I know how to do the job, I just can't aswer questions about it

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WWGHIAFTC@reddit

Technical interviews are sort of garbage to me anyways. It doesn't tell me WHY you do it a certain way, or your thought processes around it. It doesn't tell me if you skip security, or validation, or communicating with stakeholders, etc...

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RememberCitadel@reddit

Honestly it has to be a balance of the soft and technical skills.

I need you to tell me how you handle things and your thought process so I know you can interact with users without being the stereotypical IT nerd, but also I need to get at least some technical info from you so I know your resume wasn't brought to me via chatgpt.

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gakule@reddit

The ruffled feathers are funny to me, honestly, especially the "you're probably not fit to conduct interviews".

As a hiring manager, I hate technical interviews. I care more about how you think, how you approach things, and your apparent cultural fit. There are ways to approach that without conducting a pure technical interview.

Hyper specific deep sole focused roles might be different, but let's be honest - that's not really what roles that fall under sysadmin especially entail usually.

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kjeserud@reddit

I interviewed for a linux sys admin position once, in the interview I was literally put in front of a whiteboard with very specific tasks. Could I solve it all very easily in front of my laptop with access to history, man pages, google etc? Of course.

Could I do it purely from memory? Fuck no.

Didn't get that job.

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gakule@reddit

Yeah that's my issue. Some people aren't great "test takers", and of course never in real life do you pull strictly from memory. That's unrealistic.

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VirtualKai@reddit

I don’t mean to say this in a berating way, or in any way disrespectful, but I don’t think you’re fit for interviews if that’s how you think. Interviews within IT are exactly that, it’s not about receiving the immediate answer and nothing around it.

When I conduct interviews, I ask them specific questions relating to their respective technologies to understand if; a) They know the answer - b) If they don’t know the exact answer, which is fine because we can’t know everything, then I want to see where their brain goes.

If you have been in the field, and you’ve been in situations that are new to you, which ‘every’ engineer should experience daily in my opinion, then you shouldn’t have a problem with telling me what you would do, where you would go to start resolving the issue straight off the bat.

It isn’t about knowing the answer, it’s about whether you would go down the right paths to find that answer.

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screampuff@reddit

I ask them specific questions relating to their respective technologies to understand if...

That is very, very, very dependent on how you phrase the questions and what exactly you're asking.

I'd like to think I'm good at interviews, I got a job offer in like the last 5 I've done for everything from Systems Engineer to IT Manger and Enterprise Architect (which I am now). And in my experience most interviewers are not good at finding anything but people who are good at interviews.

Rather than how to approach solving specific problem or explain a concept, it's better to ask more open ended questions.

For example

'Explain how DHCP works' is a bad question

'A computer can't ping anything by hostname but it can by IP' is a bad to meh question.

'Our office has grown and we need to expand the subnet/dhcp scope from /24. How would you approach that?' is a much better question, it gives multiple angles for the person to start talking about, from network switch, routher/firewall level, AD sites and services, to dhcp server configuration, you can poke and prod and ask follow up questions ask stuff like, is there anything you might do before or around the cutover to make things go smoothly? If they didn't touch on something like lease times, or would AD require any updates to know about the changed subnets, etc...

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WWGHIAFTC@reddit

I agree with everything you said, and I probably wrote my comment a bit flippantly because I've been through many hellish Q&A exam style interviews over the decades that simply did not allow for any discussion. Literally a questions with an expected 'correct' answer. Move on.

So when I said what I said, I'm looking for giving someone the opportunity to explain to me how they would get to a goal (very specific to the technology being discussed, can't really fake it) and I value that more than a recited technical answer.

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Kardinal@reddit

Exactly.

I'm looking for how they think every bit as much as whether they know the answer.

My other top level comments in this thread expand on that.

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TU4AR@reddit

100% agree.

I let your resume talk about your technical experience. I might breeze how would you go figuring out about X , but not do a 5 question deep dive of it.

Knowing where someone comes from and why they are interested in a position is much more important than "can you do x".

I hired a dude solely on the fact cus he said " I just want money and a job" can you ask for anyone more truthful than that? Dude still tells me what's up without a paragraph of text.

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renegadecanuck@reddit

I've been burned by purely technical interviews in my past that literally had a exam style questions with expected 'correct' answers with no room for discussion or explanation. These types are not helpful for anyone.

I love when they get a non-technical person to administer the test or ask the questions. "Nope, wrong". It really isn't, but you don't know enough for me to explain my thought process.

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WWGHIAFTC@reddit

Or if you pause to sort out your reply and explain that it depends on x,y,and z and start to discuss multiple paths, and it wasn't what they had written in their answer sheet. NEXT!

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craigyceee@reddit

True, but they can certainly help dodge someone skilled at pulling the wool over your eyes about their experience! Be warned! 😆 Even a quick typing test is worth it's weight in gold to eliminate the 1-finger wonders.

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Kardinal@reddit

It can if you ask the right questions.

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dark_frog@reddit

Or follow ups

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Runes_the_cat@reddit

I struggle with the same thing. I'm great at my job, but I do sound dumb in interviews. I sound dumb all the time 😭

But I have really bad social anxiety and untreated ADHD. It's tough. I study really hard for interviews though and that helps.

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Tymanthius@reddit

You don't need to know the commands. You need to be able to talk about the thought process you use to get there.

Anybody can google the commands, if they know the thought process.

I've fixed so many systems I'd never touched before b/c I knew what needed to happen, but I had to look up how to make it work on that particular system.

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RandomSkratch@reddit

Sounds like when this black box of a linux machine got shut down inadvertently and when it was brought back up, things didn’t auto start. The fuck if I knew how this thing was cobbled together but after getting logged in and su’ing to the only logical user on the system, a quick check of bash history gave it away. Saved the day there. (Didn’t tell them that it was also me who caused the problem, but that’s neither here nor there 😂)

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inbeforethelube@reddit

If the outage is fixed before anyone notices, was there even an outage?

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nimbusfool@reddit

That sounds oddly close to my favorite activity, the scream test

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inbeforethelube@reddit

My favorite activity is calling out the amatuer hour people who do scream tests.

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RememberCitadel@reddit

Eh, sometimes you find an old system the previous people never documented so you have no idea who is using it. There are a few rare applications of the scream test that make sense given the above.

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inbeforethelube@reddit

No. You document the applications running on it, you monitor the network traffic going in/out of it, you talk to the business about what applications they use, you talk about a planned outage. There is no scream. That's for amatuers.

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superspeck@reddit

I love when inflexible people who have an idea of how things should be show up at my workplaces. I get to introduce them to the dark horrors and my favorite friends with the tight white hug vests get another new friend!

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inbeforethelube@reddit

lol. You are the person who shows up at my workplace and I get to show you that you aren't doing a damn scream test on my systems.

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superspeck@reddit

That would be stupid. No one should intentionally cause a scream test.

But the idea that you can touch systems in production without occasionally breaking one is equally stupid. In order to maintain systems, you have to touch them. If you stop touching them, no one has the experience to fix them when they’re really broken. Not all of the touching can happen in off hours.

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RememberCitadel@reddit

Lots of places work 24/7 also.

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Geno0wl@reddit

we are a 24/7 shop but our CEO doesn't want to pay for admin staff to work second or thirds so a lot of problems our end users run into just don't get solved until the morning/Monday

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RememberCitadel@reddit

I've seen that a good amount too.

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Mono275@reddit

There are definitely times you do all that and still only find out 6 months after you decommed a machine that it's used once a year for some random end of year process. The key is to have all the change controls and documentation showing you tried to figure out who owned it. You document the apps, send emails, monitor network traffic for 1 month, powered it off and let it sit for a month before you decom it. When someone screams you have your handy little paper trail.

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RememberCitadel@reddit

Clearly you haven't encountered the type of environments I have had to come into sometimes.

The 20 year old computer tucked in the corner that nobody has credentials to because the guy retired 5 years ago and left zero documentation, but the customer wants you to complete your audit quickly cause they pay you by the hour. No department takes ownership for it either. Nobody is wasting their time to figure out what the hell that thing is doing. Turn it off and then go check with everyone to see if anything they used stopped working.

There are plenty of places that would rather that then spend all the time and money to figure it out. Just because you don't typically work with businesses that prefer that approach doesn't mean they don't exist, and that it isn't occasionally a valid approach.

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yourenotkemosabe@reddit

Is the weather nice on your planet?

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nimbusfool@reddit

Thanks friend! I appreciate you. im glad we can both enjoy our favorite activities!

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nimbusfool@reddit

Thanks friend! I appreciate you.

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Surface13@reddit

Test in prod you say?!

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TheJesusGuy@reddit

Well where else would you test it

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Aim_Fire_Ready@reddit

If a server goes offline in the woods and no one is around to complain, do we still get credit for fixing it?

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RandomSkratch@reddit

Oh someone noticed. That’s how I (and my boss) learned that box was “critical” lol.

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mitharas@reddit

Good old scream test, though apparently unintented.

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Valheru78@reddit

We call it the 'whine' test, because some use will come and whine about it if it's important😅

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RandomSkratch@reddit

Definitely unintended.

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Entaris@reddit

100%.

The way I sold myself in the interview for my current job was basically answering the question “What is the most difficult problem you’ve had to solve” with “there aren’t any difficult or easy problems in IT. there are problems you know the answer to and ones you don’t know the answer to. Sometimes you get lucky and find the answer to a problem right away that someone else takes weeks to find. And sometimes you have trouble finding the answer someone else found easily. At the end of the day though it’s just a series of commands that solves the issue. I can’t know every answer to every problem but I can keep researching until I FIND the answer. My strongest attribute is that I have the patience to go step by step to eliminate issues until everything is perfect.”

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fearless-fossa@reddit

there aren’t any difficult or easy problems in IT

There absolutely are though. Your answer appears like some profound wisdom but the more you think about it, it's just dancing around the question without actually answering it.

The question wants to find out which stuff you struggled with, and your answer is "I'll lock myself in a basement and google for five years until I have a solution that works in every edge-case" when the problem was setting up an alarm clock.

Also, a good admin knows when perfect becomes the enemy of good. Stuff doesn't have to be perfect, it has to work with a determinable reliability.

I'd REALLY rethink about giving that answer in an interview.

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Entaris@reddit

I mean...Sure... Look, There have been a few people questioning this answer as though I intended it to be some great ultimate wisdom. I did not. Nor is it a complete answer by itself. its a partial, paraphrased anecdote that was one 45 second moment of a longer interview from 10 years ago that i intended as a throw away reply to someone saying that IT was more about methodology than specific, which I agree with.

That being said, I do believe "There aren't any difficult or easy problems in IT" is a fairly accurate statement. Sometimes answers are more common than others sure, but i have a hard time thinking about that in terms of "difficulty" rather then "obscurity" but maybe thats just me. And admittedly my last interview was conducted with a linguist, so maybe my weird take on the distinction between the two was a bonus. Who knows.

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scsibusfault@reddit

Every time I give an answer like this, it feels like I get a blank stare and a followup question like "so... we were hoping for a specific example, though".

I started ending these kind of answers with "but if you really want a specific one, I can point to (this issue) that took (this long) using (this process), what kind of detail are you looking for?"

Lets me also find out if I'm dealing with the person who's just checking a "yeah he answered this" box, or if they're going to ask a relevant question about (this process).

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Signal_Till_933@reddit

I’m with you. If you don’t know the answer to a specific question you can say I don’t know but I would figure it out by doing xyz. But the whole spiel above rarely works, they either want to hear how you solved a specific problem or how you would solve a problem you don’t already know the answer to.

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RememberCitadel@reddit

I would temper that by saying you have the ability to bring in resources who have the answer when you don't.

I'd be pretty pissed if I had an admin searching for the answer for a week when they could have spent two hours to call an expert and have it fixed.

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RandomSkratch@reddit

I’m bookmarking your reply for when I have to interview next. That’s gold right there (and exactly how my brain works). Just not that eloquent.

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Sysadmin_in_the_Sun@reddit

Once i was grilled for every SCCM log file under the sun by 3 Indians. I told them when I work I got the docs open. They said they client won't allow it. Told them I will use my phone. Then it all went downhill from there..

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newguestuser@reddit

My boss tends to get pissy with me whenever he asks me how I am going to do something and I answer " I do not know" as I proceed in doing it. In fact I have gotten to the point of preemptively answering "does it really matter" most of the time and he usually concurs that it does not really matter, he was just curious.

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Pocket-Flapjack@reddit

I do this too, no idea what im going to do, just work the problem.

I am starting to write down my steps now including commands and resource videos (youtube) for tasks.

Seems to put people a bit more at ease... my latest is deploying 802.1x where its really well planned and then at the end it says

"Do some stuff on a firewall to let the traffic through, I donno Ill see if it works first"

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ratmouthlives@reddit

Do you upload to a private YouTube channel? How do you share the info or store it?

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Pocket-Flapjack@reddit

I dont mean I create my own videks, I meant I keep the resources I have found with the steps.

Sticking with 802.1x if someone has a video on making the certs that I liked I will link that with the "Create certs" step

If I find one for configuring the NPS then I will link that.

Its a way of keeping my tasks and task information together.

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ratmouthlives@reddit

Do you put it in one note?

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Pocket-Flapjack@reddit

One note would be fine, I use Obsidian and write my notes in markdown.

The only reason for markdown is that I can convert markdown to PDF if I need to turn my steps into a handy document.

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ratmouthlives@reddit

Thanks for the tips

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Ssakaa@reddit

So, particularly when playing with things like 802.1x where a mistake can cause an outage for everyone... what he wasnts is probably less an exact set of steps that you're going to take and more a) some sense that you're actually confident about how to implement it, and b) some sense that you've planned around when and how to back out and recover if it does go wrong. Also sounds like a "formerly technical" boss... that both doesn't love delegating and doesn't understand how to convey what they actually need you to provide for them to share in that confidence that you've planned this implementation out.

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Pocket-Flapjack@reddit

Oh yeah, thats fully covered, set up certs, install NPS, configure NPS, configure switch, enable 802.1x on a single port and test.

I was simply saying that whilst I very frequently go into tasks winging it I have started to be a bit more thorough in my planning 😀

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roboto404@reddit

My boss just wants me to contact someone to figure it out. Dude, let me do my job and figure it out. I’m not contacting Level 1 so they can ask me stupid questions or contact level 3 and wait days for a response.

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endbit@reddit

My boss hates when he asks how long it will take and gets a how long us a piece of string. How the hell should I know if it's a completely novel issue? To 'what are you going to do' he just get a 'Or a leave it with me I'll get it sorted'. If there's any further concerns it's 'top prioity' if it's particularly bad 'whole team's working on it'. Gave up trying to describe what I do years ago.

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RikiWardOG@reddit

Ive always ruled of thumb it to basically think how much time it will take and then double it. You need to bake in some wtf why isn't this working as documented time

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craigyceee@reddit

It should be documented either way, if not in a SoP because it's repeatable, in a resolution note on a ticket 😵 C'mon man, write it down, or at least learn why you should write it down so you can lie about your documentation skills to your next employer.

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WhiskyEchoTango@reddit (OP)

I do document. I have a notebook (because I am incapable of making notes on the computer as I work on the computer, thanks ADHD!) that I document all my changes in, and type them up later.

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newguestuser@reddit

I know why it should be written. I also do the writing. I just do not know how to answer how I do it, when asked. I seldom do it exactly as I documented because I wrote the instructions to a specific standard that must be followed when writing, but not required when "doing".

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Fallingdamage@reddit

I can and do explain a lot throughout each workday. Enough so that when I go to do something I cant explain, nobody minds. They know I can do it.

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oDiscordia19@reddit

I’ll have some preexisting thoughts, some hypothesis and a bit of googling to do - but it’ll get it done. But you gotta stop talking to me until I get it done or, you guessed it, it’s not going to get done lol.

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saagtand@reddit

Everyone googles shit when they need to do something outside their normal routines ;)

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OneSeaworthiness7768@reddit

I don’t think this is uncommon. I can sit down and do or figure out how to do anything. But I have a horrible memory and struggle with information recall, even for things I do actually know well.

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LuckyWriter1292@reddit

You need to convince them you know what you are doing, I bring examples of work which are relevant to the role.

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spermcell@reddit

I think the most important thing an interviewer is looking for is how you think rather then showing them that you know how to do a thing

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Odd_Awareness_6935@reddit

you wouldn't have been able to invite so many commenters and upvotes otherwise though :)

good luck in your journey

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xb4r7x@reddit

Interview question: "Explain to me how you would do X"

Answer: "Well, I'd start by filing a ticket, and then I'd develop a plan for myself and spell out all the requirements in the ticket - looking towards internal documentation and external resources or even AI (if appropriate) as necessary to properly spell out what needs doing, after the plan was created and carefully reviewed I'd execute it step-by-step, taking notes of the results along the way. If this is something that will need to be performed on a regular basis, I'd then shift my focus to writing documentation so that the process can be accurately repeated, and/or, I'd focus on automating the task, if that's appropriate."

No commands remembered. Question adequately answered.l

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Exact-Account-1025@reddit

Interviewer: How to do this? Op: pure instinct

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Fallingdamage@reddit

Employers want booksmart people who know how to memorize. They dont want intelligent people.

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rschulze@reddit

Quite the opposite. They are looking for people who fundamentally understand what they are setting up and can transfer that knowledge to different situations (other vendors, setups, operating systems, ...), or debug environments.

If all you know is "press the red button, enter 45, press the yellow button, move the blue slider to 80%", but can't explain what is actually happening, then you don't really know how to setup X, you just memorized the steps and are fucked in a different environment or vendor.

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ABotelho23@reddit

You don't understand it. You don't know the fundamentals. If the command syntax changes, you'd be fucked.

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WhiskyEchoTango@reddit (OP)

I do know the fundamentals. I have an issue with retention of information unless I do the task over and over. I've configured enough AD servers that I can explain the steps, setup DNS, DHCP, etc. I can do the same for creating various exchange objects in Exchange Online and Exchange 2003. But for things that I may not do frequently, such as configure a full Autopilot rollout, or deploy an app with Intune, I have extensive notes on the steps. I can do it without the notes if I'm staring at it. I know the difference between assigning an application and requiring an application. I know where to look to set up policies. I can manually enroll devices in Autopilot. I know to manually sync my ABM enrollment token with Intune every time I enroll a new MacOS or iOS device before restarting that device after enrollment.

I can't tell you names of policies. I can't tell you how to set up LAPS. But I can do it, I have done it successfully multiple times. I have my notes from every time I've done it.

If the command syntax changes, I would look it up, just like anyone else would need to do when the command syntax changes. I can read and comprehend the details and understand why I shouldn't use "contains" to set up a dynamic group.

I just can't put that into words. Put me in front of a system, and frankly even without my notes, reading the menu options would be enough to trigger my memory of how to do it.

It's the same reason I have struggled with certification exams. I can execute the processes. I can visualize a process I have done multiple times. I can't read the process and know how to do it without actually stepping through the process.

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Safe-Ball4818@reddit

This is exactly why whiteboarding interviews are broken. Most of us work by muscle memory and documentation, not by memorizing syntax. If you can explain the architecture and the "what" and "why" behind the task, you’re doing the job fine. Don't sweat the specific commands; nobody actually keeps that in their head.

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QuietlyJudgingYouu@reddit

We share the same problem. This is so me.

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anonymousITCoward@reddit

if you "can just do it" you should be able to describe your process... you don't need specifics because those can change but your process should be solid

and by that I mean

before you start you need X, Y, and Z... if you don't have Y because you don't know Y.thePreRequisite don't worry you can get it later.

To start

open this app/connect to this thing
proceed to this page/tab
click this button and get X
you should be getting the picture now

If you cannot articulate this you need to work on your communication skills... that is a basic thing and that could be why you're not employed right now.

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03263@reddit

A lot of my process depends on feedback from the computer

Even with your example, websites change so often I don't expect them to always have the same buttons or labels, but no matter what it looks like I've used thousands and can figure it out quickly every time. Yet I don't commit a single one to memory.

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anonymousITCoward@reddit

then it would be something like

enter BIOS
disable
enable
clear
Install software

again I didn't ask for detailed instructions, I asked for the process...

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NorthernVenomFang@reddit

I have been in this field for over 20+ years; general IT consultant, wireless network technician, wireless network administrator, computer tech, network administrator, sysadmin. I have touch so many different operating systems, databases, hypervisors, container management systems, programming/scripting languages, desktop apps, server apps... There is just no way to remember all of it.

I can remember most of the basic stuff, the method it should be done with, and maybe some of the more advanced/esoteric stuff. Today I had to setup a new kubernetes cluster, done it a half dozen times in the past 8 years, but I still don't have it memorized, and things change (new version, deprecated components, new components) had to read the documentation again and change some deployment steps.

In the past (1995 - 2010) there was a base set of skills you could get by on and usually get a decent job with (A+, Network+, some MS AD + Exchange, a basic knowledge of Mac, plus a basic Linux knowledge, and maybe a CMS like WordPress); alot of this stuff was core and with some work a fair amount of it could be memorized as most of it you worked with day to day. Now it's gotten to the point where it's overwhelming the amount of crap that is thrown at a SysAdmin: Intune, M365, Azure (I have lost track how many times they move/change things in the GUI), AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, Ansible/Puppet/Salt, Linux, BSDs, MacOS, tablets & cell phones, MDMs, SSL/TLS certificate automation, Hypervisors, Windows Server, PowrShell, BASH, multiple AI agents, kernel settings, server software specific to your org, plus all of the core stuff from 20 years ago. The days of memorizing and remembering everything are long gone, it's just not possible, at least if you want a life outside work.

Remember: You can have something done right, done fast, and/or done cheap.... You can only have two out of the three though.

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nimbusfool@reddit

Every time I do a task these days I just throw it in to a solutions manual. I can't remember shit (the weed of the shire) but I can follow a numbered list! Thanks for being smarter past me! If Im using AI to evaluate something that turns out to be a larger issue I have it write playbooks around the issue. Certainly a lot more training than work has ever offered me. I remember 10 years ago inheriting a vmware stack that nobody had any idea about but was critical to production. One of those we lost the knowledge with the last guy scenarios. I stared at that thing and worked to hunt down any blog or manual I could find. Took months to tame. Now I could say hey Ive got a 5 stack of bare metal vmware servers running a broker service for on demand cloud desktops and thin clients. Give me a playbook on updates maintenance and health checks based around the version.

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OddWriter7199@reddit

"My fingers know. My mouth doesn't always."

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SecludedExtrovert@reddit

Same. I can figure damn near anything out with enough time and a few resources…but can’t tell you how I did it, nor can I answer questions about it on the spot.

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Crazy-Rest5026@reddit

You don’t need to know everything. You just need to be able to extract the info and execute.

That’s 99% of IT work

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viking_linuxbrother@reddit

You don't need to be able to answer all the questions. Just more than the other people also interviewing for the job.

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03263@reddit

Same bro. I'm good at figuring things out, not knowing things. The only thing I know is where the info I need is, not what it says.

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HoosierLarry@reddit

gif

Yup. Same here.

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lgq2002@reddit

That means you know how to do it, but don't know why yet.

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willdeleteacct1year@reddit

That goes both ways, I been doing this for 20 years and stopped caring about the why, just get it fuckin done so I can get paid and countdown days until retirement.

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anonymousITCoward@reddit

But, since you did at one point care about the why, you probably possess the critical thinking skills. I, now days, often will fix an issue but never ever go looking for root cause anymore... i just don't care... If asked i might do it... but probably not... I'll just blame AWS for being down or something.

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anonymousITCoward@reddit

I like this... i try to tech my, well tried, I was voted off the island.. but anyways not my pity party... I tried to teach my guys the steps and why we're doing them, and ultimately how to think about them so that when they come across a similar issue they can get through it... they never want to know the why so they'll never grow.. or will have limited growth..

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cleansheet25@reddit

I think it’s the tendency of an expert to avoid speculation when evidence is at their fingertips.

The more experience you have, the more the answer to “how do you do this” is always “it depends on the conditions, configuration, and situation”.

With practice, I learn to (sometimes) assess the correct depth of my audience, and i got better at responding in the moment.

Honestly, this might be the primary distinguishing characteristic of a good presales engineer.

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tardiusmaximus@reddit

It could also mean that he doesn't know why, but he does know how.

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lgq2002@reddit

Is that not what I said?

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Kardinal@reddit

I think the previous commenter was memeing on you.

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gnawdawg@reddit

My boss told me something to this effect the other day: it's not really about how much you know but how much you can figure out.

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AnalTwister@reddit

This might be a hot take for this sub, but if you're really good then you should only need a little bit of refresher to connect some missing dots and remember some stuff you usually google. Relying on muscle memory and intuition often means that there's gaps in your knowledge.

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BoltActionRifleman@reddit

We’re a fairly small org and I don’t do a lot of hiring, but when I do I don’t give two shits about someone’s specific skills or telling me how to do XYZ off the top of their head. All I care about is if they seem like someone who can troubleshoot in general. There are so many people in this world who are simply incapable of thinking “Well, this program is doing these three things, but not this other thing, ever since ____ happened. Let’s see what happens if we change these 5 settings, one at a time, with testing in between”. Most people just think to themselves “Thing broken, someone fix”.

I don’t have a point to my story other than telling you to hang in there and keep looking. There are those of us out here who look at the person and their methods vs. their accreditations.

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Byany2525@reddit

It is my humble opinion as a IT hiring manager that if you can’t answer questions about the system that you administer, you likely rely on ChatGPT to do the job for you. Just saying. I’m talk to 100 guys like this a week. It’s very sad to see where the profession is going. Hardly anyone can answer these questions anymore. This is also why the jobs salary is getting lower and lower. It’s becoming unskilled labor. But for the guys that can, they find it easy to soar with the eagles when surrounded by turkeys.

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1stUserEver@reddit

Those that can answer those “book” questions usually can’t do the job and rely on others to do it. They fail upward into management roles. I think they call those paper tigers.

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Nik_Tesla@reddit

Expecting people to memorize commands is so dumb. I could deploy an MSIX in like a dozen ways depending on how many machines need it, where those machines are (local or remote), depending on what tools we as an org have to do things like this (RMM, PDQ, SCCM, just a GPO, etc...) or if I just need to install it on the computer I'm sitting in front of.

I don't know the commands for any of those off the top of my head, but I know what questions to ask to do it the best way, and THAT is what you're paying me for. You pay Claude for the commands.

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dathar@reddit

I have a learning problem stemming from aphantasia. It is extremely hard for me to describe stuff like where to click specifically unless I'm looking at it. But when you start getting down to the details and product(s) familiarity, you can talk your way thru a lot. It won't be specifics but you can tell them your thought processes, what you think it is, how you'd verify it or look for documentation, etc. I don't remember the specifics of building an image on SCCM or MDT since that was >8 years ago but I can talk you thru DISM, sysprep generalize and all that good stuff that goes into it.

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Master-IT-All@reddit

My answer to any how do you do this is question in an interview is, "look up the documented standard operating procedure."

If there isn't an SOP, then I would triage the ticket to determine if the issue is one within my duties and capabilities or if it would need to be escalated.

If I'm the escalation point then it's my task to document the SOP.

But at no time would I riff off the top of my head the commands or exact requirements or design. That's Cowboy IT.

If they get butt hurt for implying they do Cowboy IT, that's a red flag.

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Temporary-Library597@reddit

Communication is a more important skill then being able to do it. Companies need people who can not only do it, but that can translate the actions into logical and replicable steps to get work done.

If you can't at least write it down...you can see where that's problematic for an organization that would like to stay in business after you are gone, right?

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Bongo_56@reddit

Fucking preach brother/sister!

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Trust_8067@reddit

No one is ever expected to know the exact syntax, but you should definitely know the core requirements or at least be able to explain how something works.

When I interview people, I have a list of technical questions that scale in difficulty. I stop once they can't answer 2-3 of them. Sometimes they get into specific syntax, sometimes they don't. It's just a test to see how far you can go. If you can't get out of the gate, you're done, but no one has "failed" an interview for not answering syntax specific questions.

Yes, you most likely are still unemployed because of this. Communication is critical in IT, soft skills are just as important as technical skills. If you can't teach someone how to do something that you can easily do, then you absolutely don't deserve a job.

I would recommend practicing the interview questions you feel like you're getting hung up on, and to have a piece of paper with you on interviews, as a cheat sheet to help answer the questions you're getting stuck on.

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narcoleptic_racer@reddit

i flunked an interview because i didn't know in which menu was an option. Then again i probably dodged a bullet !

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Capt91@reddit

Tell them your declarative memory is poor which is why you document everything and don't memorize easily googleable things.

Your procedural memory however is excellent and the skill of using commands, that are context based, is not the same as the skill of recalling and explaining them.

Everyone still knows how to ride a bike even if they haven't got on one in years.

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Kardinal@reddit

When I interview, and I only do technical parts of interviews, I ask open-ended questions.

Tell me all the things that I have to think about to establish hybrid connectivity between exchange online and exchange on prem.

Tell me all the steps that happened technically between when you send an email from Outlook and it goes to another organization.

When you do an NSlookup, what happens after you press enter to give you the result that you're looking for? And then give them a couple of example domains or host names.

Explain the difference between SPF, DKIM, and DMARC and how they affect whether an email is delivered or not.

If I have to craft a conditional access policy to ensure that all my guest users can only get to a certain SharePoint online site, what would I do?

I'm not necessarily looking for the right answer to each of these questions. I will often say, if the candidate struggles with the details, that I'm looking as much for how they think it through and what they think about as I am that they know exactly what button to push or what command to run.

This tells me not only how much of these technologies do they understand, but how did they think about technologies and how they work together.

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WhiskyEchoTango@reddit (OP)

Explain the difference between SPF, DKIM, and DMARC and how they affect whether an email is delivered or not.

I know what they do, I know what they're for. I can even set them up properly. But the definitions of the acronyms? Nope. Not without looking it up, except for SPF being Sender Policy Framework. DKIM is domain key something, and i can't remember DMARC.

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Kardinal@reddit

Notice I didn't actually ask about what they mean. If you can explain the difference, what they do, and especially generally what it looks like when implemented and where, you get big thumbs up from me.

The definition of the acronym is irrelevant. "Sender Policy Framework" especially is such a silly generic description that it's useless!

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XB_Demon1337@reddit

There is a non-zero chance that it is more than just that. I have gotten several jobs at this point for things I can't do from memory verbally. But when in front of the system I can do the thing without much fuss.

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WhiskyEchoTango@reddit (OP)

I can't spell "Administrator" without typing it out on a keyboard.

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oldspiceland@reddit

“Leave me alone, I know what I’m doing” - Kimi-Matias Räikkönen, 2014

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craigyceee@reddit

It sounds like you just need more exposure to the real job, in a position where you have vets around to explain stuff and embed proper terminology into you. Maybe consider a lower graded job first, positioned somewhere just under where you want to be, then showing a keen interest in learning upwards technically. My advice, do this and if you're not a wiz in several new areas within a year, move sideways elsewhere. If you are, move up elsewhere.

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ethnicman1971@reddit

You don’t really know a topic unless you can explain it. Do you at least know the steps you need to take even if you don’t recall the exact commands that need to be given?

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ihaxr@reddit

Yep. Even if it's just high level steps like "I'll use robocopy to do an initial sync of the files then enable the replication"

Nobody really cares if you can rattle off every comment line switch for robocopy, we can all type robocopy /?

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WWGHIAFTC@reddit

And I want to hear how they will know that copy is including all the files that it should, how they will plan the downtime for the switchover, if they will do the final delta / sync live or in downtime, how they will anticipate the potential unforeseen consequences, how they will communicate, and how they will verify the results. How they will use logging capabilities to check for errors, etc..

I really don't care if they know the command offhand.

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WWGHIAFTC@reddit

Right, like If I ask a candidate to walk me through the process of replacing a DEAD domain controller (for example) - I don't expect a power shell version to be recited to me. I expect a well thought out answer that covers the critical components and steps, and discuses the variables that could come up in different environments. This discussion tells me much much more than simply someone remembering a dcdiag command or knowing the command to remove a dc from sites and services with powershell.

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Man-e-questions@reddit

Found the button masher

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cowboygas@reddit

That’s my thought. Maybe this post is about many scenarios being different and it not being about knowing exact answers upfront but it sounds like a clickops mentality and needs to mature to progress.

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TerrificVixen5693@reddit

Forgive me for not remembering the exact syntax of a verbose command or the name of the exact GUI setting we have to enable. I know how to do it. I know why we’re doing it. But it’s not something I can always vocalize without stepping through it.

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bigwetducky@reddit

are you sure it isn’t “i know how to do the job if i have google?”

love when companies pretend the internet doesn’t exist and we should all have a couple hundred commands memorized at all times

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Kardinal@reddit

I guess in addition to my other comment I should give some advice.

When you go to answer a technical question and you don't know the specific button to push or command to execute, tell the interviewer what that button would do or what that command would do and why.

I remember taking an exam for I think it was server 2016 and there was a specific question about NUMA shared memory and I could not remember what the checkbox was in the virtual machine manager interface.

If that had been an interview question, I would have talked about the circumstances in which you would use NUMA shared memory and when you wouldn't, and what the definition of it is if I could remember it. That way I demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concept even if I don't remember what the box was called.

Similarly, one question that I often ask when hiring for active directory is for them to tell me the different kinds of replication that must work for AD to function. If someone doesn't know that it's DFS/FRS and NTDS.DIT, or even that it's called Directory and File replicatiob, I don't care that much as long as they tell me about the account and data replication distinct from the file shares that hold on to the group policies and login scripts. I'd like to hear SYSVOL but it's not needed.

Maybe that helps.

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