Job Interview. advice please

Diagro

Diagro

Diagro

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3 Jun 2012
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Hi GD.

I have an interview at a school this friday, for the role of ICT Technician.

Simple enough job, but i haven't actually had a real interview before, I'm up against two other candidates for the job.

I have to have a personal interview with the head and head of ICT and also a 30 min support role in an IT lesson.

I'm after any sort of advice to be able to stand out vs they other two candidates.

I have a bunch of decent qualifications.. G NVQ iT, b- tec games design, degree in robotics and range of GCSEs.... They only asked that the applicant have GCSES and knowlage of IT.

is there anything i need to touch up on in case i get the odd technical question?
What do the young people do in IT these days? Is it simply office or are they more involved now???

Any advice will be appreciated as I would very much like to get out of the crap place I work atnow.

Thanks
 
Brush up on your basic IT knowledge, as I would expect them to ask some fairly redundant questions such as 'What does HTML stand for?' Managers tend to do this because they don't know very much and what they do know became obsolete years ago. But they'll remember what HTML or DCHP stands for and they'd consider it fairly poor form if you didn't.

Beyond that, look at some interview questions for IT roles (Google) and walk through in your head how you'd answer them.
 
I wouldn't worry about the IT knowledge side of it, it'll be very basic stuff which you'll almost certainly know straight away with half an hour's worth of brushing up. It'll be along the lines of resetting passwords, what is DHCP, DNS, what would you do first if a PC won't turn on etc.

It's the "HR" side that gets people, i.e. your people skills, communication skills, phone manner, "winning attitude" etc. Research these types of questions on the net and memorise the buzzwords, then get someone to hold a mock interview with you so you can practice giving the answers concisely and articulately.
 
LOL at IT Managers not knowing very much :P

When i interview junior IT guys or guys with no formal IT experience its the basics i want to see.

Ability to troubleshoot, logical thinking when diagnosing a problem.

I do not know what setup they may have in this school but i would expect them to engineer some faults.

Make sure you know how things like DHCP, DNS and general networking works. Using basic tools such as ping and ipconfig to check network settings and connectivity.

They may like you to assist with the lesson maybe resolve software issues (program wont start, errors on launching) or physical PC problems like Blue screens or PC's failing to boot.

I would make sure you are familiar with the location of the windows log files in system manager they can give useful error info. Maybe also how windows services work and how to start/stop them.
 
Absolutely agree with post #3. Your skills are likely to be comparable so they'll be looking at how you fit within the team.

Top tip! When you're invited to ask questions, try to avoid, "Is dating the students frowned upon?"

:you are welcome:
 
[FnG]magnolia;25988952 said:
Absolutely agree with post #3. Your skills are likely to be comparable so they'll be looking at how you fit within the team.

Top tip! When you're invited to ask questions, try to avoid, "Is dating the students frowned upon?"

:you are welcome:
Click to expand...

I couldn't believe it took that long for someone to say it :D

In truth though, some good tips.

Wear a suit and make sure you are clean. Don't dither on questions and keep eye contact.
 
First impressions in interviews are based upon -

Body language (70%)
Tone of voice (20%)
What you say (10%)

So most importantly is dress smart and be affable.
 
Craig,

I have a question for you - I'm responsible for a lot of our IT in the work place, but because I came into the role from another role, I don't actually have the paper quals!

I'm doing a CISSP, CISM and CISA later this year/early next year, but I've got the opportunity to do the Comptia Network and Comptia Security for free through work.

I know these are the basics, but are they worth doing? Like I say, it's free and a few weeks out of the office!
 
I started working in IT as a techie in a school so I can give you some good advise, much of which has already been said

- Troubleshooting
make sure you know how to logically approach a problem and break it down into smaller troubleshooting steps. Such as computer wont connect to network, Cabling/Physical -> IP address check -> Ping -> DNS etc. They are looking for method as opposed to skill most likely.

- Which one first scenario? - They are bound to throw something like the head teachers printer is not working, password needs reseting for a student, and a whole IT classroom is down which one first and why. Theres no particular right answer here, its a case of justifying why? a good example may be - password reset because its easy and quick to do, goto IT classroom via the heads office to inform him of the critical issue in IT class and you will be back to him ASAP, fix IT classroom and return to headteacher.

- Student Persona
Being able to talk to students from all backgrounds and abilities without being condescending. Helping them with issues and maybe showing them how to fix it next time, it may be as simple as showing them how to chaneg the page layout in word/excel.

- Observation
Have you observed a technical issue in the lesson (e.g 3/4 of the students playing games) if so come up with a solution to the problem (suitable web filtering).

- Appearance
Smile, it makes you approachable. You also need to ensure you come across as helpful and interested in users issues, be it a student or staff. your probably going to get 3-4 issues each time you leave the office from people walking around, advise you would take a notepad with you to jot them down so you dont forget.

Hope this helps

Ash
 
you obviously have the brains for the role based on qualifications so they'll probably really be honing in on your people skills - are you polite? affable? charismatic? someone who people like to be around? If so make sure that comes across.
 
Don't touch the kids.... at least not in front of adults.... well just a BIT IF YOU CANT CONTROL YOURSELF BUT KEEP IT INSIDE THE TROUSERS.

unexpected caps lock but i kept it for lols
 
Gregster said:
I couldn't believe it took that long for someone to say it :D

In truth though, some good tips.

Wear a suit and make sure you are clean. Don't dither on questions and keep eye contact.
Click to expand...

This.

Prepare, research and ask questions. Show them you've done your homework and prepared to go that bit extra.
 
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