Technical Recruiters

I just graduated college and I have my comptia cert, I am looking for work in Austin, TX. Well the question that I have is about Technical recruiters, I hate getting asked questions from cold calls, I need to refresh myself on that subject some of those things I haven't looked at for several years, what I am trying to say is that I know my stuff, but some of the stuff that I have worked on, I don't do it on a daily basis. When I worked as a IT technician, we were always working on something different, I remember I ghosted many machines, I help users with pass logins and fixed many deep virus (ie rootkits) computers, that most shops would just wipe the hard drive. Yes it may be faster diagnosis time, but when someone needs the data on the hard drive then that is something totally different. Anyways back to my original point the recruiter asks me questions on the spot which I always hate, I got one of the 3 questions right, the first one was about using cross over wires, which I got correct, but for the life of me I couldn't remember the OSI model, bc I don't use it that often the way I look at solving the problem is very simple, I check power, I check to see if I got a connection, if both those are good then I check the to see if any updates are needed for the driver or the software. A lot of times I found that sometimes a simple reboot will fix it, but not always, so you just have to see if you have a hardware issue or a network issue, it just depends on what the problem is. I mean I can run an active directory, port forwarding, dns, ipv 4, tls (security), cia (security), https (443) http (80), ftp (21) and so on. So I hate the fact that tech recruiters ask you on the spot questions. So I missed the OSI model one, which after some quick research I found out it was the presentation layer, but they called it Data link, and then they asked me what should be the rating of a T1 which I found out it should be 1.544, now how in the world I was suppose to know that one, I have no idea. I get that these recruiters are trying to weed out those. But what's the point of having a certification, 4 years of college and then you put me on the spot, I'd much rather be hands on instead of answering questions. I can get my certification in Networking + or any other certification, I have no problem doing that, I have done it b4 and I can do it again. I'm just not good with cold calls at all quite frankly sometimes I draw a blank, even when I know for certain what the answer is sometimes (used to do that on tests all the time too), but how many of you have dealt with cold calls from recruiters and how do you go about getting the job, and this is a job that I really wanted to. So what should I do? Plus what is your thoughts on tech recruiters?

Thanks for any help given.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
Hello,

It sounds like you're going after network jobs, but the questions you listed aren't too outlandish for a seasoned professional.
lot of times I found that sometimes a simple reboot will fix it
This probably isn't the response they're looking for..
what should be the rating of a T1 which I found out it should be 1.544, now how in the world I was suppose to know that one
That's a pretty common one. T1s are prevalent in most environments.
found out it was the presentation layer, but they called it Data link
Those are two extremely different layers..
So I hate the fact that tech recruiters ask you on the spot questions.
Why? Are you unable to answer them? I like the technical part of an interview most because the answers are concrete. Technical questions give you a platform to highlight your knowledge as opposed to more HR based questions of bullcrap like 'what is your greatest accomplishment'.
I have my comptia cert
Which one?
 
Hello,

It sounds like you're going after network jobs, but the questions you listed aren't too outlandish for a seasoned professional.
Thats the thing I never said I was a seasoned professional, I just graduated college, and have one cert (A+), this was for an entry level position. I'm just entering the market, I never said once that I had any major experience at all.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
Thats the thing I never said I was a seasoned professional, I just graduated college, and have one cert (A+), this was for an entry level position. I'm just entering the market, I never said once that I had any major experience at all.
No worries. Most specialized networking roles require some chunk of experience, but it's always the same issue of 'how do you get experience if nobody will give experience' starting out.

I'd work on getting the CCNA, that would give you a lot of extra knowledge as well as have a more solid credential to support your resume. Things like the OSI model are a daily occurrence.

We also have a lot of networking professionals on this forum that can help with any questions you might have ;)
 

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
Actual technical questions from a recruiter? I never get those. I usually get "Hey I saw your resume and I have a job for you. You want it?"
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
Actual technical questions from a recruiter? I never get those. I usually get "Hey I saw your resume and I have a job for you. You want it?"
I get that a lot, although there are a few of them that have 4-5 canned questions from the client. The recruiter usually has no idea WTF you're talking about outside of the pre-defined answers you give them, so if you can elaborate on a topic they'll be super motivated since you appear knowledgeable about the subject, although in reality you could just be describing how to construct the best cheese sandwich ever.
 

Cromewell

Administrator
Staff member
I like the technical part of an interview most because the answers are concrete. Technical questions give you a platform to highlight your knowledge as opposed to more HR based questions of bullcrap like 'what is your greatest accomplishment'.
+50
The only downside to technical questions is if you get a recruiter asking them is they may not know your answer is correct if you deviate from the textbook answer they are given. I've gotten into trouble elaborating to recruiters because of this.

That said, honestly, if you can't answer some of these (like the mentioned OSI) you need to study more. I've interviewed dozens of fresh grads who can do that, and it's really not that hard.
mean I can run an active directory, port forwarding, dns, ipv 4, tls (security), cia (security), https (443) http (80), ftp (21)
What does this even mean? You can configure an AD server? You can set up a DNS server? Or you can add records to an existing one? What's the difference between tls and https or ssl for that matter? Both run on 443. FTP, does that mean you know how to issue get and put commands?

Not to be a jerk or anything but you saying 'I can do all this stuff' means nothing to me when I interview you. I'm going to ask you questions about them and see if you really know it. I can turn on a computer and use it does not equal I know how a computer works.

As far as drawing a blank on a question that you would otherwise know, do practice interviews. Sounds like you suffer from a bit of interview anxiety.
 
No worries. Most specialized networking roles require some chunk of experience, but it's always the same issue of 'how do you get experience if nobody will give experience' starting out.

I'd work on getting the CCNA, that would give you a lot of extra knowledge as well as have a more solid credential to support your resume. Things like the OSI model are a daily occurrence.

We also have a lot of networking professionals on this forum that can help with any questions you might have ;)
Well I know about the OSI model, but when I was working as an IT tech, we didn't even use the OSI model, yes you can use it as a diagnosis tool, but the thing is I haven't used it enough to know it on the back of my hand, and never need to know it on the back of my hand. I suppose if I am going to go into networking it wouldn't hurt to review it again. But I need experience more so than anything else that way the OSI model and other thing will coincide with what I am doing and I will remember it more than just memorizing.

I feel like my strong suit are security (#1) and Networking (#2) are my strongest suit and would like to get into those fields at an entry level.
 

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
I feel like my strong suit are security (#1) and Networking (#2) are my strongest suit and would like to get into those fields at an entry level.
You say networking is your strongest suit, but you don't even know the OSI model?

What makes a layer 3 switch better than a layer 2 switch?
What is the reason behind implementing spanning tree in a network?
 
You say networking is your strongest suit, but you don't even know the OSI model?

What makes a layer 3 switch better than a layer 2 switch?
What is the reason behind implementing spanning tree in a network?
I never said that I didn't know the OSI model. I said I don't use it enough in every day life. Even as a tech we never used it. I remember that the first 4 are physical and the last 3 are mainly for programmers.

Plus I said I am in an entry level, I never said I was an experienced network person, I never even made that claim at all. But if you are referring to a hub and a switch. The problem with hubs is that they will induce data collisions, where as a switch will reduce the possibility of a data collision immensely, and it does it more of one on one than the hub does. Where a hub will send out all packets across all the ports and a switch will typically only send it to one port. A switch is smarter than the hub and hub is known as a dummy switch. In fact hubs are rarely used any more at all.
 

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
A switch is smarter than the hub and hub is known as a dummy switch. In fact hubs are rarely used any more at all.

You didn't even understand my question. I said nothing about hubs vs switches. I said layer 2 switch vs layer 3 switch.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
if you are referring to a hub and a switch.
No, that wasn't his question. Do you know the difference between a layer 2 switch and a layer 3 switch?

Also, do you know why STP exists?

We aren't trying to grill you, it doesn't make a huge difference if you don't know the answers. We're just trying to clarify your thoughts and skill set, I'd probably suggest studying some more Network+ material. As someone who has interviewed candidates, if you say your strong suit is networking and can't answer these basic questions, that tells me that your other skills are equally lacking. You'll likely find the same situation with other recruiters and interviews, upping your knowledge is the main way to be more successful in these situations.
 
This is why I don't like IT people who have vastly more knowledge than me, when I have repeatedly said that I am new this, I never said that I knew everything. I understand what you are saying, but I like to my work into action, instead of talking about it, bc that's when I can figure out what is wrong. I'm typically a guy that you can never talk to, but still get the job done. I've always been this way, the problem I see with the IT world is that most people don't seem to be willing to help out others when someone is new and even if they have experience, when in fact if the issue is that there are so many niche's that one could get into, that it is very difficult to know what to specialize in, I never said I had huge amounts of knowledge in this field, I said that this seems to be one of my strong suits and even teachers and colleagues and other students agreed, that those are my two strongest fields, I would have to say that security is prob my #1 as I seem to retain that information, better than most. But in all honestly I think getting a help desk position or any entry level position is better than not doing anything at all and work my way up from there. But I never said I had vast knowledge of any one of these fields, never said that once, in fact the sad part is that even when you have IT experience it still isn't enough. So therefore how does one gain experience? The next thing is that 4 year colleges don't go into deep levels of any one field, they only cover the basics and broad views. Which I had constant complaints with my teachers about this, as we weren't learning the things needed to attain employment, they always wanted to teach us high level design stuff, but that isn't pratical when your looking for an entry level position. For example systems analysis and design (broad version), database design - we never even learned sql in this class, but we could design a database in a 4nf, in Data Communications, we learned about the very broad stuff of data communications, we never went into details, we went into like what a cat 5, 6 and 7 was, we talked about hubs, switches and routers, we talked about Nat, DHCP, and IPV4 and 6, we never went into great detail about any of those. So therefore how am I suppose to know about those things trying to gain an entry level job?
 

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
We're just saying that with what you know now, you won't get far. Yes, you could probably get a help desk position, but even then you won't gain experience in that position.

You're still going to need to learn material on your own and get certifications on your own. You're never done learning in IT.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
but I like to my work into action, instead of talking about it, bc that's when I can figure out what is wrong.
To a lot of people that sounds really risky. In any well designed environment you should be able to analyze what's going on before making unnecessary changes. In an enterprise environment, rebooting the router should be a complete last resort and has other implications such as losing interface counters and event logs, or even impacting other circuits that traverse that device. In some environments, you might even lose the router config if it hadn't been written to NVRAM previously.

the problem I see with the IT world is that most people don't seem to be willing to help out others when someone is new
We can answer anything you had in mind or need more information about. The approach helps a lot, such as "I really want to know more about the OSI model but have a hard time remembering it, any tips?" goes a lot farther than "I bombed this phone interview, they said something about layers but I've done network things". Also, 'Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizza Away' is a handy mnemonic for remembering the OSI layers and order from 1-7. You just learned something :p

I would have to say that security is prob my #1
What specifically about security? It's a pretty broad field that has a lot of dimensions, what would you say your best security task is, or what's a challenging security problem you've solved?
So therefore how am I suppose to know about those things trying to gain an entry level job?
There are plenty of self study materials, you don't have to be enrolled in a class to learn a new skill.

http://www.professormesser.com/network-plus/n10-006/n10-006-course-index/
http://www.amazon.com/CCENT-ICND1-1...ywords=ccna&qid=1465319334&ref_=sr_1_3&sr=8-3
http://www.amazon.com/Routing-Switc...ywords=ccna&qid=1465319371&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

You're still going to need to learn material on your own and get certifications on your own. You're never done learning in IT.
That's probably the largest takeaway here.
 

Geoff

VIP Member
We are simply pointing out that you may not be as knowledgeable as you say you are. It sounds like an entry level technician job would be a good fit for you, because solutions like "rebooting" or just trying different things until it works isn't a solution when you are working on critical network infrastructure.

Get an entry level job as a help desk technician or similar, and work with higher up networking professionals until you get a better understanding of how networking works. I can understand not having every layer of the OSI model memorized, but not knowing the difference between layer 2 and 3 switches? That's pretty common, and I believe the T1 question is a standard A+ cert question.
 

Cromewell

Administrator
Staff member
Plus I said I am in an entry level, I never said I was an experienced network person, I never even made that claim at all.
That's perfectly fine. Everyone started once. But I can tell you from experience, whenever I had someone come in and tell me how well they knew networking or linux - "oh I'd rate myself as an 8/10" - I can't count how many times they fell over on stuff like why can't 192.168.1.2/30 can't talk to 192.168.1.4/30.

I expect an entry level person to be just that, but if you overstate your skills I'm going to find out.

I had someone come in who upfront said they had very little understanding of linux and networking (we're a linux shop that makes a network appliance so it's kind of important to know). Since they were honest about not knowing any of it, we told them the topics we'd cover in the technical interview and gave them a week to study them.
This is why I don't like IT people who have vastly more knowledge than me, when I have repeatedly said that I am new this, I never said that I knew everything.
We're not trying to say you should know everything. The point is, if you say "hey you know <this thing>, yeah I can do that" and I ask about it, if you can't answer the questions correctly I'm going to gauge how well you actually know the topic. Which leads into beers point below. Especially if this happens a couple of times.
As someone who has interviewed candidates, if you say your strong suit is networking and can't answer these basic questions, that tells me that your other skills are equally lacking.
What specifically about security? It's a pretty broad field that has a lot of dimensions, what would you say your best security task is, or what's a challenging security problem you've solved?
This as well. I'd say being specific is important. At least with topics that are overly broad.
 

Intel_man

VIP Member
I'm no IT guy, but it sounds like what you should be doing in those circumstances where you get those curve balls that throw you off guard, is to admit that you're not familiar with it but am willing to learn. Being that you're targeting an entry level position, you need to give the employer the feeling that you're a quick learner, smart, and truthful. Don't over sell yourself because the interviewer (in this case a recruiter) may have questions designed to be a trap for new guys who think they know the answer. Just be up front about it, and let the interviewer make the decision if a new graduate is the person they're looking to hire.
 
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