Esther, I think the first question that springs to mind for me is "What does Network Administrator mean to you?". But this is a question that the hiring manager needs to be asking herself as well. I've seen jobs listed as Network Administrators that include any/all of: Novel Netware Administrators; Windows AD Administrators; Network Engineer (Routing, Switching, etc.); DNS Administrator; etc. Sometimes its just a Jack-of-all-trades type of position. I personally think this is one of the biggest failings we have in this industry. Compare to other industries where the terminology is well defined. A hospital administrator looking to hire a new podiatrist doesn't have to make sure that the candidates all really are foot doctors...
My personal definition of Network Engineer or Network Manager includes: Basic networking (routing, switching, LAN and WAN technologies and network design); Firewalls; VPN services; VOIP services; IP address management; DNS; DHCP; RADIUS; Network Monitoring. Assuming we're already on the same page as to what the terms we're using mean, I tend to prefer open ended questions. My favorite question would probably be something like: "Eventually in this field we all make mistakes. My worst mistake was <...>. Whats the worst mistake you've ever personally made as a Network Administrator, and what did you learn from it?" I'll expect a good description of an significant event and analysis of what went wrong and how to avoid similar problems. If the candidate can't think of such an event or can't describe something without putting the blame on someone else, I'll doubt his/her willingness to admit to mistakes on the job. Another good question (depending on the exact position) is to ask the candidate to describe a project they've been involved in, giving a high level view of the entire project and a detailed description of the work they were personally involved in. I've successfully used that question to weed out candidates that were applying for hands-on technology jobs but were really hands off managers, and candidates who seemed good on paper but when asked to describe a project were completely unable to articulate a coherent vision of a project. -David (Senior Network Engineer for a mid-sized global company.) _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lopsa.org http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
