Well, I think some of the ones I mentioned are alright. It depends if
you're hiring tech support or a network engineer but for mid-level
tech support/pseudo engineer type role I'd ask things like:
What is a subnet mask?
If they got that one.. what is a /29 subnet mask?
If I told you a subnet was 192.168.10.0/25, what is the network and
broadcast IP? Name one usable IP in this range.
Usually lets you know if they understand subnetting. I've had people
break out pencil and paper and do it binary style - at least they
know how but lets you know they learned it in a book, they don't do
it regularly. Not good or bad just useful info.
The NAT/port forwarding one I mentioned earlier I always found
useful, lets you know how their brain works when troubleshooting. You
could probably expand this to wireless (you put up an access point,
connected user has 4 bars, next day they have 2 bars, how would you
start troubleshooting?)
I always liked the situational ones because anyone can memorize how
to subnet but what you really want is someone with a good logical
brain for solving problems.
I used to ask some about ports (e.g. what port does SMTP run on, what
protocol typically runs on port 110), I'd ask things like 'how do you
see the status of all OSPF neighbors in a Cisco router', maybe not so
important if you don't use Cisco gear but you can ask general
questions in that case (what does cost do in an OSPF, for example.)
How would you identify/troubleshoot a speed/duplex problem on an
Ethernet interface.. describe how you'd make an Ethernet cable (bonus
points if they know T-568A and B but who cares, really, it's more
about if they know how and they can tell you.. double bonus if they
end with 'and then I get out my tester and make sure the cable is
good before I plug it in').. what is the difference between single
and multimode fiber..
Really, I just used to think about the things I used to have to deal
with on a daily basis and tried to construct scenarios out of them.
If I couldn't, I'd just ask a specific question. I will say, the
scenario type questions are by far the best. Someone who has done
their A+ might memorize a bunch of data but they can't always put it
into practice. So, I'd just lay out 10 problems you've had to solve
or try to brainstorm a few and write them down from simplest to
hardest. If they can't answer the first 2-3, you're probably done.
The NAT one was a good opener (web server on private IP, why can't
external access it, etc), I'd do some stuff like computer X is
plugged into a switch with an IP of 192.168.10.5, subnet mask
255.255.255.128, why can't he ping 192.168.10.253 255.255.255.128?
Throw a bunch of questions in the middle like 'what's your favorite
Android 'phone' or 'what video game did you last play' to keep them
loose and not too stressed out.
I used to have to do this a lot and I ended up winging it at the end
a lot of the time. Once you've done 20-30 interviews, you can figure
out someone's technical ability pretty quickly. The hard part is
figuring out if they are going to be a giant pain in the ass in 3 months.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From*: "Josh Luthman" <j...@imaginenetworksllc.com
<mailto:j...@imaginenetworksllc.com>>
*Sent*: Tuesday, February 28, 2012 5:18 PM
*To*: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org
<mailto:wireless@wispa.org>>
*Subject*: Re: [WISPA] New employee quiz
I agree on who to hire, but I don't have the brain to come up with
those questions to weed out the first set!
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 6:12 PM, Simon Westlake <si...@powercode.com
<mailto:si...@powercode.com>> wrote:
> I just dug for it, doesn't look like I kept it, sorry - it's probably
> languishing in a file cabinet in Milwaukee. I wrote it for TWC when I
> worked there since the HR interviews were generally things like 'Why do
> you like sunshine?' and 'What is your favorite color of hair?' so they
> kept hiring people who had 'good' resumes but zero actual knowledge.
>
> The funny thing there was that the kind of resumes I throw in the
> garbage here (skills: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Adobe Acrobat,
> Notepad, Calculator, Pacman, Windows Start Menu, JPEG, CPU,
> Keyboard/Mouse, etc) got through most of the screening there because
> they could check off 'Knows Microsoft Word, knows Pacman' and pass it on
> as a stellar resume. The guys who wrote things like 'Built a flux
> capacitor out of spare motherboards, constructed a satellite dish out of
> cardboard to watch Iranian TV, write assembly in the bathroom' never
> made it through because they didn't know Microsoft Word.
>
> So, I had to come up with something to screen out the first crowd and
> make sure the second were what they said they were. The stuff I said
> below was the gist of it, it was a mix of specific knowledge (e.g. what
> is a subnet mask) and situation based stuff (I can't remember the harder
> parts but the simpler stuff was things like 'Customer X has a router, we
> are giving them a public IP of 1.2.3.4, he has a web server behind the
> router that is set to 192.168.10.2. He can get to the server inside his
> network if he opens 192.168.10.2 in a web browser but nobody going to
> 1.2.3.4 can see the web page. Why?')
>
> If they made it through the first couple of pages, I had a harder sheet
> that I honestly don't remember much of but it was probably a mix to see
> where their skills lay (some routing protocol questions, probably some
> protocol specific/packet capturing type stuff for the troubleshooting
> scenarios, etc) along with some vendor specific stuff (how do you do X
> in a Cisco since we were a 100% Cisco shop). If they didn't make it
> through the first page, I just smiled, said thanks and everyone had an
> easier day.
>
> It worked pretty well apart from the fact that already nervous people
> would often have a meltdown if they flunked the first few questions. It
> was also a good way to know what peoples weak spots were if you did end
> up hiring them (e.g. they failed all the Cisco questions or they knew
> nothing about OSPF) but it was mostly just to get a good baseline on
> whether or not someone could do the job.
>
> Nowadays I end up hiring more based on aptitude, personality and desire
> to learn than anything else, knowledge isn't everything. Granted, if you
> are hiring a programmer, they need a certain level of knowledge but I'd
> rather have someone who has 75% of the knowledge and 150% of the
> attitude than vice versa. Hard thing to pick out a lot of the time
> though. I'm just waiting for someone to invent a robot that can write
> good code. When we hire for Powercode, I normally give people a couple
> of functions to write (e.g. write a recursive function that reverses a
> string and returns it) and see how they come to a conclusion and do some
> design exercises with them (lately we've been doing one based around
> building online card games.) Same kind of idea.. you might have a
> Bachelors in Software Development but if you can't write a recursive
> function to reverse a string, I don't really care.
>
> The TL;DR of this essay is that I hate hiring, it's a pain in the ass.
>
> On 2/28/2012 1:45 PM, Josh Luthman wrote:
>> Ooo care to share???
>>
>> Josh Luthman
>> Office: 937-552-2340
>> Direct: 937-552-2343
>> 1100 Wayne St
>> Suite 1337
>> Troy, OH 45373
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 2:35 PM, Simon Westlake<si...@powercode.com
<mailto:si...@powercode.com>> wrote:
>>> Are you looking for networking stuff, wireless stuff or both?
>>>
>>> I wrote one a while back that was mostly things like 'What is a
subnet mask'
>>> or 'What's the difference between an IP address and a MAC address?'
>>>
>>> A lot of the time people would get them wrong (depending on skill
level) but
>>> you could generally pick out the people who had a clue/had some
ability by
>>> their thought process in trying to figure it out if they didn't know.
>>>
>>>
>>> On 2/28/2012 9:46 AM, Andy Trimmell wrote:
>>>
>>> I found a decent website for online quizzes. Just looking to see
what kind
>>> of questions people would go with.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org
<mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org>
[mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On
>>> Behalf Of Josh Luthman
>>> Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2012 9:24 AM
>>> To: WISPA General List
>>> Subject: Re: [WISPA] New employee quiz
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Jay maybe?
>>>
>>> Josh Luthman
>>> Office: 937-552-2340
>>> Direct: 937-552-2343
>>> 1100 Wayne St
>>> Suite 1337
>>> Troy, OH 45373
>>>
>>> On Feb 28, 2012 9:15 AM, "Andy Trimmell"<atrimm...@precisionds.com
<mailto:atrimm...@precisionds.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I know a few months back someone was very happy with their online
quiz they
>>> had for new employees to take before interviewing them. They got
it from
>>> another WISP and was looking for the same thing. Looking to hire
someone
>>> else and need some kind of quiz to weed out the useless people for
the job.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Anyone know?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Andy Trimmell
>>>
>>> Network Administrator
>>>
>>> atrimm...@precisionds.com <mailto:atrimm...@precisionds.com>
>>>
>>> 317.831.3000 ext 211
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Wireless mailing list
>>> Wireless@wispa.org <mailto:Wireless@wispa.org>
>>> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Wireless mailing list
>>> Wireless@wispa.org <mailto:Wireless@wispa.org>
>>> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Simon Westlake
>>> Powercode.com <http://Powercode.com>
>>> (920) 351-1010
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Wireless mailing list
>>> Wireless@wispa.org <mailto:Wireless@wispa.org>
>>> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wireless mailing list
>> Wireless@wispa.org <mailto:Wireless@wispa.org>
>> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
>
> --
> Simon Westlake
> Powercode.com <http://Powercode.com>
> (920) 351-1010
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wireless mailing list
> Wireless@wispa.org <mailto:Wireless@wispa.org>
> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
_______________________________________________
Wireless mailing list
Wireless@wispa.org <mailto:Wireless@wispa.org>
http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
_______________________________________________
Wireless mailing list
Wireless@wispa.org <mailto:Wireless@wispa.org>
http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
