Worst screening questions ever

dlots · October 05, 2015, 03:42:09 PM

Just went though some screening questions there were pretty bad for a phone interview.

1.) What is the difference in a NAT statement between a FWSM and an ASA.
2.) What does the push flag do in TCP
3.) Give me the command to do a port re-direction on an ASA

IMO these are very bad questions for an on the spot phone interview, while they are easy to Google and get the answer it's not likely someone would know them off the top of their heads.

Reggle · October 05, 2015, 04:05:30 PM

I agree. I would honestly say I wouldn't know some commands from the top of my head. It's about understanding concepts... What does NAT do? How does TCP react under congestion? That sort of stuff.

AnthonyC · October 05, 2015, 04:23:35 PM

Was telling them that those questions are bad an option?

Actually #2 is kind of interesting. #1 and #3 are terrible though.

deanwebb · October 05, 2015, 04:33:51 PM

Answer to #1: "You still use FWSM? Why?"

Answer to #2: "I'm a security guy. This is a trick question to see if I can backup the R&S guy, right?"

Answer to #3: "Are you re-directing to another IP/port combination, or another port on the same IP? And do you not let anyone that works here Google up the answers during production outages? Because, if not, I can improve productivity a zillion percent with one little suggestion."

Dieselboy · October 06, 2015, 02:12:53 AM

I would have thought screening questions would be something like:

- tell me about a time you resolved a difficult problem or situation, recently
-- then from their response, you can drill down to more technical topics

- how much beer can you chug (so to correctly stock up for Friday afternoon's drinks)

that sort of thing.

Nerm · October 06, 2015, 07:21:44 AM

Quote from: Dieselboy on October 06, 2015, 02:12:53 AM
I would have thought screening questions would be something like:

- how much beer can you chug (so to correctly stock up for Friday afternoon's drinks)

that sort of thing.

No joke I got a question similar to that during an in person interview once. I agree any beer question asked during any part of the interview process I am fine with.

Back on topic lol....I think employers make a mistake with questions like that during a phone interview especially the initial one. IMO the initial phone interviews should be more of "is this candidate a fit for the company" kind of stuff. Why waste time on the technical stuff at that time. Throw in some technical stuff at the second phone interview and then really get technical during the in person ones.

EDIT: Correction, I am not against asking any technical questions during the initial phone interview. I just think they should be more general career questions or basic validate what is on your resume questions.

dlots · October 06, 2015, 10:20:06 AM

I think technical questions are a great idea right off the bat, no need to waste everyone's time if they can't figure out even the smallest issues. What I am against are things that test your trivia knowledge, syntax knowledge, and questions based on certain hardware.

NetworkGroover · October 06, 2015, 10:29:08 AM

Quote from: dlots on October 06, 2015, 10:20:06 AM
I think technical questions are a great idea right off the bat, no need to waste everyone's time if they can't figure out even the smallest issues. What I am against are things that test your trivia knowledge, syntax knowledge, and questions based on certain hardware.

Hehe... it's funny when you get a question, and you respond with the correct answer and you're told you're wrong, then you spend the next couple minutes enlightening your interviewer that there is more to the world than Cisco and how they do things. Cisco's done very well at capturing their audience. For someone who was like myself coming up, all I ever studied with Cisco, and I thought it was law. A lot of people seem to have this mentality, maybe less so now than before... but yeah.

Anyway, I will say though that hardware-specific questions can be valid if that's the environment you're walking into. If you know the inside and out of switching/routing, but you've supported Juniper your whole life and you're about to walk into a Nexus shop... I suspect if you're going to be in any kind of operational role.. you need to know the stuff they don't teach you in the books... the real world support stuff.

dlots · October 06, 2015, 10:43:08 AM

I actually lost a job a while back because their tshooting question was wrong, they were asking why an EIGRP neighbor wasn't forming, the configs had
it was in the same subnet (different IPs),
passive default but the interface no-passived on one side, the other side wasn't passive
same AS
loopbacks weren't the same (so no identical router IDs)
Could ping one another
auto-summery on one side and no auto on the other

They said the auto-summery mismatch was the issue, but I have seen in my lab many times when auto summery is enabled on one side and disabled on the other with no issues.

deanwebb · October 06, 2015, 06:50:17 PM

I just did a phone interview today... they asked me if I knew a guy that used to work where I am now... I guess I know where he landed after leaving my company.

They asked if I had Palo Alto experience. I said that I had Juniper experience. They said that was good enough.

config t · October 08, 2015, 02:26:50 AM

Quote from: AspiringNetworker on October 06, 2015, 10:29:08 AM
Cisco's done very well at capturing their audience. For someone who was like myself coming up, all I ever studied with Cisco, and I thought it was law. A lot of people seem to have this mentality, maybe less so now than before... but yeah.

That's where I was at until I took some Brocade training. I felt so betrayed by my Cisco schoolin's