?
Anyone who wants to be a PC tech should be able to answer at least 8 of these questions. You can train them, but they must have some basic knowledge. For entry level tech guidelines, I would consult an A+ certification guide. In fact, you should buy (at company expense) an A+ certification guide and use questions from there. After you hire one of the applicants, give them the guide as a reference for their job. You did say they were entry level after all.
Most people that interview with me hate me for it - but in return I've yet to hire someone who didn't do a good job...
You first ask a few simple questions so they relax a little - repeat that if they don't know its alright - just say how you would figure it out... Then you move on to questions you're certain they don't know... and ask how they would troubleshoot it. There are always the basics - like ask the user when this first happens, ask exactly what is slow and so on - that shows how they go about a new problem - and in the end, that's what matters. Don't go by how correct their answers are - but how they answer it. If they try to BS their way around it. If they admit they don't know or if they come up with a million different answers. You want the ones that come up with many different things - even if many of them are wrong - it proves that they have the right attitude.
Peter.
You are correct, computer knowledge and how things are done in your organization can and should be taught. This means that the individual you are going to hire needs to have a good work ethic, troubleshooting skills, and have excellent customer service skills. This individual is going to be the physical representation of the IT department for the majority of the company. You want someone who is going to come off as courteous, intelligent, and hard-working.
What questions you ask are not as important as how the candidate answers the question. Are they confident of the answer they provide? Are they too serious, or are they friendly in their interview? Are they able to create a rapport with you during your conversation? Do they come across as someone who knows what they are talking about? Would you want this person to represent your department to all the other employees in the company?
I haven't lost my mind!
It is backed up on disk...somewhere...
Ask them the same question six times during an interview, pretending each time to not understand the answer - that'll give them an idea of what support is like.
I've had to interview folks for this position several times. The most important thing to me is that they don't create more work for me than they'll unload off of me.
I like to (in sight of the candidate) create a new account and login under that account. Then I reach back and unplug the keyboard right in front of them. "Can you browse to www.cnn.com now?" is the question after that setup.
The correct answer is for the tech to reach to plug the keyboard back in or ask if they can. That's full credit there. Tell them that, and then ask them if they can think of any other ways. Since its a new account it won't be in the browser history -- but seeing them check is extra credit. Finding a textfile and copy/pasting the characters out of it or using charmap is also good for extra credit, along with a remote desktop connection, ... (as an interesting side-note I developed this test before being assigned a Pri1/Sev1/Blocking bug by an overzealous tester at Microsoft which I root-caused as her unplugging her keyboard cable).
For my second question I like to (again, in plain view of the technician) edit the boot.ini file on a system in such a way that it rendered unbootable. Then shutdown/restart, and ask them how they'd fix it. Yank the HD and put it in another machine, alternate boot media, ...
If there's any chance they'll ever work on hardware set them up in front of a junk PC (make sure it's an easy one to take apart/put together -- not some obscure system of latches to get the case off -- they can learn about those guys on the job and should not be graded on never having opened some vendor-specific box). Tell them to pretend that the simple NIC on the table is a prototype board the developers need installed, and as such is very expensive. Ask them to handle the physical install of the card, and talk you through what they're doing. The big thing is they should either ask for a static strap or mention that "it's just pretend so I'm going to just ground myself to the chassis before I pick up the card..."
If your entry level tech can get full credit on all of these they're probably safe to turn lose without supervision. Partial credit for good attempts and thinking aloud about the problem (ask them to when you give them these problems) should mean they need a minimum of supervision. If they bomb out on all three then they need a babysitter and you should probably move on to the next candidate since they're gonna break more than they fix.
I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
- Do you have a PC at home? More than one PC? Did you assemble your PCs yourself?
- Do you have a laptop? Have you ever serviced its interior yourself?
BUT take care not to fall into the Expert Junior Trap: Companies look for talent, they find the talent and hire it to a junior position, but leave the talent in their junior position for months or even years. In the end the talent gets mad from boredom and does one of the following things:- Learn slacking skills to avoid the boring work and do something else with their 9-5 time instead, like e.g. contributing to open-source. This is common among underpaid or demotivated expert-junior staff (they would resign professionally if the company were paying them enough). Sometimes the expert-juniors may try to communicate their thoughts to the management in various ways, but they get either ridiculed or ignored.
- Resign or cause you to fire them and get a better position elsewhere or start their own company.
- Leave their brain at the gate at 9am and regain it at 5pm, usually for contributing to open-source.
Employers must understand this expert-junior complex and deal with it. Someone with no work experience, even without a degree, may be more skilled than their managers. Also note that the performance of an employee at work depends on pay, the other employees and managers, position, expectations, economic level, and the presence competitors in the job market. Even if they don't show their expert self at work, they may be experts in their own projects where they are intrisically motivated. The management must seek to create such an atmosphere where employees, even junior ones, can be intrinsically motivated to do their job. (BTW I study for an MSc in Management, including a good amount of HRM)First I ask them to name the parts of a PC (I'll ask specifically about the power button next time :-). I wanted to hear things like hard drive, CD-ROM, CPU, RAM, video card, etc. If they can't name the parts, it shows insufficient interest in the field. If they they get this pretty well, I ask them to name a few different types of CPU, RAM and Video cards. Once again, good answers show interest and enthusiasm.
:-) Once again, you can tell by how they answer these questions what their level of enthusiasm is for the work. I don't look for all the right answers as much as I look for them showing they've taken the time to learn some stuff on their own with the tools they've had on hand.
Then I move onto buses. Most newbies will look at you funny because they don't know the term "bus", but that doesn't mean they don't know what a bus is good for. If I have to, I'll give them a simple explanation like, "They're the systems that let you expand the PC by allowing different parts talk to each other. For example, the IDE bus will let your hard drive talk to the rest of the computer." A bright guy will usually catch on and mention the AGP or PCI-E buses because he probably expanded his video card. They'll usually get the PCI and SATA buses too, and might refer to the IDE/ATA as PATA if they're especially young. For some reason, a lot of guys miss the USB, even though "Bus" is right there in the acronym. I think it's because they're thinking of buses as being inside the case only. For this reason, if they get USB I usually give them extra points for "thinking outside the box" (couldn't resist
I then go on to networking. I have them draw a simple network on the white board consisting of a server, a workstation a network printer and any other equipment they think is necessary to get them all to work together. They should show network cables going to a switch or hub. Wireless is also an acceptable answer. This shows me several things. Do they understand that there's a piece of centralized networking equipment involved? Can they take direction to do a simple task? Can they effectively communicate data to another team members? I've had coworkers who questioned this interview technique because they think the question is too simple. It doesn't seem possible that anyone could get this wrong. They were amazed to see so many candidates that couldn't handle this request, even going so far as to make wild networks with ring topologies or multiple routers. I had one guy draw a line from the workstation to a small box. When I asked him about it, he said "it plugs into the wall." I actually gave him credit for this (it was a tough call) because he said that that was his only exposure to networking instead of making something up. It's also increadible the number of candidates that blow this one just from giving pushback about getting up out of their chair to "work."
As far as technical aptitude is concerned, understanding their PC and simple networking shows that they care about computer equipment. Actual brilliance with technical stuff is difficult to gauge, so knowing they've taken the time to learn their way around the stuff they already have at home is sometimes all you can get. I've found these people tend to pick up on new concepts rather easily.
Communicating effectively both to and from other team members usually makes for a good employee that will learn rapidly because they know how to make the most of their relationships with people that know more than them. It also tends to show that they're more likely to get along with the staff in general.
TW
I have to agree and to disagree with you.
Yes, certificates aren't everything. In fact, i don't think they have much value (though i have my share of them, as long as my current employer pays for all the expenses).
However, there are a few things which you seem to forget:
* People entering the IT industry don't know professional IT yet
They have built their own PCs. Fine. But in a corporate, professional setting, you don't build your own PCs. You don't build your own servers. And the "why" is what people entering the industry have to learn (sometimes painfully so).
* People entering the IT industry won't be the "know it all" anymore
Most people with a serious interest into it, were the one with the most knowledge in their circle of influence. When entering the IT industry, that's usually no longer the case. Even if you're socially top-notch, it will take some time to adjust to this change. If being social isn't your one of your primary advantages, it will take even more time.
* People entering the IT don't know lots of technology yet
You've built your private exchange server at home. It worked fine. Now you have 100 exchange servers, distributed across the globe. At home, you had your own domain. You experimented with Group Policies. It worked fine. Now you have 100 domain controllers, 10'000 clients, and 200 GPOs. Even if you understood the basic concepts, you will need to learn that with a different scale, there is a different responsibility.
In the end, even the most gifted child without a life will have to adjust to the pace of the company, and all its quirk. It takes time.
And most people that are looking for an entry level pc tech job don't have the qualifications, nor the interest in the field. Weeding out the trash is the difficult part of doing job interviews.