Network Analyst interview questions

[Quoting]

I have a interview next week for a Network Analyst position. It's gonna be a over the phone technical question interview. Anybody guess what kind of questions their gonna ask?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Network Analysts is a pretty broad net to cast - what're the specifics of the job? (Is there a description you could post?)

 

[jimbob200521]

I'd start off by knowing when to you use "a" and "an".

 

[Kartajan]

1) What is the most challenging problem you faced, and how did you overcome it?
2) Describe a decision you made that was a failure. What happened and why?
3) Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a co-worker who wasn't doing his/her fair share of the work. What did you do and what was the outcome?
4) Convince me to hire you.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Don't forget all the useless questions they're likely to ask that you should be able to solve.

"A router has an IP address of blah/blah: How many addresses are in this space?" (seriously, Network interview guys love to ask about this Subnetting stuff).
"What's is the expected traffic on TCP Port 22?" (again, they love asking questions about random registered ports)

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Don't forget all the useless questions they're likely to ask that you should be able to solve.

"A router has an IP address of blah/blah: How many addresses are in this space?" (seriously, Network interview guys love to ask about this Subnetting stuff).

That's because so many people are completely clueless about subnetting. (I don't know because I would need to know the subnet mask of the network, not just an IP)

"What's is the expected traffic on TCP Port 22?" (again, they love asking questions about random registered ports)

And you'd also be surprised how many people don't know how ports even work, let alone which protocols use which ports. (SSH).

It's basic Chapter 1 networking stuff that a lot of certificate mill folks will have completely forgotten by the time they get their shiny pieces of paper, it trips up a lot of people, and if you don't know it, you're gonna have a bad time.

The last time I interviewed, I answered a couple questions like that regarding things like Fizz-Bizz and so on; after I got hired, one of my new coworkers said (paraphrasing), "Dude, you'd be amazed how many people with CS degrees just have no idea how to do that basic problem solving stuff, because they really have no idea how this stuff works; they just coasted through a degree learning stuff by rote and regurgitating. Last guy who interviewed for this position said he was a Java specialist; had no clue what a mod function was."

 

[thecoolnessrune]

That's because so many people are completely clueless about subnetting. (I don't know because I would need to know the subnet mask of the network, not just an IP)

And you'd also be surprised how many people don't know how ports even work, let alone which protocols use which ports. (SSH).

It's basic Chapter 1 networking stuff that a lot of certificate mill folks will have completely forgotten by the time they get their shiny pieces of paper, it trips up a lot of people, and if you don't know it, you're gonna have a bad time.

The last time I interviewed, I answered a couple questions like that regarding things like Fizz-Bizz and so on; after I got hired, one of my new coworkers said (paraphrasing), "Dude, you'd be amazed how many people with CS degrees just have no idea how to do that basic problem solving stuff, because they really have no idea how this stuff works; they just coasted through a degree learning stuff by rote and regurgitating. Last guy who interviewed for this position said he was a Java specialist; had no clue what a mod function was."

I don't think I would be that surprised. I started from the bottom of the industry just like a lot of people. I've seen the people clueless about subnetting (btw, when I wrote what I did, I was saying "IP-Address blah / prefix blah", hence the slash. I just said IP address, so I get the whole thing about you saying what you did)

But that's one of the things I was referencing. I didn't give actual example numbers in the subnet question, and just asked one of the most common ports, and you still worked to answer them in parentheses of your response. But why? It's literally searchable in 5 seconds. If I had bothered to add an IP and prefix, an online (or offline for that matter) calculator would give the answer sooner than someone trying to figure out a more convoluted one on paper, and with much more assured accuracy.

Your comment about the CS guys. I get it. When I went through my MS, I saw exactly those kinds of people.

But the fact is, it doesn't matter. Being able to subnet in your head on some interview shows that you know what a subnet is, and then that you know the equivalent of doing multi-double digit multiplication in your head. It's a cool skill to be able to swiftly apply without a calculator, but the fact is today, it doesn't really matter (and I say that as someone who can do said multiplication with relative ease). Just because you can apply it in your head, doesn't mean it really matters.

What I deal with every day? Network Engineers who insist of doing their intense subnet work on paper, and then asking me for help because they don't know how to extend a VM's hard disk in vSphere. In other words, they did exactly what you said. They learned, and they regurgitated this focused bit of information, without any abilities to work within a range of IT issues. In today's "devOps" world, that just doesn't fly.

It's simply asking the wrong questions. Asking questions such as "I can't SSH from blah to blah, go over how you would troubleshoot that" (which should include the port information in the answer, and yes, it should be entirely acceptable to answer "I googled and found SSH on Port 22" during your investigation, even if you might consider that person a worse overall canditate because of it), and "I have a sub network of devices that needs room for 50 IPs, give me an IP/Prefix or IP Subnet Mask that would include that would provide me that many usable IPs (and yes, should that you can go to a calculator I think it perfectly fine. Show me you know how and what to look for, not just what you know).

I've heard lots of management that agrees more or less with my viewpoints, and lots of management that disagrees more or less with my viewpoints, anecdotally of course. I can tell you with high certainty however of the age bracket of people who agree with me vs. disagree at my workplace.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I don't think I would be that surprised. I started from the bottom of the industry just like a lot of people. I've seen the people clueless about subnetting (btw, when I wrote what I did, I was saying "IP-Address blah / prefix blah", hence the slash. I just said IP address, so I get the whole thing about you saying what you did)

But that's one of the things I was referencing. I didn't give actual example numbers in the subnet question, and just asked one of the most common ports, and you still worked to answer them in parentheses of your response. But why? It's literally searchable in 5 seconds. If I had bothered to add an IP and prefix, an online (or offline for that matter) calculator would give the answer sooner than someone trying to figure out a more convoluted one on paper, and with much more assured accuracy.

Your comment about the CS guys. I get it. When I went through my MS, I saw exactly those kinds of people.

But the fact is, it doesn't matter. Being able to subnet in your head on some interview shows that you know what a subnet is, and then that you know the equivalent of doing multi-double digit multiplication in your head. It's a cool skill to be able to swiftly apply without a calculator, but the fact is today, it doesn't really matter (and I say that as someone who can do said multiplication with relative ease). Just because you can apply it in your head, doesn't mean it really matters.

What I deal with every day? Network Engineers who insist of doing their intense subnet work on paper, and then asking me for help because they don't know how to extend a VM's hard disk in vSphere. In other words, they did exactly what you said. They learned, and they regurgitated this focused bit of information, without any abilities to work within a range of IT issues. In today's "devOps" world, that just doesn't fly.

It's simply asking the wrong questions. Asking questions such as "I can't SSH from blah to blah, go over how you would troubleshoot that" (which should include the port information in the answer, and yes, it should be entirely acceptable to answer "I googled and found SSH on Port 22" during your investigation, even if you might consider that person a worse overall canditate because of it), and "I have a sub network of devices that needs room for 50 IPs, give me an IP/Prefix or IP Subnet Mask that would include that would provide me that many usable IPs (and yes, should that you can go to a calculator I think it perfectly fine. Show me you know how and what to look for, not just what you know).

I've heard lots of management that agrees more or less with my viewpoints, and lots of management that disagrees more or less with my viewpoints, anecdotally of course. I can tell you with high certainty however of the age bracket of people who agree with me vs. disagree at my workplace.

Well... I know how to extend a hard disk in vSphere too.

I also had to answer a fairly simple subnetting question today. It happens.

But sure, being able to explain how you'd solve a problem, knowing what you need to look up, etc., is most of the time just as good at knowing it off the top of your head. And you're absolutely right - good interview questions would filter out people who can't do either, and identify people who are one or the other as such.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I don't think I would be that surprised. I started from the bottom of the industry just like a lot of people. I've seen the people clueless about subnetting (btw, when I wrote what I did, I was saying "IP-Address blah / prefix blah", hence the slash. I just said IP address, so I get the whole thing about you saying what you did)

But that's one of the things I was referencing. I didn't give actual example numbers in the subnet question, and just asked one of the most common ports, and you still worked to answer them in parentheses of your response. But why? It's literally searchable in 5 seconds. If I had bothered to add an IP and prefix, an online (or offline for that matter) calculator would give the answer sooner than someone trying to figure out a more convoluted one on paper, and with much more assured accuracy.

Your comment about the CS guys. I get it. When I went through my MS, I saw exactly those kinds of people.

But the fact is, it doesn't matter. Being able to subnet in your head on some interview shows that you know what a subnet is, and then that you know the equivalent of doing multi-double digit multiplication in your head. It's a cool skill to be able to swiftly apply without a calculator, but the fact is today, it doesn't really matter (and I say that as someone who can do said multiplication with relative ease). Just because you can apply it in your head, doesn't mean it really matters.

What I deal with every day? Network Engineers who insist of doing their intense subnet work on paper, and then asking me for help because they don't know how to extend a VM's hard disk in vSphere. In other words, they did exactly what you said. They learned, and they regurgitated this focused bit of information, without any abilities to work within a range of IT issues. In today's "devOps" world, that just doesn't fly.

It's simply asking the wrong questions. Asking questions such as "I can't SSH from blah to blah, go over how you would troubleshoot that" (which should include the port information in the answer, and yes, it should be entirely acceptable to answer "I googled and found SSH on Port 22" during your investigation, even if you might consider that person a worse overall canditate because of it), and "I have a sub network of devices that needs room for 50 IPs, give me an IP/Prefix or IP Subnet Mask that would include that would provide me that many usable IPs (and yes, should that you can go to a calculator I think it perfectly fine. Show me you know how and what to look for, not just what you know).

I've heard lots of management that agrees more or less with my viewpoints, and lots of management that disagrees more or less with my viewpoints, anecdotally of course. I can tell you with high certainty however of the age bracket of people who agree with me vs. disagree at my workplace.

There's a couple things within here that shed light on several different aspects of our career field.

One is overspecialization vs generalization. Specialization is great, to know the ins-and-outs of whatever system you're tasked with managing. Some are so incredibly complicated they require you (or a team of you's) to manage in order to correctly wield it in a way in which it's useful (I'm looking at you, SCOM). However, I've run into countless 'AD guys/gals' or 'SAN guys/gals' that had no idea whatsoever of how any other portion of the 'IT stack' worked. Lacking in basic identity management concepts, security concepts, networking concepts, virtualization concepts, etc. I see this most predominantly in large shops with 'silo'd' sections, where some_person has worked on some_product for a decade, and doesn't really know/never bothered to learn how the other pieces of the puzzle came together. I give a pass for web folks/programmers (as they tend to be more focused on 'content creation' rather than 'IT operations') but it drives me up the wall when I have to explain subnetting to an enterprise helpdesk person, or a SQL person, etc.

Second thing is that some people who apply to IT jobs? No kidding, have no idea about anything they applied to. I worked in a military enterprise operations helpdesk shop where I had close, shop-talk relationships with the folks that did the interviews. About 90% of the folks that got PAST HR to them were throwaways after the first phone call, because they couldn't tell you what 'AD' or 'DC' (in the context of Microsoft) meant, or what an IP address was, at an absolute 90,000 ft level. Dozens of examples similar to this, absolutely zero knowledge of IT infrastructure or how anything worked. Almost like they decided 'hmm, glassdoor says this career field makes $X, I should apply to that!'. That's why they ask the stupid questions, because stupid people get past HR. Btw, of the 10% that got past that first phone call, 75% got ditched on the technical interview (call or walk-in) because they had zero knowledge of slightly higher level things, like how firewalls function, how AD security groups function, how subnetting works, how email works, mac -> IP -> dhcp -> DNS -> AD interaction, etc. Also, about 50% of the call-in technical guys got halted halfway through the interviews because they could be heard typing in the background while stalling the interviewers, so that's a thing too.

The bar to actually get an IT job is phenomenally low if you *actually* know what you're doing.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The bar to actually get an IT job is phenomenally low if you *actually* know what you're doing.

Which is why I'm terrified of Doctors.