location based blog: questions

Cat: Has this ever happened to you? You're in the middle of an interview - and you're pumped - because you're acing the technical questions - when out of the blue the interviewer asks: "If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be?" Or, "what's your favorite color?"

You can sit there frozen, like a deer in headlights, or you can anticipate "wacky questions" and respond calmly and logically. I'm Cat Miller and this is DiceTV.

So why do interviewers ask off-the-wall questions?

Think of it as a pop quiz. The interviewer wants to catch you off guard because unforeseen events happen all the time in IT. He's looking to see if you can think on your feet and stay calm in stressful situations. Of course, just knowing that you might be asked a wacky question reduces the surprise and allows you to plan your response.

Second, stay calm and take a moment to think before you answer. Your behavior and explanation are critical, so don't stress out about whether your favorite color is red or yellow.

Explain your answer and link it to your personal brand. Allow me to demonstrate. If I were an animal I'd be a dolphin because they're intelligent and they travel in pods and I'm a great team player. Here's another example: I'd be an owl because they're wise and my co-workers always come to me for technical answers and advice.

Don't say you'd be a dominant animal like a lion or a gorilla if you've been an IT manager and you're applying for a programming job because it opposes your goal. Which leads me to lesson number fumph, ah ¿ five - anticipate and prepare.

Although you never know exactly what an interviewer might ask, wacky questions usually fall into a few categories. Interviewers often ask about your heroes, your favorite food, car or color and your least favorite subject in school. Just thinking about your answers before the interview will help you respond with confidence.

I'm Cat Miller and this has been Dice TV. We now return you to your regular desktop.

DiceTV: Logical Answers to Illogical Questions

Post originale: http://career-resources.dice.com/articles/content/entry/dicetv_logical_responses_to_illogical

Monday, November 15, 2010

Interview Questions for Network Managers

When it comes to filling a network manager role, recruiters and interviewers want to hire someone with a balance of expert technical skills and strong communication skills. A top-notch candidate has a solid understanding of firewalls, routing protocols, SNMP, load balance and network design.

Interview Question for Network Managers "The hardest candidates to find are those with a combination of technical, verbal and written communication skills," says Sandy Lambert, CISSP-ISSMP, managing director of recruiter Lambert and Associates. "It's easier to find somebody who is technical than it is to find somebody who understands technology and can communicate it."

Generally, interviewers want to find out how network managers "deal with people, problems and technology," adds Ilya Talman, president of Roy Talman and Associates Inc., a Chicago-based search firm specializing in IT.

The following are a list of commonly asked interview questions:

Give me an example of the most challenging project you worked on when you were the leader.

To answer this question effectively, you've got to describe a project where you used both technology and managerial skills. Hone in on the number of people managed and the complexity of the project. Interviewers are also looking to see if you have experience managing a network similar in size and complexity to theirs. Which leads to another common question: What are the sizes of the networks you've previously dealt with?

Show me how you would implement a particular network.

This question can be tailored toward a specific position or contract job, says Vasanthan Dasan, CTO and vice president of engineering for the Armada Group, a staffing firm in Silicon Valley. Candidates must articulate, and sometimes show, how they'd plan and create a network. In one instance, Dasan's question for a was, "We need to design a caching network for a client that produces mapping software for customers worldwide. How would you go about implementing this network?"

"From the way they think and understand networks, I get a sense of whether they can do the job or not," Dasan says. "I may also ask them to write that down into a statement of work that includes how long it will take, what they will deliver and how they will implement it."

Here's an example of a network. Where and how would you put security controls into it?

Network managers are increasingly being asked to handle network security issues. When Lambert worked at Citibank, she would present a diagram of its network and ask candidates to draw and explain a security strategy. Similar questions are, "What other tools have you used to increase the security of a network?" and "What were you specifically responsible for to ensure firewalls and protect the network?"

Tell me about a mission-critical, 24/7 network you worked on.

"Many Network manager positions have to deal with a 24/7 environment," observes Craig Kapper, senior regional vice president for Robert Half International. "Ultimately we want candidates who can minimize downtime in a 24/7 environment." A follow-up question could be, "What type of redundancies did you implement for failover if the network goes down?"

What are some of the duties in your current or previous job that were satisfying to you?

Some people love to be involved with all the details of a project from start to finish. Others prefer supervising workers and allocating project details. "If they liked all the details at their previous position, then they may not work as a network manager, because the network manager has to oversee everything," Lambert says. Your answer also reveals your work habits, and gives clues on whether you know know how to motivate

Explain your hardware experience.

Interviewers are looking to understand not only your hardware experience and strengths, but how you've leveraged hardware in the past.

Explain your experience with VPN, network authenticity management, encryption and integrity issues.

With more people wanting to access company information remotely and from different devices, network managers are often asked questions regarding remote access, Kapper says.

Some other questions you may be asked:

Explain your experience implementing VoIP or wireless.

What is PKI? Describe 802.11.

How did you map and prepare a two- to three-year strategic roadmap for a network?

How did you negotiate with vendors?

How do you control network traffic?

-- Chandler Harris

Post originale: http://career-resources.dice.com/articles/content/entry/interview_questions_for_network_managers

Interview Questions for Enterprise Architects

Companies interviewing enterprise architects look for a comprehensive technical skill set, along with communication skills and a passion for the job.

Interview Questions for Enterprise Architects "There are a lot of people that interview and are passionate about something else," says Craig Kapper, senior regional vice president for Robert Half International. "You can be an okay communicator, but if this is your life work and you are wildly passionate about it, you'll probably get the job."

A firm foundation in one or more current architecture is essential. These include service-oriented architecture (SOA), model-driven architecture (MDA), event-driven architecture (EDA) and object-oriented design (OOD). During an interview, you should be able to explain your experience and give concrete examples of where you implemented it. You need a solid understanding of software development processes and methodologies, and should be able to explain TCP networking, firewalls, routing and load balancing.

Here's some key questions you can expect to be asked.

Give examples of enterprise architecture you designed and what type of protocols you used.

A successful answer includes an explanation of your experience and the methodology that was leveraged, middleware that was used to interact with complex environments, and lessons learned.

How do you see IT supporting new business initiatives?

This question attempts to reveal not only your experience and knowledge, but the vision you hold to transform and implement business strategies.

"The enterprise architect must be able to see big picture, the forest as opposed to the trees," says Sandy Lambert, managing director of recruiter Lambert and Associates.

What advice would you give server side Web developers wanting to ensure new code was secure from external attacks?

"Enterprise level work is inevitably about security," says Kapper. With security a major priority for an organization's infrastructure, enterprise architects must have a solid understanding of current security processes, including encryption, authorization, authentication and public key infrastructure.

What problems do you expect to encounter with an organization that has a "siloed" structure? How would you deal with it?

This is an organizational question that will be specific to a company's network. Lambert asked this specific question to candidates for Citibank in order to learn how they'd connect silos of a large and diverse infrastructure and enable the enterprise vision.

What kind of cloud computing work have you done?

This is the first question Vasanthan Dasan, CTO and vice president of engineering for the Armada Group asks of enterprise architects during interviews. He's interested in hearing of how they see their role in the ongoing trend in cloud computing and migration.

"The trend I've seen over the last three years has been organizations moving applications, infrastructure and network into a hosted cloud model," he says. "I believe that trend is going to continue for the next ten years as the majority of it infrastructure is moved to a hosted model."

Even if cloud computing experience may be on a candidate's resume, Dasan asks this question to learn about a candidate's experience and knowledge about cloud computing in his or her own words.

Describe how you migrated an application in a traditional architecture to the cloud.

Dasan follows up with this to see how a candidate solves problems and approaches cloud migration with a specific architecture. At times he'll even ask the candidate to demonstrate by drawing code and designs on a board.

"I'm looking for why they chose these methods, what features they included, what options and how they go about deciding certain components," he explains.

Prioritize the following criteria for a new code design based on importance, and explain your reasoning: performance, ease of maintenance, code accuracy, ease of use, and ease of adoption.

This one's tricky, since the right answer ultimately is what the client thinks is important. However, an honest assessment and identification that the right answer lies in an organization's needs is helpful.

Draw an example of the architecture of a high transaction website or database, and explain it.

This will test your knowledge, quick thinking ability and communication skills. The interviewer will look at load balances, Web servers, scalability, data modeling and among other things.

What enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have you worked with?

Kapper also asks, or follows up, with related ERP questions such as: What platforms have you used for ERP implementation efforts? What ERP modules have you been specifically responsible for? What ERP tasks were you assigned to? What kind of network protocols do you use?

How did you measure success and moderate performance in one of your projects?

"I'm really looking for good communication skills," Vasan says. "The ability to articulate, model the problem, extract solutions, define interfaces between components, and have good knowledge of what's possible implementation-wise, and what's available and tested in the marketplace."

Other questions:

What is the best project you ever worked on?

What did you contribute to the project?

-- Chandler Harris

Post originale: http://career-resources.dice.com/articles/content/entry/interview_questions_for_enterprise_architects

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Interview Questions for Project Managers

Interview questions for project managers inevitably focus on past project experience. The ability to form detailed and articulate responses is one of the top factors recruiters look for, since the nature of the position entails so much communication. You should also be able to demonstrate excellent organizational skills when you describe previous projects, according to Vasanthan Dasan, CTO and VP of Engineering for the Armada Group, a cloud computing firm in Silicon Valley. Demonstrating time-management skills, and the ability to identify project roadblocks in advance, are also key.

Interview Questions Project Managers Should be Ready For Here's a sample of the questions you'll be asked.

Give me an example of a project you managed as it relates to this position.

Most project manager interview questions are related to previous projects. The project manager should be able to articulate project details such as planning, methodology, team management, risk management, collaboration, technical tools, obstacles, communication and results.

The best answer is to give an example of a project that is similar to your prospective employer's projects. If not, you should at least attempt to orient the answer as it relates to the position.

Here's a sample project. How would you go about planning, managing and completing it?

A variation on the first question, this one's designed to test your quick-thinking ability and depth of knowledge.

Talk about a project you worked on that had problems and what you did to fix them.

A similar question that may be asked: "Explain when an IT project wasn't in line with what the organization wanted. How did you get around that?"

"Project Managers are frequently asked about challenges and to reveal a situation where there was conflict that needed to be resolved," says Susanne Currivan, senior account manager for Project One, a New York-based IT staffing firm.

During a project, how do you inform all stakeholders of progress on a regular basis?

Effective communication is key to a successful project, so you'll need to demonstrate numerous ways and tools used to communicate with team members and stakeholders in the organization.

"Methodology and communication end up being a big part of the hiring decision," says Craig Kapper, senior regional vice president for Robert Half Technology. "Do they have the right methodology and does the project manager consistently relay progress reports to stakeholders?"

What tools do you typically use to monitor and control a project?

Obviously, there are numerous tools that can be used during a project, yet some are more robust and scalable than others. The idea here is to find out if you're using some of the more effective tools available, Kapper says.

How did you apply your training or certification to a previous position?

This question will commonly be addressed to probe your experience or certification, such as PMI. Interviewers may follow up with a request to give specific examples.

Explain how you established a relationship with your project team and how you collaborated to get things done.

This is a "culture fit" question designed to discover how you work with other people. A similar question is: "Give an example when you received coaching and how you reacted."

Others to look out for:

What project management methodologies are you most familiar with?

Give an example of a time where you had a conflict with, or disagreed with a boss or coworker.

-- Chandler Harris

Post originale: http://career-resources.dice.com/articles/content/entry/interview_questions_project_managers_should

Friday, November 5, 2010

Interview Questions Project Managers Should Be Ready For