So many of you have reached out for help on Interviews that I had to rush through this article!
Firstly, I’m glad the resume suggestions have been so effective! If you put some time and effort, you’ll get that interview in no time! Secondly, yes – this might be your first interview or it might be your hundredth. I’ll show you some tips and secrets to get you that job offer in this blog!
There are 4 category of questions that you’ll be asked. These include:
- Common Questions
- Scenario Questions
- Technical Questions
- Awkward Questions
COMMON QUESTIONS
Common questions include the same boring questions that are asked everywhere, no matter if it’s an IT job or not. It’s questions that haven’t changed but some people still lead with these questions. You can quickly google a lot of these questions and get a list. You should prepare for these questions like an exam. For exam, the “Tell me about yourself?” or the “What are your strong qualities?”.
Here is an awesome way to begin practicing a skill to train your brain. You should write out the answer to these questions, you must do this in full. Trick: Use Microsoft word dictation feature. I guarantee that if you keep practicing this skill you will increase your chances of landing a job a lot.
Use my ITCoach.Job secret trick and get a red and blue pen and underline everything that is negative with red. Negative means you talk negatively about yourself, show a weakness, or talk negative about someone or something else. Now, underline everything you see as positive with the blue pen. These include positive features, naming a recognized skill, brand, or talk about your skills. Keep practicing this and remove as much red as possible when you answer these questions. Repeat and repeat. Now you’ve trained your brain up for the interview!
SCENARIO QUESTIONS
The second type of questions are “Scenario” based. These questions start with “Tell me a time …”. The best approach to answer these questions is using STAR.
- S – Explain the Situation, such as the location or place.
- T – Explain the Task you have to do.
- A – Explain the Action that you have to do
- R – Explain the Result of the action.
The STAR approach is popular if you’re interviewing for Google, or Amazon style jobs. However, I’ll give you another ITJob.Coach secret. Include L for Learning.
- L – Explain the key learning
You’ve just differentiated yourself from hundreds of applicants by showing that you’re someone that continuous learns, is self-aware, and is always improving yourself.
TECHNICAL QUESTIONS
The next Interview Question is the Technical question. You can either get this really quickly, don’t know it, or get so nervous you fumble trying to answer your question. The secret is using a process. Remember this sentence: “I Know Three Right Things”. Once you have this, you can answer any technical question with a process.
- I is for Impact – quickly identify the severity of the problem and who you need to notify
- K is for Know – do you have the skills to answer this, where do you get the skills?
- Three places to check: The System (CPU, RAM, Disk), The network, and the App logs/Windows logs
- R is for Report – collect the time, logs, tasks lists for future troubleshooting or giving it to the vendor. Enable verbose mode, etc. on your logging systems.
- T is for Team – Notify your teammates, or the teams of other IT staff that might be impacted, management, etc.
By answering this way, you pretty much can answer any technical question. Instead of giving an answer, you’re showing how you would troubleshoot it. Another ITJob.Coach bonus tip – make sure to get the hiring manager’s email. For the ones you don’t know, write it down in the Interview, and email him the answer with your thank you letter.
AWKWARD QUESTIONS
Finally, the last questions are the awkward question. These include questions that take a lot of thinking and reflecting. For example:
- Why are man whole covers round?
- How many toothpicks fit in a van?
- How was your life affected by Covid?
You take everything you’ve learnt from before:
- No negatives
- No quick answers, show your work by talking through your process
- Explain in a systematic way
By practicing the other 3, you can naturally get more talented with these types of questions. You can still get stuck, and get to a point to say I’d have to get back to you on this answer. It’s a very good answer to say that rather than I give up! Also, grab the email and get back to them.
QUESTIONS FOR THE HIRING MANAGER
Finally, you can also ask questions to your hiring manager. A job interview is 2 ways. Do you want to work there? I’ve not taken many jobs because the culture does not fit my style. Make sure you always have good questions – good questions show that you actually think through things. It’s totally fine to ask them some questions about the work environment, what’s important for them, etc.
I’ll go deeper into these categories in future writeups, but this should give you a great start! Good luck in landing that job!
Stay Safe!
Rick@ITJob.Coach
ITJob.Coach 