Shaun Hummel, CCNP, is a Senior Network Engineer with 11 years experience in enterprise network planning, design, and implementation. He has worked for various private and public companies in Canada and the United States improving infrastructure, security, and management. He has written Network Planning and Design Guide, Cisco Wireless Network Design Guide and Network Assessment Guide. www.networkjobsolutions.com
Most information technology job interviews involve a phone interview, technical interview and sometimes a personal interview. The phone interview is an introduction with the purpose of determining if there is a preliminary match. The job expectations are spelled out including specific responsibilities, relocation, salary, overtime, hours of work, team environment, career development, benefits and promotion.
The personal interview has alot to do with seeing the work environment and meeting key employees including management personnel and answering technical and non-technical questions that reveal attitude and personality profile.
The technical interview is a key filtering tool most companies use and the focus of this article. The technical interview is most often conducted via phone however can be in person. Companies want to know you have at least the basic technical skills and knowledge specific to the opportunity before proceeding with a personal interview. If the company has a lot of applicants the technical interview could be more important and sometimes rigorous. The candidates would then have a difficult interview that goes beyond the job posting to see how deep the candidate skill set extends.
There is no set scripts for technical interviews. In some cases it could be a few questions that are basic and some discussion of specific work experience. The discussion of experience will often lead to questions about specific choices and leading questions from those responsibilities and projects. In some cases the technical interview is a list of increasingly difficult questions that gauge basic, intermediate and advanced knowledge of topics.
Companies should spend some time designing a technical interview that reveals technical knowledge from basic skills to specific skills that pertain to the job itself. The format could include multiple choice, what if scenarios and basic question and answer. Asking the interviewer what topics will be the subject of the interview is always a good idea and searching comments from other sources on interview style etc.
The network administrator interview often consists of questions involving the osi model, campus protocols, wan protocols, routing and switch commands, basic network design and network server administration. You should know basic routing and switch processes, troubleshooting commands, protocol selection and behaviour, network management and security.
The ebook Networking Interview Guide is available at eBookmall.com
Shaun Hummel is an author of various technical books and has a web site focused on information technology job search solutions and online technical interviews. Test your technical knowledge with the Sample Network Engineer Online Technical Interview
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How Telecommuting Can Be Cost Effective to Corporate America
By: Shaun Hummel | 11/11/2009 | BusinessThe work from home option often called telecommuting is not an easy sell to employers who have used a work model that has consisted of employees commuting daily during the work week. The fears that employees wont do the assigned tasks and not continue communicating with co-workers is a concern. The work goals should be defined as specifically as possible whether your working from home part-time or at the office each day.
Wireless Network VLANS - How to Implement Wireless VLANS
By: Shaun Hummel | 10/11/2009 | NetworksThe wireless access points operate as bridges with no routing defined anywhere on the wireless network segment. All VLANs are defined on the wired switches and mapped with specific SSIDs at each access point. The maximum number of VLANs and SSIDs per access point that can be mapped is 16. The wireless client attaches or associates with a specific SSID which in turn will map client with membership in a specific VLAN.
Network Switch Selection - How to Select a Network Switch
By: Shaun Hummel | 10/11/2009 | NetworksThe network switch is the most common network device with most network infrastructure and as such selection of new switches or upgrading is a key part of most network design projects. Wireless designs will have switches interfacing with access points. That will in some cases have an affect on the switch such as increased utilization, assigned switch ports, access lists, trunking, Power over Ethernet (PoE) wattage draw or spanning tree protocol. The decision to buy new switches or upgrade will be determined after considering the network assessment and design features specified. The 5 network switch components include switch chassis, supervisor engine, switching modules, power supplies and IOS/Cat OS software.
Online Job Interview - How Desktop Conference Software is Cost Effective
By: Shaun Hummel | 06/11/2009 | InterviewsWeb conferencing is available FREE of charge allowing recruiters to interview candidates from their office and setting up video interviews between their distant clients and candidates at the recruiter office. Some recruiters often have to interview candidates for 10 minutes at their office before approving resume submittal and clients of course want to do personal interviews unless it is a contract. Having the option to offer personal interviews is a selling point.
Wireless Network Security
By: Shaun Hummel | 23/09/2009 | NetworksThis article discusses how to secure your home and business wireless network. The process of a client associating and authenticating to an access point is standard. The security requirements vary from a home network, standard small businesses to government departments requiring stringent network security.
Firewall Internet Security - The Basics of a Firewall
By: Shaun Hummel | 23/09/2009 | SecurityEnterprise companies today employ firewalls that do stateful inspection of sessions between external and internal hosts and devices. Cisco employs a patented ASA algorithm that utilizes source IP address, destination IP address, TCP sequence numbers, port numbers and TCP flags to examine and prevent unauthorized sessions.
Wireless Network Standards - 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.16, 802.11n
By: Shaun Hummel | 23/09/2009 | Networks802.11a standard was approved in 1999 with the IEEE committee. It specifies a maximum data rate of 54 Mbps using 5.15 GHz - 5.35 GHz and 5.725 GHz - 5.825 GHz unlicensed bands in the United States. The advantage of 802.11a is higher throughput however the cell coverage is smaller and additional access points will be needed. There is much less interference from devices such as cell phones, microwaves and commercial devices using the 2.4 GHz band.
Troubleshooting Network Problems
By: Shaun Hummel | 23/09/2009 | NetworksThe process of troubleshooting your network involves a methodology that starts with cabling and works through the OSI model to the application layer. The network devices have a network cable that terminates at a wired switch. Cabling is a source of a lot of network problems. The key with troubleshooting is to determine what has changed. Sometimes it is hardware that isn't working or some change was made such as new software, configured equipment or additional employees stressing the network.