Q: How do you handle rejection?
Security person's A: I love it. It means the firewall is working.
:professorcat:
Then there's the one about "what is one of your biggest weaknesses?" HINT: don't answer that apocalyptically. Answer it honestly, but optimistically. Of all your skills and traits, half of them are stronger than the other half. Pick one that you're not so strong in and discuss honestly why it's not a strength and what you do to improve or accommodate.
For example, I'm weak on OSPF, BGP, stuff like that. I'd need to work with a R&S guy for anything in that area. I focus mostly on security, so I'm not strong in other areas.
For my personal traits, I do need to organize better. I can also take control in brainstorming sessions, and I need to always check myself and let other people have a chance at expressing their ideas.
...
Bah, that1guy15 beat me to my favorite. On guy I worked with was named Bryan. We interviewed a guy named Brian. So the first question of the interview was Bryan asking Brian why he spelled his name wrong. I don't remember the exact answer, but it was something like I didn't name myself, and apparently my parents can't spell.
A company in town asks people interviewing for Sys Admin jobs if they could be any Windows command what command would they be and why? The best part is most people get flustered, and can't name a Windows command.
Zappos HQ is here in town, and they are known for weird interviews, and interview questions. I have not interviewed with them, but one a friend of mine got was "If it became company policy would you be willing to get a tattoo of a Spice Girl, and if so which one?" and "Do you own a shake weight, and would you be willing to bring it to work?"
-Otanx
Best interview question I have ever personally gotten.
Interviewer: "Do you like beer?"
Me: "I like the casual good stuff, but not a fan of cheap/light beer." (thinking in my head that is an odd question and could be a trick so answered honestly)
Interviewer: "Good, we have an office beer club."
(http://www.27bslash6.com/images/app01.jpg)
http://www.27bslash6.com/interviews.html
:)
Quote from: Otanx on April 29, 2015, 10:51:17 PM
"Do you own a shake weight, and would you be willing to bring it to work?"
Only if I get to sit in a corner and do one of those shake weight pranks I've seen on YouTube...
Quote from: deanwebb on April 29, 2015, 06:57:00 PM
Then there's the one about "what is one of your biggest weaknesses?"
I like that question because I have an interesting response. Usually you get asked what a strength of yours is, and I say, "Communication". Then I get asked a weakness, and I say, "Communication". When asked what I mean, I respond that I'm an excellent communicator, but I tend to overdo it. I CC the world on just about everything that I think may be informative/helpful, and I tend to write short stories instead of a simple email - even to the point that just recently I started including a #TLDR line at the top before I go into one of my rants.... :rofl:
10 oddball real-world tech job interview questions
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2287842/infrastructure-management/136468-10-oddball-real-world-tech-job-interview-questions.html
11 more oddball real-world tech job interview questions
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2287283/infrastructure-management/137687-11-more-oddball-real-world-tech-job-interview-questions.html
Top 11 oddball real-world tech job interview questions
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2897282/careers/top-11-oddball-real-world-tech-job-interview-questions.html
One of my favorites is to ask the candidate to diagram a network they've worked on or would like to work on. This can often turn into the entire interview, because every line, circle, square, or other notation can turn into a question. ("Why did you do it like that?", "Would you do it like that again in the future?", "What does that do?", "What if you had to add a public web server into your design?", "Can you explain to me how a client communicates with that web server?")
I want somebody who can communicate their ideas and understands the technology. I realize everybody has their strengths and weaknesses, but failure at these two are dealbreakers for me.
Here's a question that shouldn't stump people, but it does...
"From a security perspective, what is the benefit of not having a default route outbound to the Internet?"
It means you can't get out to the internet, there for are much much much more secure. :problem?:
Honestly I am not really sure on that one. You should have an ACL on your internet interface blocking all the non-internet space (so if you get a packet sourced from a 10. it gets blocked and you don't have odd traffic replying back into your network, and even if you did your stateful firewall should be blocking that if it's TCP.
Never mind I just figured it out, stops you from broadcasting your "internal" traffic out to the internet if the packets are sent to a subnet that doesn't exist.
Am I missing anything on that one?
Also prevents botnet clients from phoning home to their master. If the malware isn't specifically set to use our proxy server, it's not going to be able to interact much with the world at large. But your answer is good. At least you thought of "can't get out to the Internet." We've had lots of guys wonder what the implications of no default route would be, and come up with nothing.
I mean, that's not even a security question, even though I started it as one. If there's no default route, then anything without a specifically defined route ain't getting traffic. It's that simple. People should not be stumped by it if they know their routing from shinola.
point the default route to the WAN, so it's someone else's headache to monitor internet traffic :)
Quote from: dlots on May 01, 2015, 10:33:32 AMNever mind I just figured it out, stops you from broadcasting your "internal" traffic out to the internet if the packets are sent to a subnet that doesn't exist.
I've covered that in my blog (https://reggle.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/black-hole-routing-with-null-routes/) with null routing RFC 1918 ranges.
Quote from: Reggle on May 01, 2015, 04:59:09 PM
Quote from: dlots on May 01, 2015, 10:33:32 AMNever mind I just figured it out, stops you from broadcasting your "internal" traffic out to the internet if the packets are sent to a subnet that doesn't exist.
I've covered that in my blog (https://reggle.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/black-hole-routing-with-null-routes/) with null routing RFC 1918 ranges.
One other benefit from null routing the space is if you turn on uRPF anyone trying to spoof RFC1918 space as a source address will get dropped as well. There is actually a lot you can do with securing your network with just routing. A cool thing to do is instead of null routing is to set the next hop to a directly connected server. Then setup the server to alert on any inbound packet on that interface, and use tcpdump to capture every packet. Any packet that hits this is bad in some way (you need to use another interface to manage the host of course). Misconfigured NAT on your network will show up here, or if you use something like the Spamhaus BGP feeds it could be an infected host trying to reach a C&C server. If you do this server trick to catch outbound it does break uRPF unless you put it in strict mode which may cause other issues. I have found misconfigurations on networks using this trick a few times.
-Otanx
Quote from: Otanx on May 01, 2015, 06:21:42 PM
Quote from: Reggle on May 01, 2015, 04:59:09 PM
Quote from: dlots on May 01, 2015, 10:33:32 AMNever mind I just figured it out, stops you from broadcasting your "internal" traffic out to the internet if the packets are sent to a subnet that doesn't exist.
I've covered that in my blog (https://reggle.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/black-hole-routing-with-null-routes/) with null routing RFC 1918 ranges.
One other benefit from null routing the space is if you turn on uRPF anyone trying to spoof RFC1918 space as a source address will get dropped as well. There is actually a lot you can do with securing your network with just routing. A cool thing to do is instead of null routing is to set the next hop to a directly connected server. Then setup the server to alert on any inbound packet on that interface, and use tcpdump to capture every packet. Any packet that hits this is bad in some way (you need to use another interface to manage the host of course). Misconfigured NAT on your network will show up here, or if you use something like the Spamhaus BGP feeds it could be an infected host trying to reach a C&C server. If you do this server trick to catch outbound it does break uRPF unless you put it in strict mode which may cause other issues. I have found misconfigurations on networks using this trick a few times.
-Otanx
Spiffy! :pub:
Quote from: Fred on April 30, 2015, 08:59:49 PM
One of my favorites is to ask the candidate to diagram a network they've worked on or would like to work on. This can often turn into the entire interview, because every line, circle, square, or other notation can turn into a question. ("Why did you do it like that?", "Would you do it like that again in the future?", "What does that do?", "What if you had to add a public web server into your design?", "Can you explain to me how a client communicates with that web server?")
I want somebody who can communicate their ideas and understands the technology. I realize everybody has their strengths and weaknesses, but failure at these two are dealbreakers for me.
That's a pretty cool way to interview folks - and probably quickly eliminates cert brain dumpers. While I'd be a little nervous, I think I would have much more fun in an interview like that rather than the bullet point ones like:
What's the default priority for spanning tree?
What are the LSAs in OSPF?
What does TCN stand for?
Interviews like the one I mentioned above I'm not a fan of.
Go in for a security interview, then. There's just one question:
"You want to do security?"
"yes."
"You're hired! Start now!"
I really enjoyed the interview process I went through for my current position. It was long, but great folks (I think I spent more time laughing than being nervous), and fun, open-ended questions like, "Tell me what you know about x technology." and "You have x amount of racks with y storage systems and z compute nodes - what switches would you use, break down port counts, oversubscription, etc." A lot of soft skills stuff as well.
When I interviewed with one of the top-level engineering execs it will always stick with me because while they were interviewing me they were walking down some street, forget the name, in New York having just left some investment meeting. They told me, "Hey, I have a very simple policy that I tell my guys. Don't hire assholes. If you can break down a complete data center buildout, but can't sit at the dinner table with my family without being awkward, I'm sure as hell not putting you in front of a customer."
I think the talk about a system you have worked on is a MUCH better interview than random questions. It puts a good person at ease as they should know everything about their system.
One that we use for security applicants... "What is a botnet? Just give a definition."
If that stumps, we go with "Can you name a major computer security breach from the last 12 months?"
And, yes, we had guys that had no clue about Sony, Target, Home Depot, JP Morgan, or any of those guys. Heck, if they had just mentioned a company name at random, we probably would have taken it. If they had said, "Vandelay Industries", we probably would have taken it.
But when you got a guy claiming security experience that doesn't know a botnet or a major breach, you got a guy that's lying on his resume.
I don't know how you can be in IT in general and not know that stuff :-(
Quote from: dlots on May 05, 2015, 11:32:04 AM
I don't know how you can be in IT in general and not know that stuff :-(
Exactly our thinking.
And exactly the source of our frustration... :'(
Quote from: dlots on May 05, 2015, 11:32:04 AM
I don't know how you can be in IT in general and not know that stuff :-(
In my line of work I deal with a lot of other people that work in IT and ask myself that almost daily.
Quote from: dlots on May 05, 2015, 11:32:04 AM
I don't know how you can be in IT in general and not know that stuff :-(
I know this is going to sound weird, but for some of us it's not a major concern. I see it on the news, raise an eyebrow, and that's about the end of my interest. When it becomes a concern for me is when I have to figure out how to integrate with the countermeasures put in place to prevent stuff like that from happening.
That said, obviously unless I changed careers and decided to focus on it, I'm not a security guy, nor would I interview for one (I'd avoid it like the plague, actually :problem?: ).
OH YEAH? ONE DAY, I'LL BE THE BOSS OF YOU AND THEN YOU WILL HAVE TO DO SECURITY!!!!!!~~!!!!!!ELEVEN!!!!!!
But that never happens, so the R&S guys blithely build out beautiful networks and then scream blue murder when the security guy wants to impact his precious bandwidth with netflow or a SPAN port... and the guys exfiltrating the data thank the R&S guys for championing their cause.
Still, not as bad as the developers. How does that icon go again?
:developers:
Ah yes, the developers... If they built cars, they'd all have solid rocket boosters, no seat belts, airbags, or doors, and racing slick tires.
But back on topic, this should be about interview questions...
"Are you now or have you ever been a developer?"
Always find a way it benefits them if you want something. SPAN port? Make sure the R&S guys can access it to troubleshoot. Netflow? Let the R&S guys run reports against it to justify upgrades, or troubleshooting. Syslog forward? Give them access again for troubleshooting. Full packet capture? I couldn't live without one anymore. The R&S guys are more willing to give the security guys access if they get it as well. One of the cool side effects of having a secure network is the network becomes more stable. Which means less calls in the middle of the night.
Staying on topic... hmmm.. nothing really weird, I tend to like open ended questions. Tell me what you know about Layer 1 type of stuff. If they mention something interesting then I will follow that trail for a little. Then go on to the next layer.
-Otanx
Quote from: AspiringNetworker on May 04, 2015, 10:24:47 AM
Quote from: Fred on April 30, 2015, 08:59:49 PM
One of my favorites is to ask the candidate to diagram a network
While I'd be a little nervous...
That's really the downside of this method. There are some damn good engineers who aren't good at standing up in front of people, even during an interview, and asking them to stand up in front of a whiteboard and explain something makes their nerves go through the roof and you don't get anything good out of them. Sometimes you can put them at ease with a couple easy questions, but other times I've had to back down and find a different way.
QuoteI think I would have much more fun in an interview like that rather than the bullet point ones
Trivia doesn't make a good interview. Sit two experienced network engineers down at a table, and each one can beat the other with trivia questions. Unless you have specific requirements, I don't think it makes sense to ask more than baseline questions. (If you can't explain "botnet" or "what's the difference between EIGRP and OSPF", I'm probably not interested). Trivia does make for a good happy hour bar game once the person is hired, however.
This isn't so much an interesting interview question but an interesting response...I once got to sit in on an interview with a potential new server admin. One of the questions "Given an environment with x number of users and x number of servers at your disposal how would you implement Exchange?" was met with the response "If I knew what Exchange was I could probably answer that question a little better." the room went silent for a moment or two lol. Best part was on his resume he had listed "Experienced server admin with over 10 years experience with Microsoft Server" (or something similar as I don't remember word for word all these years later).
Quote from: Nerm on May 05, 2015, 12:55:44 PM
Quote from: dlots on May 05, 2015, 11:32:04 AM
I don't know how you can be in IT in general and not know that stuff :-(
In my line of work I deal with a lot of other people that work in IT and ask myself that almost daily.
I get all my IT knowledge from CSI Cyber. :XD:
Quote from: ristau5741 on May 06, 2015, 07:34:18 AM
Quote from: Nerm on May 05, 2015, 12:55:44 PM
Quote from: dlots on May 05, 2015, 11:32:04 AM
I don't know how you can be in IT in general and not know that stuff :-(
In my line of work I deal with a lot of other people that work in IT and ask myself that almost daily.
I get all my IT knowledge from CSI Cyber. :XD:
Haha that's like me... I'm not a security expert, but I DID stay at a Holiday Inn express last night...
EDIT - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlCLuIwuVgQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlCLuIwuVgQ) - if you need some context to understand my comment... :D
Quote from: deanwebb on May 05, 2015, 04:48:29 PM
OH YEAH? ONE DAY, I'LL BE THE BOSS OF YOU AND THEN YOU WILL HAVE TO DO SECURITY!!!!!!~~!!!!!!ELEVEN!!!!!!
But that never happens, so the R&S guys blithely build out beautiful networks and then scream blue murder when the security guy wants to impact his precious bandwidth with netflow or a SPAN port... and the guys exfiltrating the data thank the R&S guys for championing their cause.
Still, not as bad as the developers. How does that icon go again?
:developers:
Ah yes, the developers... If they built cars, they'd all have solid rocket boosters, no seat belts, airbags, or doors, and racing slick tires.
But back on topic, this should be about interview questions...
"Are you now or have you ever been a developer?"
Hehe, not to keep going further off-topic... but I would like to at least defend myself and say I know the need for security - I just don't want to be the guy that has to do it :P I have a lot of respect for you guys... even if you're a PITA. :) It's hard work.
There was a question a while back on networking-forum there are 2 routers with EIGRP and OSPF redistributed into echother, and 3 routers below them with just OSPF (in a U so there are 2 paths to the EIGRP area), OSPF was just default redistributed into them with a question of what path will one of the routers 1 hop from the EIGRP/OSPF router take, and what possable issues could there be.
I think that would make an awesome interview question cause the question can show you what level people are at
1.) Crapy guy says it takes 1 hop to the closest EIGRP router, can't explain why.
2.) pretty good guy will say it will load balance cause it has 2 equal paths cause it's a type 2 redistribution.
3.) good guy will say it will load balance and point out that there could be issues if they are both load balancing back to one another.
4.) Really good guy says it will go to the closest EIGRP router cause of the secondary metric in OSPF
5.) The really lazy guy does a show ip route, and says it will do that.
-Otanx
yep, but they don't get a lab to do this in, just a drawing
Quote from: Otanx on May 07, 2015, 10:30:44 AM
5.) The really lazy guy does a show ip route, and says it will do that.
-Otanx
Haha - win.
Quote from: Otanx on May 07, 2015, 10:30:44 AM
5.) The really lazy guy does a show ip route, and says it will do that.
-Otanx
:matrix: :lol:
6) Experienced guy might ask if they are all the same vendor, mention interoperability testing will need to be done to confirm proper operation if they're not, and (possibly - too lazy to put too much effort into this) there may be a need for filtering to prevent routing loops since it sounds like you're describing mutual redistribution at two points. Not to mention why on earth are you locking yourself in to a single vendor with proprietary routing protocols since it's a Gartner best practice to support multi-vendor environments to help create vendor competition and drive down business cost.
Quote from: Nerm on May 07, 2015, 12:42:02 PM
Quote from: Otanx on May 07, 2015, 10:30:44 AM
5.) The really lazy guy does a show ip route, and says it will do that.
-Otanx
:matrix: :lol:
Seriously, I'd be half-tempted just to hire him for the laughs he could bring to the team.
One of my classmates sat with a top security company for an entry position. Aside from taking a standard battery of tests (like real tests) to qualify their skills, there was also multiple team work exams. They made teams out of the applicants and were made to solve problems using cards and other child toys. It took a total of 6 hours... At first I didn't hear he mentioned an interview and thought he sat for a psyc exam.