[xor-logic]

So, the basis of my question:
I have an interview this Friday with a school that offers I.T. training, mostly centered around network admin. It's paid, as you spend half the time actually working, and at the end I would come out with a Bachelor's level degree/cert. Good deal.

However, most of my computer experience is learned from reading books, participating in forums like this, and just trying stuff - this has left me with a good understanding and basic competency with HTML, CSS, Javascript and Java (also BF, but I don't expect that to be of ANY use ). But I have no formal training, and my fashion of learning has doubtless left huge and glaring gaps in my knowledge of the subjects.

Also, it will all be in French.

All this to say that I really need to prepare my ass off for this interview if I want the thing - and I do (oh, how I want it).

So if anyone has any suggestions on what type of questions I'll need to be able to answer I'd appreciate it. Also, I'm wondering if it's common in these types of interviews to actually have to code something? Should I prepare something beforehand (was thinking just a few nice looking, basic pages of DHTML)?

I used to help the I.T. guy at my old job with some scripting for the website and proprietary software occasionally (I was a regular wage employee/slave). One time they paid me just to come in and help him code. Should I bring this up? Should I get a recommendation from him?

I created my own software last year to help me study - basically very over-glorified and pretty flashcards - but very user friendly and hard to crash. I think I still have the code - should I recompile it and bring it? Bring screencaps?

Can you tell I'm nervous?

This would be a huge opportunity for me, and I don't want to screw it up, so any help you guys can offer would be, again, greatly appreciated.

[JackOfAllTrades]

I feel your pain over stressing about an interview!

Not having ever interviewed for a network admin position, I can't say for sure but I would be prepared for questions on:

1. subnetting
2. LDAP/Active Directory integration
3. DNS
4. troubleshooting network latency issues
5. firewall policies and rules

That's just off the top of my caffeine-deficient head.

Good luck!

[xor-logic]

JackOfAllTrades, on 18 May 2011 - 11:25 AM, said:

I feel your pain over stressing about an interview!

Not having ever interviewed for a network admin position, I can't say for sure but I would be prepared for questions on:

1. subnetting
2. LDAP/Active Directory integration
3. DNS
4. troubleshooting network latency issues
5. firewall policies and rules

That's just off the top of my caffeine-deficient head.

Good luck!

Thanks for the quick reply, but I don't know ANY of those things and I feel like those are things I'd need to know for a network admin job; this is a school I'm applying for so I can learn that stuff. Or will I need to know that stuff before I go in for school and, if so, can you recommend any resources where I can learn it?

[JackOfAllTrades]

Here's a subnetting tutorial. Subnetting is can be a tricky thing to master, and so I would imagine it naturally becomes a common interview question. Here's some info on LDAP. I could Google some more, but searching on those terms will lead to some helpful info.

[xor-logic]

JackOfAllTrades, on 18 May 2011 - 11:43 AM, said:

Here's a subnetting tutorial. Subnetting is can be a tricky thing to master, and so I would imagine it naturally becomes a common interview question. Here's some info on LDAP. I could Google some more, but searching on those terms will lead to some helpful info.

I'll give that a read, but is that something I'll need to interview for classes?

[NickDMax]

Quote

I have an interview this Friday with a school that offers I.T. training, mostly centered around network admin. It's paid, as you spend half the time actually working, and at the end I would come out with a Bachelor's level degree/cert. Good deal.

Well make sure you have a basic understanding of the basics - that is you know about the seven OSI layers and what technologies they generally map to in modern networking.

Next I would thumb my way though a couple of books on Network Administration. Again you are interviewing for a school so you don't need to know all the answers, just show that you have a good idea of how to go about finding the answers - that you are willing to work for it and not just expect the answer to be on page 1 of the current chapter in class.

Try to get a nice general overview - know what an LDAP is (and some of the major providers) but there probably isn't a need to go out and setup your own LDAP server or AD.

Know what a VM is and why virtualizationis popular (maybe play with VirtualBox and setup a Linux machine -- installing and playing around with Linux is good experience).

You might look for a list of different types of servers and know basically what one might mean when they say "exchange server", "AD server", DNS, etc.

Again since it is a school you are probably not expected to know everything, but to demonstrate that you are a good candidate to learn and use the information in their curriculum.

Also -- since it is a school you will probably want to think about questions like:

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
How do you plan on using your education?
etc.

and remember the one thing I never can: Brevity

[xor-logic]

All very excellent answers, thank you. I'm giving all that stuff a read (or two or three) right now so it should be fresh in my mind tomorrow morning.

Then later tonight I have to go practice my French - shouldn't be too hard in a country of native speakers .

I'll let you guys know how it goes, shall I?

And if anybody has any last minute advice, please do weigh in.

One last thing is still nagging at me though - I've heard that for some programming jobs they'll sit you down and make you write up a program to do xyz. Do you think that's something I'll need to expect at this interview? Again, it's for school.

[xor-logic]

Much thanks again for the answers guys. Just to let you know, I passed the initial interview. Turns out I didn't need any networking knowledge - that interview turned out to be basically making sure I wasn't a moron.

However, the studying WILL come in handy as I have to pass two tests on the 31st. One on the french language, and the other on networking basics.

If (once) those are passed, I'm in, they help me rewrite my resume and help me get a job with one of their big juicy partners, then classes start in September (and you can expect to see tons more questions from me THEN, I guarantee it ).