RE: [ActiveDir] OT: Interview Techniques

[Brian Desmond]

Oh usually folks stumble all over and give me some bs about how they’re a committed team player. I’ve had that exchange three or four times interviewing people for this one project.   Metadata cleanup is a midlevel question.   Senior level questions … I like quizzing people a bit more indepth about FSMO roles – importance of the different ones, what happens if certain ones are offline. I sometimes ask when I might want a shortcut trust, asking how do I figure out how much memory I should put in a GC is fun, estimating DIT size…I like questions where they’re open ended and you have to talk your way through here. Replication questions I usually just make some stuff up on the fly and let them deal with whatever I’ve made up. The worst is when I have a problem with my scenario and they figure it out <g>.   I’ve been focusing more on Exchange candidates lately … asking some eseutl questions like how can I figure out the state of my database (eseutil /mh) and how you would deal with different states is one of my favorites. Asking about disk i/o configs is fun too.   A lot of times I just make it up as I go based on the resume – I really don’t care how good you actually are if I can work with you and like your personality. Sometimes I’m a total asshole if I think the resume is some hotshot dude who claims 13 years of experience with <insert blah here> and he’s an expert with <insert blah here>. I got a resume from some guy who claimed 8 years of expert level experience with Cisco Switches and Routers or some such bs on the first page of his resume so the very first thing I asked him was to explain to me the function of the TCAM table on a layer 3 switch and could he tell me the width of each entry (168 bits), and finally could he explain to me what would happen if I had too many ACLs which utilized port ranges. “Uh that’s not related to this job”…”No but it’s on your resume and you’re an expert so you should be able to tell me all about it right?”.   Thanks, Brian Desmond [EMAIL PROTECTED]   c - 312.731.3132   From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of mike kline Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 1:16 AM To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org Subject: Re: [ActiveDir] OT: Interview Techniques   Brian,   That was a good story, very funny.  So what did the guy do? Did he just get up and leave?  I know from reading your posts you are usually straight and to the point. I would be sweating if I had to interview with you.   Going off course a bit.  What are some types of AD questions that you all consider to be "senior level"?   For example what if you ask someone how to do a metadata cleanup?  Would you all consider that to be a mid level question?   Just wondering because I always grapple trying to figure out questions for the mid vs. senior level candidate.           On 7/23/06, Brian Desmond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I've got no second thoughts about being an asshole during a tech interview. I ask the question, you either answer it or tell me you don't know. If you choose not to tell me you don't know and demonstrate that you don't know through what you tell me instead, I'm already pretty much through. If you're arrogant like this candidate you describe, I'm likely through as well. My favorite exchange as of late goes like this: Me - Tell me a little bit about your experience migrating Exchange 5.5 orgs to 2003 Them - blah blah blah Me - Ok, can you name the three types of connection agreements in the ADC? Them - well uh blah blah well uh excuse excuse Me - other questions Me - So would you be comfortable migrating a 10K user 5.5 org to 2003? Them - Absolutely Me - How can you be comfortable doing that when you can't even explain the first step of the migration to me? In any case, others have put some really good advice here. What you want in a technical lead is someone who can get their hands dirty without getting scared or screwing up. They should also have no second thoughts about delegating work and asking their subordinates for help. That person needs to be able to deal with upper management, and they also need to make sure their self esteem is in check - none of that "I did X" when all they did is watch. Hiring your new manager can be a little difficult on both sides from the point of view of why wasn't someone on your team promoted to that position? Thanks, Brian Desmond [EMAIL PROTECTED] c - 312.731.3132 > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:ActiveDir- > [EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Matheesha Weerasinghe > Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2006 11:11 AM > To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org > Subject: [ActiveDir] OT: Interview Techniques > > All > > I am currently in the process of interviewing job candidates who if > successful will become my boss ;-) Basically the manager who will be > his boss has asked me to do the technical side of the interview and > check if the candidates are OK. I've had the "pleasure" of interviewing > 2 so far and they were pretty weak technically. I am not sure if I have > been spoilt by the creme-de-la-creme here but I did check them a little > thoroughly especially with the candidate who was bold enough to mention > under key skills "very strong knowledge of windows 2000/2003 Active > Directory". > > Now I am definitely no expert, but if someone is bold enough to claim > that, he better not buckle up under pressure and reply that the > questions I am asking are only worthy knowledge to those working at > Microsoft. > And this is the reply I got when I asked him what the FSMO roles did. > Actually, I got a little miffed as the guys had the audacity to demand > pretty much twice the pay I am getting and were paper MCSE's. > > The feedback we received from the candidates afterwards said the > interview style was ..... > aggressive. > > So, my question to you guys is, if you interviewing someone for a > Windows tech-lead position (with focus on AD), how technical would you > want him to be? This is a guy who would be steering the design of an > infrastructure to support tens of thousands of users. > > Cheers > > Mudha > {Newbie AD Guru wannabe ;0) } > > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > List info   : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx > List FAQ    : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx > List archive: http://www.activedir.org/ml/threads.aspx List info   : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ    : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.activedir.org/ml/threads.aspx