Questions to ask when interviewing for IT Helpdesk?

do you know how to fix and restore windows boot up, via command line or automatic.
(that question will cut down your candidate list by over half.)
Do you know how to edit profiles?
do you know what a mount drive is?
usmt from command line?
performance optimizing troubleshooting tools?
rdp?
do you know how to reactive a missing or offline disk?
do you know about dynamic volumes, and disk diagnosing tools?
do you know how to add a pc to the domain?
what are templete user accounts, and how would you use them.

You might want to write some of those questions again. Most of them don't make sense through poor spelling/grammar.

Most of what I think you are trying to ask anyway is too specific to a given role. You need to ask about previous experience and gradually ease into a particular topic asking for examples and scenarios etc.
i.e.

Interviewer: Do you have any experience with Active Directory?
Interviewee: Yes, some.
Interviewer: OK, at what level have you been involved with AD in the past? Can you give us some examples?
Interviewee: I've reset user passwords, created accounts and general maintenance.
Interviewer: OK, so can you give me an example of how you might diagnose a problem whereby a user is complaining that they cannot logon?


The above is just a very basic example and as an interviewer you should target the areas that matter most for the role.
You should try to ask some general competency based questions if you like this format. i.e. Can you give me an example of when you have delivered a good level of customer service/worked in a team/had a bad experience at work and how you dealt with it. etc. This should show good preperation as these come up so often in interviews that people should have something lined up, or atleast should be able to talk logically through an example that they can think of.

If you feel the need, maybe do a quickfire bit at the end having talked about the majority of key areas vital for the role where you can go through quicker questions just to get a feel of knowledge/experience of said candidate, i.e.

- What does <insert acronym here> stand for
- Name 5 different Operating systems
- What is an IP address?
- What is TCP IP?
- What does RAID stand for and what is it?
etc
etc
etc
 
.

- What does <insert acronym here> stand for
- Name 5 different Operating systems
- What is an IP address?
- What is TCP IP?
- What does RAID stand for and what is it?
etc
etc
etc

Those are just too simple, it doesnt show break/fix knowledge. Its like say what is gdp, he can answer it but not work it out if he had to do it.
 
Those are just too simple, it doesnt show break/fix knowledge. Its like say what is gdp, he can answer it but not work it out if he had to do it.

They were meant - as I said - as a quick bit at the end kind of part of the interview. I'd beg to differ that they are simple for some of the candidates I have come across ;)
 
What is the command used in Windows NT and later environments to abandon a timed shut down.

Answer is:-

shutdown.exe –a

I had to do that the other day on an xp laptop cos a service had terminated and it wanted to restart. I just set it to restart the service.
 
In my first IT job the interview was pretty straight forward and pretty much what anyone STARTING in a support role would be expected to do. The question was basically:

"What would you do if there was <any error/issue> with this <software>?"

My answer was simply:

"Check the relevant products knowledge bases and articles that might be elsewhere via Google."

It was the answer he was looking for. Nobody can be expected to know everything and specific fixes for specific errors with specific applications (which will be a large part of helpdesk support) comes with experience of said product. Good Helpdesk workers are either great at remember specific issues with specific products or the better ones have good troubleshooting skills or simply trial and error.

It is Help Desk, not Consultancy. Ask questions that test their thought process to an issue, specific questions prove little.

If they can tell you what RAID is, how to setup Exchange and can do subnetting they are likely over qualified for Help Desk :p
 
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I recruited a guy once and the clincher was -

Q. "Is there anything you don't like about IT?"

A. "Printers."

How could you disagree?
 
I recruited a guy once and the clincher was -

Q. "Is there anything you don't like about IT?"

A. "Printers."

How could you disagree?

I think ive worked with him!! lol!!! - and in a funny way, i feel his pain too!

As other have said, for 1st line no skill is required apart from being able to talk to people and get the information they need from them, 90% of the work is scripted anyway i have always found.

But a simple 'how would you fix a printer that will not print for a user' always helps as it shows a process. If they never mention the user or the printer, ive seen it happen, then you know its not a person you want to hire.

Ask for hobbies, ask them for real if they have heard of this forum? or ask them what does OCUK stand for?

Simple questions with simple answer wont help. Ask them have they had any use with Windows 7 or Vista, what do you like about them or not like.

Ask them a question, and when they give you the right answer, ask them are you sure, then argue with them a little to see how they react, always fun to see what people do with that one.

Good luck and pick well!

ColiNfr.
 
Specific technical skills can be gauged through tests and obvious questions, though as has been mentioned depending on the seniority of the role you may be recruiting people who don't know the answers yet, but will do once they've been trained up/had experience.

More importantly IMO, are communication and problem solving skills. Most of the time I won't know the answer to complex problems, but being able to ask the right questions to get to the core of the issue is key. How you'd do that in an interview? No idea, perhaps scenarios?


I recruited a guy once and the clincher was -

Q. "Is there anything you don't like about IT?"

A. "Printers."

How could you disagree?
Haha, so true!
 
I recruited a guy once and the clincher was -

Q. "Is there anything you don't like about IT?"

A. "Printers."

How could you disagree?

So true!

To the OP...

I think you just need to look for someone that has good communication skills. After all they will be "loose" working with the workforce and issues need fixing promptly, so communication is key.
 
I think most people are missing one of the points here with actually giving a load of technical questions to start. Surely the first thing to ask would be something like:

A user goes on holiday for 2 weeks, comes back and can't log on. What do you do/ask the user?

The correct answer would be "What does their error message say" but too many people blab off on resetting passwords etc. when it could be totally unrelated.

- Pea0n
 
IT support over the phone is not about massive tech knowledge, it's about patience and good manor, some customers can be very hard to work with, so you need to bare with them, and take the pressure,
 
IT support over the phone is not about massive tech knowledge, it's about patience and good manor, some customers can be very hard to work with, so you need to bare with them, and take the pressure,

As well as the ability to explain technical descriptions into plain English.

No point whatsoever in asking what RAID stands for, for a 1st line role. (Or any role i can think of for that matter)
 
I recruited a guy once and the clincher was -

Q. "Is there anything you don't like about IT?"

A. "Printers."

How could you disagree?





Aha, I'm sitting in on a couple of second Interviews for a Helpdesk position next week, I might try that one!
 
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