Interview question about priority for all the IT Support people...

[lektrix]

Hey fellow IT supporters,

I understand this is a very popular question in interviews and I wanted to hear your opinion on what the best answer would be. If you were asked to prioritize the following requests and to provide justification, what would be the best way to respond?

President of company says his Blackberry can't receive emails. Several people report they can't print to network printer. Last night's file server backup failed. HR manager can't log on to network.

4. Printer
3. Backup
2. HR Manager
1. President???

I think the most important thing is to ask questions to determine the type of impact each problem has on the business and whether it's business critical or not... printers should be lowest priority because they are almost always quick fixes and people should always have more than one printer set up anyways. Company data retention is very important to a business but the backup job can always be rerun at a later time. What comes next is hard for me to decide...what if the HR manager was late and had a very important web meeting to attend to vs. the President needing to step out for 45 minutes and needed his BB email fixed asap? Both colleagues are executive-level, both have high priority issues...for my own ass, I have to help the most important person which would be the Prez no???

 

[maddogchen]

At my workplace it might all point to a single network issue. Cant log into network, cant print to network printer, backup to network drive failed, email not downloading.

 

[lektrix]

At my workplace it might all point to a single network issue. Cant log into network, cant print to network printer, backup to network drive failed, email not downloading.

True, but then I'd probably have more than just 3 angry customers!!!

 

[lektrix]

For interview purposes, how would you answer the question??

 

[JimmiG]

We prioritize based on the number of users affected and the severity of the problem (available workarounds etc.). 1 failed nightly backup would probably get the lowest priority here, but it depends on what kind of redundancy you have.

Have to ask more questions. Maybe the president has already checked his email on a laptop and can wait. Checking your email on the BB is a "luxury" most of the time, but being unable to log on to the network might prevent you from working at all.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Just me, but I would backup the data first, or find out why it failed. Server dying with no up to date back up could have a major impact on the entire company.

 

[lektrix]

We prioritize based on the number of users affected and the severity of the problem (available workarounds etc.). 1 failed nightly backup would probably get the lowest priority here, but it depends on what kind of redundancy you have.

Have to ask more questions. Maybe the president has already checked his email on a laptop and can wait. Checking your email on the BB is a "luxury" most of the time, but being unable to log on to the network might prevent you from working at all.

Is there a right or wrong to the question then? I guess not if it all depends on situation. If the interviewer is not specific enough, the only thing I can do is go through the thought process...

 

[lektrix]

Just me, but I would backup the data first, or find out why it failed. Server dying with no up to date back up could have a major impact on the entire company.

True, but a backup during peak business hours could also slow down production if everything is run from the same server. So many double edged swords!!!

 

[maddogchen]

4. Backup should be the lowest because no direct user affected
3. Hr manager because seriously what do they really do?
2. President
1. Printer for the real people working

 

[VulgarDisplay]

THe only question I've ever had asked at an IT interview was, what does one long beep on a computer that won't start up mean.

I answered get out the motherboard manual and figure out what that beep code means. Don't think the guy was impressed because I didn't get that job.

 

[Phoenix86]

Hey fellow IT supporters,

I understand this is a very popular question in interviews and I wanted to hear your opinion on what the best answer would be. If you were asked to prioritize the following requests and to provide justification, what would be the best way to respond?

President of company says his Blackberry can't receive emails. Several people report they can't print to network printer. Last night's file server backup failed. HR manager can't log on to network.

4. Printer
3. Backup
2. HR Manager
1. President???

I think the most important thing is to ask questions to determine the type of impact each problem has on the business and whether it's business critical or not... printers should be lowest priority because they are almost always quick fixes and people should always have more than one printer set up anyways. Company data retention is very important to a business but the backup job can always be rerun at a later time. What comes next is hard for me to decide...what if the HR manager was late and had a very important web meeting to attend to vs. the President needing to step out for 45 minutes and needed his BB email fixed asap? Both colleagues are executive-level, both have high priority issues...for my own ass, I have to help the most important person which would be the Prez no???

Dollars and cents. Every prioritization comes down to this in regards to business.

The answer depends on a few quick questions, however I think your priority list is right by default. Can the president access his e-mails easily via another means? Is the HR manager in the middle of a time sensitive high profile situation?

If the president can't access his email otherwise (this would be common), they are #1 by default. If the HR manager is in the middle of a potentially litigious or company damaging situation it could bump the president's issue down a notch if they otherwise have access to important communications. This would of course have to be communicated to the president.

Backups are clearly 3rd, because printing is a very low priority issue. Print to another printer... Losing a day's worth of data -could- jump up a notch if both the president can otherwise access email OK (via an admin or another device) AND HR manager has no pressing issues.

 

[JimmiG]

If the interviewer is not specific enough, the only thing I can do is go through the thought process...

I honestly think that's what they're after. There's no real right or wrong since it depends on so many factors and specifics.

 

[sourceninja]

Depends on the company. At my last job, printing would be number 1. There is only 1 MFP per department so if that department can't print they probably can't take money, give students schedules, or do any business at all.

If the bookstore can't print you better believe the president wants that fixed over his email.

Backups would be last because my setup has SAN snaps if anything goes really wrong. So now the question is this:

Is the HR manager a bigger prick than the President?

Help the bigger prick first so you don't get the bad PR.

 

[Tweak155]

I don't think there is a wrong answer as the answers can change based on the operations of the company. Although I think in any scenario, the e-mail to the Blackberry is pretty low.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Just me, but I would backup the data first, or find out why it failed. Server dying with no up to date back up could have a major impact on the entire company.

No, backups should be the very last thing addressed on this list. You don't address a backend process when users aren't able to work.

OP, there are some good suggestions in this thread. As another user mentioned, all of these issues could point to a single issue with the network. Your original list was:

4. Printer
3. Backup
2. HR Manager
1. President???

There is no question that backups would probably be the last thing you should address. You need to get the 3 other user sets up and running. The others depend on MANY factors and the key here is to ask questions to determine the business priorities. For example, at first glance, you might say "The Blackberry email is pretty low on the list." However, what if the President is on the road, doesn't have his laptop, and is expecting a critical email? Printing may not seem super critical, but what if these guys are shipping product and are printing packing slips and are trying to make a shipping deadline?

Backups are clearly 3rd, because printing is a very low priority issue. Print to another printer... Losing a day's worth of data -could- jump up a notch if both the president can otherwise access email OK (via an admin or another device) AND HR manager has no pressing issues.

You can't say printing is a "very low priority issue" because not enough data is given. What if the people printing happen to be the shipping department and they're trying to beat a shipping deadline at the end of quarter/fiscal year? You can perform troubleshooting on the backups after everyone else is fixed. An hour or two of getting other people up and running aren't going to make a bit of difference to a backup that runs nightly, for example.

 

[TwiceOver]

HR, President, Printer, Backup

At least that's my opinion and current situation answer. The president can get his email before leaving and just deal with it. The HR person cannot work at all, so they are top priority. Printers, fuck printers. Backups, you should have multiple anyway.

 

[KMFJD]

HR, President, Printer, Backup

At least that's my opinion and current situation answer. The president can get his email before leaving and just deal with it. The HR person cannot work at all, so they are top priority. Printers, fuck printers. Backups, you should have multiple anyway.

That would be my answer as well unless the President is a real hardass

 

[nageov3t]

probably the HR issue first; along the way, update the President that we're aware of his problems and we're going to work on it as soon as possible.

not because he's the most important, but if he can't log into the network, it could be indicative of wider network problems and fixing his issue could also fix the email/printer issues.

backup problem for last, as no users are directly affected (though I'd take 30 seconds just to make sure the file server is up and didn't crash overnight or something)

 

[Six]

At an enterprise organization of 40,000 I used to work at....President, HR manager, printer, backup OR President, printer, HR manager, backup. Executives has priorities over almost everything else.

hahah...blackberries? This question must be from prior 2010.

 

[mistercrabby]

Hey fellow IT supporters,

I understand this is a very popular question in interviews and I wanted to hear your opinion on what the best answer would be. If you were asked to prioritize the following requests and to provide justification, what would be the best way to respond?

President of company says his Blackberry can't receive emails. Several people report they can't print to network printer. Last night's file server backup failed. HR manager can't log on to network.

4. Printer
3. Backup
2. HR Manager
1. President???

I think the most important thing is to ask questions to determine the type of impact each problem has on the business and whether it's business critical or not... printers should be lowest priority because they are almost always quick fixes and people should always have more than one printer set up anyways. Company data retention is very important to a business but the backup job can always be rerun at a later time. What comes next is hard for me to decide...what if the HR manager was late and had a very important web meeting to attend to vs. the President needing to step out for 45 minutes and needed his BB email fixed asap? Both colleagues are executive-level, both have high priority issues...for my own ass, I have to help the most important person which would be the Prez no???

It's an interesting question. I've worked at companies where the president would have kicked my butt if we'd given them special treatment. It kind of depends on what's going on. If s/he has a company critical meeting or deadline, I might head there first. Then the printer, then HR, then backup. There will always be someone who thinks you should have taken care of them ahead of something else. Learn the company, understand what makes it tick, make the call and don't take s**t from anyone. They need you more than you need them!

 

[Chess]

if a company of 40k+ doesnt have a team dedicated to their senior leadership staff then there is an issue....

The company I work for which is like 30k+ and a huge consulting firm, they have dedicated folks to help out when called upon... they have an hour to repsond

 

[pontifex]

Hmm, this one is kinda different than the other ones i've seen where they are more obvious. usually you fix the one that impacts the user(s) the most. Kind of hard not knowing the details of each and how it impacts the business.

I would probably say:
1) HR - can't do his job at all
2) printer - affecting more people
3) backup
4) President - He can get email other ways

3 & 4 are kind of iffy to me, but I would think backup would be more pressing than BB email.

the question is to see how well you prioritize based on impact, not user.

 

[lektrix]

Thanks for all the suggestions. In the end I just explained my thought process and I think it worked out. No examples were given but I think everyone understood that it was very situational. One question that stumped me though was so stupid........ I still couldn't believe why I locked up and why I couldn't give a better response.

The question: Let's say a new employee gets a brand new computer. And let's say an existing employee is upgrading to a brand new computer. Name some of the common things and differences you will experience while setting up each computer.

My response: The most important difference when setting up an existing employee vs a new employee is to ensure that all critical data is backed up from the old computer to the new computer. This can be done by either copying the entire C drive over or imaging the old computer to the new computer. As for listing commonalities...I was stumped and didn't list any. Imaging both new machines, running updates, installing Antivirus is all the same task in itself..............??? What "commonalities" were they expecting me to list?!?!

 

[Udgnim]

similar past interview questions I've been asked

this was for a company's help desk. I'm part of a multi-member support team and the below occurs

A) I'm on the phone currently supporting someone with an Outlook issue
B) sales person puts in a ticket while I'm on the phone and the sales person is on a remote site with a customer and needs support with something
C) CEO has some basic problem

the interviewer's answer was to

1) inform the person I was on the phone with that a more pressing issue has arised and that I'd get back to that person ASAP
2) to prioritize the sales person to not look bad in front of a customer
3) to get back to the original person once the sales person's issue has been solved
4) and to then support the CEO's issue but hopefully it should have already been taken care of by someone else on the team

this was for a MSP.

A) CEO has some issue
B) many employees are talking about not being able to use some service or access something

one of the interviewer's answer was

1) focus on the issue affecting multiple users
2) fix the CEO issue
3) hopefully the CEO understands that the issue affecting multiple users takes precedence

a different MSP

don't recollect if I was ever directly asked a question like this, but they seemed to prioritize C-type / manager tickets and their reasoning why is that since they have the greatest influence, their impression of the support provided by the MSP is also the most important so they get prioritized

 

[lektrix]

BUMP:

The question: "Let's say a new employee gets a brand new computer. And let's say an existing employee is upgrading to a brand new computer. Name some of the common things and differences you will experience while setting up each computer."

My response: The most important difference when setting up an existing employee vs a new employee is to ensure that all critical data is backed up from the old computer to the new computer. This can be done by either copying the entire C drive over or imaging the old computer to the new computer. As for listing commonalities...I was stumped and didn't list any. Imaging both new machines, running updates, installing Antivirus is all the same task in itself..............??? What "commonalities" were they expecting me to list?!?!

2 more:

“What sets you apart from other candidates?” and “What do you want us to remember most from this interview?”

What kind of dumb questions are these? AS IF I hadn’t already made a impression on them in the first 10 minutes. What dumb rhetorical. It's obvious I desperately want the job, I'm excited, and I want a new challenge (DUH). They already know my strengths and weaknesses based on my previous responses so I'm just supposed to feed them the same strengths I've been mentioning over and over and over again???