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."

Comments

Re:Good Starter

[Total_Wimp]

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.

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 :-) 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.

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