Finally gave my first interview but now I feel at my all time lowest.
Posted by ken-kanekiiiiii@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 21 comments
.
So I had an interview for a trainee DevOps role. I went to the location and, I was confident because as I was told they would be asking like the basics of Cloud platform and some basic docker and kubernetes I was sure that I'll handle it.
Aptitude was the first test we were given, we had to complete it in 1 hour and it had like 10- 15 questions. Believe me I honestly felt the aptitude was so tough that only the second question of the test took me 20 minutes to even understand.
So all in all got selected for the next round. Now was the time for the technical interview, keep in mind it was a trainee fresher DevOps/Cloud role.
1 question: tell me about yourself and how many brothers and sisters do you have. Like what were they going to do about my family?
2 question: tell me which instance type would you use for a task c7 or G3 something I'm like I have a basic knowledge of t2 and t3 i have never heard of this but still I tried to answer to the best of my knowledge.
Following questions were, osi model, what protocols are in which layer and how do you handle them, diff btw https and tls, diff in different load balancers and in which layer they operate.
After everything they didn't ask me anything about like what is docker or kubernetes or even functionality and whatsoever.
Whichever question I asked correctly they would go deeper to that topic till I got stuck, like tell me the diff versions of https. I do not know that I thought I had to learn basics of networking and basics of linux.
Now I want to know how much is the basic of networking and linux and how should I take this interview a lesson or a nightmare?
AniBMagal@reddit
Most of the time it's not to see if you know the answer, it's to see how you think when you don't know the answer, and how you would get to it.
ken-kanekiiiiii@reddit (OP)
But what if you actually don't know the answer to it?
four_reeds@reddit
If you don't know the answer say so. Don't try to fake your way to a solution, they know more than you do (probably).
Actually, if you don't know the answer but know how to find the answer, tell them you don't know but he is what I would do to find the answer.
VTi-R@reddit
This. But even so it's really depressing how often we tell candidates this at the start of the interview and yet they still flounder.
My spiel is usually something like this:
Then you ask a simple one like "Tell me what you know about DNS" to someone who claims to know Active Directory and has for ten years, and they say "Umm ... Um ... it resolves IPs to names" :(
iwaseatenbyagrue@reddit
It does resolve IPs to names.
ken-kanekiiiiii@reddit (OP)
That's one good suggestion, thankyou
post4u@reddit
You have to be confident in your ignorance. And I'm not saying that in a bad way. None of us know everything. I've conducted dozens of interviews. I'd rather hear, "Hmm...yeah...I don't know." and them be confident saying that. Then stay cool and answer what they DO know. Too often someone will get hung up on a question, freak out, and then freeze up the rest of the interview. Don't do that. Just impress them with what you do know.
ken-kanekiiiiii@reddit (OP)
I really freezed up.
MyPhotographyReddit@reddit
The first job I got I rambled on about how I rooted a phone to try and recover some lost files. I told them it didn't work. That didn't matter. It was the fact I was a complete nerd.
MedicatedDeveloper@reddit
Pretty sure question 1 is a no no in practically any western country.
DesignerGoose5903@reddit
What? Asking someone a basic personal question is a no-no? Why?
I figured it's just a get-talking start point to see how someone communicates. A direct person will answer only the question, a social person will expand into their family and how their background made them a fit for the job, etc.
It's essentially a "no wrong answers" questions just to get you warmed up instead of putting you in the hot chair directly.
MedicatedDeveloper@reddit
That kind of stuff is not what a prospective employer should know. It opens them up for all kinds of litigation.
Start talking about your pregnant wife? Don't get the job.
Talk about your disabled son? Don't get the job.
Talk about your same sex partner? Don't get the job.
raip@reddit
2/3 of these aren't protected classes so you're incorrect on opening them up for litigation. Additionally, none of these examples were answers to the question asked.
"Tell me about yourself" is a perfectly normal question and is open ended for how much the candidate wants to share.
"How many brothers and sisters do you have?" is a little odd - but as OC stated, it's likely a low ball question to learn how the candidate answers or to relieve the tension.
MedicatedDeveloper@reddit
Maybe I'm the weird one but work and personal life are separate, especially at the interview stage. I'll gladly talk about hobby x, technology y, or my vacation to z, but not details of my family. That's just fucking weird.
Once I'm hired I'll gladly share what I'm comfortable with but not before. I'm a very private person though, definitely not an extrovert.
If that's normal to you that's fine.
ken-kanekiiiiii@reddit (OP)
That too.
signal_empath@reddit
Everywhere is different with their interview process. I just went through 6 rounds for a senior role and got very few technical questions. They were very focused on character, whether or not I would be easy to work with, and how I approached problems vs what technical trivia I could recite. Honestly, it was kind of refreshing because I've been doing this a long time now and there is just too much stuff to know. Most of us engineers know we are just going to look up the technical details of something when we need to in order to solve the problem at hand. It's totally OK to say "I dont know" to those questions but then follow it up with "this is how I would approach the problem and figure it out".
ProfessionalEven296@reddit
This. I run interviews, and I’m not looking for a quiz show format; I want a conversation. Couldn’t give a crap about how much you know about Kubernetes, because we’ll show you the way we do it…
Now, if someone came to an interview not knowing at least the basics of the osi model… it’s not going to kill you off, but it’ll make passing the interview harder.
ken-kanekiiiiii@reddit (OP)
I'll keep that in mind, thankyou for that.
Whyd0Iboth3r@reddit
Sorry? Are you trying to social engineer me?
ken-kanekiiiiii@reddit (OP)
They were I guess😂
Wise_Guitar2059@reddit
This is in India ?