Interview Questions

  1. Why do you want to work here?
    I believe that my training, skills, and personality are a very good match for this position, and I am excited about the possibility of my working with this company.
  2. Why should we hire you?
    You should hire me because I am capable of handling this position, and I think this is the right position for me. I am capable of working without supervision. I am also a trustworthy individual with a good personality.
  3. What do you enjoy most about your current job?
    I really enjoyed the working with a competent IT team and the challenges that were involved. Anything from trying to figure out Windows 7 problem to setting up a new server.
  4. What do you enjoy least about your current job?
    Having to go through our outsource partner for every little thing. For example setting up new PC took on the average over a week. Which could normally take a day or less.
  5. What can you do that other candidates cannot?
    I am very technically minded AND a great communicator.
  6. What type of people do you like to be around?
    On a personal level, I enjoy all types of people. On a professional level, I have respect for all individuals that work hard and maintain a professional work environment. Provided both of those are met, I will always get along with my coworkers without any personal disagreement.”
  7. What types of people annoy you most?
    I don't really have a pet peeve, since people are created different from one another. If I get annoyed with something, I back up a little bit, and try to understand the situation.
  8. What do you expect from your employer?
    I expect to be provided with an environment of opportunity in which hard work and achievement are rewarded. I expect my employer to provide me with the assets I need to get my assignments done on time.
  9. What would your previous supervisor say your weaknesses are?
    He did not mention any weaknesses in my last review but he has requested before that I speak up more during meetings. I felt that I had good ideas but there were occasions that I would simply let the other staff members talk, and my supervisor would prefer that I feel myself more welcome to contribute my thoughts on current projects. Since then I have been working on speaking up more during brainstorming sessions.
  10. What would you say are your weaknesses?
    When I’ve been faced with multiple projects of equal priority that competed for my time and attention, I had occasionally let details fall through the cracks. Because of this, I’ve become a notes person. I write *everything* down, and then I review the lists to make sure things get done in a timely manner. Also routine work is a weakness. I am a hands-on IT professional who enjoys solving hardware and software problems. I think doing the same thing all the time is a little boring but that’s human nature.
  11. What are your major strengths?
    My time management skills are excellent and I'm organized, efficient, and take pride in excelling at my work. I am good at technical problem solving when it comes to PC’s and equipment. I pride myself on my customer service skills and my ability to resolve what could be difficult situations.
  12. What are your employment goals for the next few years?
    For the next few years, I need to be the best caregiver I can for my family. Having a job so that I can contribute to their well being will help me to achieve that important goal.
  13. What are your employment goals for the next 6 months, 1-3, 5-10 years?
    I am prepared to work hard and learn as much as I can in order to do my best. I expect to get on well with my colleagues and will take their advice and benefit from their experience. Also, I want to make sure that I am aware of the current news and advancements in our field so I will try and stay updated in every possible way. I am definitely not afraid of work nor new challenges". Eventually it would be nice to work more with networks. This would relate to some of my on the job training and my MSCE certification.
  14. What motivates you to do a better job?
    Recognition by my supervisor and team and also the positive feeling that comes with achieving my work goals. The pressure to meet SLA’s and deadlines and maintaining my families well being.
  15. Tell me about yourself. What do you do?
    I am a disciplined and very productive individual who meets deadlines consistently. I am a logical problem solver who works well in a team environment. In addition, I am a broad-minded cost-conscious manager with experience in working with outsource partners and technicians for roll outs. I am also a results-oriented organizer who is driven and adaptable.
  16. What is your ideal position?
    What do you really want to do? I am looking for a position where I could apply my extensive experience to maintain a company’s IT Networks. Additionally I could set up wireless routers and networks and assist with client and server hardware and software support.
  17. What do you need from an organization to feel motivated?
    Recognition from my supervisor and room for advancement.
  18. What type of leader do you consider yourself to be?
    I consider myself to be a collaborator. I work best under this kind of leadership also. When I have to, I will direct.
  19. Why did you leave your last job?
    The company made a business decision to consolidate business operations. This effected 10% of workers at all levels and departments including my own. So now I am looking for new challenges.
  20. What three things will you not do on your next job?
    Take my job for granted which for the last decade I have not, not be respectful to anyone and not work up to my full potential everyday.
  21. What is the most creative thing you have done in a past job?
    I determined after a half of week of Emery's phones being out due to the call center being down and not receiving the properly educated technicians or support. I downloaded with the proper credentials the disk diagnostics tool for linux on the Cisco call center. I repaired the corupted files with it and made the sure the RAID was activated in the server and the phones were back up.
  22. What does customer service mean to you in this role?
    Customer service is my ability to supply the customers' wants and needs. Some aspects of effective customer service are: * knowing your customers' needs; delivering superior service; and following up.
  23. What have you done to organize others?
    I have setup a database to keep track of daily activities including submitting requests and incidents and repairing equipment. This way we could keep track of our assets and work.
  24. How can a supervisor or assistant help you reach your goals?
    By giving me recognition, and set clear performance expectations.
  25. How will working for us help you achieve your goals?
    I will have a set of daily expectations and miscellaneous tasks or projects that I will complete to let me achieve success and recognition to meet my goals.
  26. How do you handle instructions that you do not agree with?
    My response and handling of the instructions would matter on the severity of the situation. If the situation was not severe I would comply with the instruction even though I don’t agree with it because it could make matters worse. However, if you foresee a very serious problem that will result from following a wrong instruction, then I would tell the person who gave me the wrong instructions that it is wrong.
  27. How do you handle a variety of projects at the same time?
    Write down many notes and keep track of everything. I need to be extremely organized with multiple projects.
  28. How are you at offering and taking constructive criticism?
    I welcome it because I learn where some of my weak areas are and what needs to be improved.
  29. How long will it take you to become a contributor?
    Right away.
  30. How do you monitor the progress of assignments and projects?
    Normally I would enter my work progress into a incident tracking system. I put my work into a database to keep track of everything.
  31. How do you know you are doing a good job?
    When I meet my expected goals whether it’s SLA’s or a certain percentage of down time for various equipment. Also recognition by superiors.
  32. Do you prefer to work alone or with a group?
    Honestly it’s nice to do both and be balanced.
  33. In what ways would you change your last job?
    Change the way our outsource partner completed requests. It too way too long to some tasks. British Telecom took up two weeks to move a port into the correct VLAN.
  34. In a past job, what created stress for you? Why?
    I thinks were not completed properly after a request or incident said it was closed. I had to call and email Computacenter and make sure things were done.
  35. In your previous jobs, what kept you from coming to work for a day or longer?
    My basement flooded. We had a baby girl and funerals. Otherwise I have never missed a day for illness.
  36. Give me an example of a difficult decision you had to make at your last job. How did you solve it?
    When I went to a hotel because one of our sale people could not connect to VPN they were very angry. They were yelling and taking the problem out on me. I made sure a made a cautious decision not to snap back and try to let him know I was here to help him and solve the problem. I contacted the person who was in charge of IT for the hotel and gave him the MAC address for sale persons laptop. This way he could add the MAC to the hotels router and the sales person could access the Internet successfully.
  37. Describe a busy day at your last job. How do you organize a day like that?
    I would come in and the first thing I would do would be to check my email, incident and request systems and address any current issues. This could take a few minutes to several hours depending on the severity of the problem. I would then go to a 10:00 meeting with our IT Global supervisor in Germany for an hour and talk about current issues. Afterwards I submitted the needed requests for new employees, terminations, network drive requests etc. In the afternoon I would work on distributing the laptop locks through out the plant and make sure the user’s sign off that they received the locks. Frequently a PC would have a hardware or software related issue or a monitor would go bad and I would make sure they get taken care of.
  38. Tell me about a time when a friend, relative, or coworker asked you to do something which you felt uncomfortable doing from an ethical standpoint.
    It has never happened
  39. Why did you leave Cognis?
    The department was consolidated and the company decided to outsource the IT operations to Computacenter of Germany. This effected 75% of the position at all levels of IT including mine.
  40. Why did you leave Compucom?
    I left because the contracted ended successfully and the Cognis/BASF building was closing in Cincinnati.
Author
bwbarnes50
ID
143524
Card Set
Interview Questions
Description
Questions For Interviewing
Updated