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

[slag]

These "IT" problems are all handled by different groups.

Blackberry email problem - issue for email group to figure out
Printer problem - start with desktop support
Backup problem - TSM/backup support group
HR can't log on to network - start with desktop support, then invoke network or lan support if needed.

If I were handling it, printer has lowest priority, followed by no email by blackberry, then backups, then highest priority is hr not able to log in. Full backups are usually done once or twice a week with incrementals in between. So you have to revert back to a 2 day old backup in case something goes tits up.. not a big deal, but since backups normally run after hours, you have all day to work on that, so priority is low. Printing on a printer isn't a high priority either, and the blackberry issue, while important, has work arounds. HR not logging onto network is a pretty big deal, can't they use their local cached copy?

 

[ultimatebob]

Once you get the job, the real answer is answered by "Who is going to bitch the loudest about their problem?"

That said, you would probably fix the CEO or HR manager problem first, followed by the printer problem and the backup problem.

For the interview, I would say that you should fix the HR person's computer first IF he/she is the one asking the question. Likewise, I would say that I would fix the CEO's phone first if he/she was asking the question. Flattery works! Otherwise, fix the printer issue first because it impacts multiple people right away.

(In case you haven't figured it out, there is a lot of management ass kissing required in IT if you ever want to get promoted out of the department someday.)

 

[Puppies04]

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.

I would love to know what answer he was looking for, it is completely dependent on the mobo manufacturer and model.

I would have answered "it needs fixing" but I am a smartass.

 

[Red Storm]

At our company it would be president first, then HR, then printers, then backup. Assuming this is during business hours.

 

[Phoenix86]

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.

This is true and kind of my point though I skimped on this one. I have supported print servers running large batch jobs for bills, one of these printers going down is kind of important because 20 people process the results of it. There's multiple printers, but one going down has a large impact.

It's also the point of the question, they want to see your thought process.

 

[Red Squirrel]

This is how I'd go about it:

HR Manager: Dead in the water and can't do any work at all. Literally sitting and waiting
Printer: inconvenient and affecting multiple people but they can just send their jobs to another printer for now or let it queue on the server till it's fixed (confidential stuff may not be able to be sent to another printer)
President: he can still check email on the computer, but should be fixed by end of day so he has email when he goes home
Backup: nobody is immediately affected or even noticing, as long as it does not fall through the cracks. Try to deal with it by end of day, since the next job only runs overnight anyway. If you can't, then tomorrow it should be #1 priority.

Now where I used to work, this would have been a trick question, as this is how they would see it:

President: He's more important than everyone and makes more so he should get what he wants first
HR Manager: Another important person, but not as important as the president
Printer: People are starting to whine, fix it so they stop
Backups: What's backups? Do we even have a budget for that? Here, take this (floppy) just put it on there for now.