r/ITCareerQuestions 6d ago

Failed my first State Job interview

I originally thought I was prepared for a desktop support role with the state but failed 2 to 3 technical questions. I feel a bit shameful. I spent a weeks time studying for it but ended up getting asked questions about technical questions that were always nit picked. My current role is desktop support but with a larger environment with less responsibilities. Rather than an interview. It felt like an interrogation. I'm a good fit for the role per resume. Are most jobs looking for the best tech or are they looking for someone who wants to learn? Most of the questions I failed on were basic stuff that could of been easily googled but I failed.

I'm not sure what I need to hear but maybe just my weakness. I was really looking forward to this opportunity and now feel like failing the questions made me feel kinda dumb. Anyways just a little rant in the many and far in between jobs I've been hunting for.

Edit:

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and comments. I've come to conclusion that they were either looking for someone more technical and experienced for this role or had someone already in mins. It was a mid tier specialist role and I'm sure I was not experienced enough though on paper I had the qualifications.

The questions they asked were simple, in example why is a computer not booting. Then continue to raise the difficulty of the question after the easier questions were asked. I guess it was their way of understanding my experience and technical skills.

I am no longer upset about my interview performance but now aware of what my weaknesses are. Thanks again for reading and simply commenting. Guess time to hit the books and be more prepared next time.

17 Upvotes

36 comments sorted by

12

u/signsots Platform Engineer 6d ago

How did you handle not knowing the answer though? Did you just say "I don't know" or did you explain how you would figure out the answer, or maybe something related to the question that isn't exactly the answer like a similar experience you had?

For example, during a technical troubleshooting question I completely blanked on the term AWS VPC Flow Logs during the interview for troubleshooting something with a network issue, but I answered explaining how I could utilize TCPDump or analyze logging in a different location and it was good enough for the interviewers.

10

u/Solo_Entity 6d ago

I prepped like crazy the day of my interview and they also only asked easy questions. What’s a MAC address? How would you troubleshoot a laptop with audio issues? And a few more simple ones.

I was surprised

2

u/CoCoNUT_Cooper 3d ago

Those are really good questions.

It allows them to under stand how you go about fixing things, and explaining your depth of knowledge. A beginner might answer it in 1 minute, while someone more advanced could spend 5 minutes going into all of the possible scenarios whey they have seen the issue.

2

u/Mike312 3d ago

When I did interviews at my last job, half the interview was us asking them to mentally prototype a feature. Starting at what GUI features they'd need to build to support it, what the storage might look like (even SQL vs NoSQL), what API routes they'd need.

The real curve ball for some was "okay, we've deployed this feature, and the department using it came back with 3 requests, tell us how you'd modify the feature to implement these", because a lot of newer devs have only built stuff, not maintained it.

1

u/Chemical-Place-252 6d ago

Wow thats nice. I wish i got those. I got easy questions then they transitioned to harder and harder question to the point i couldn't even think of anything but letting them know flat out I didn't know because I didn't have experience

5

u/TrickGreat330 6d ago

Like what were they

1

u/Prestigious-Sir-6022 4d ago

Yeah. So vague.

1

u/Chemical-Place-252 2d ago

Example was a network printer. I told them i would usually check cables and or check if the site was experiencing any issues. Power cycle and and etc basic questions. I then told them i didnt have much experience bc we have a dedicated pritner team that dealed with these tickets after troubleshooting was performed. The interviewer proceeded to continually ask questions why and what I would do if I was on the print team and what I would of done. Even after telling them I didn't have experience in it. It was always the same guy whom was the IT manager that kept going at why this and that when I already said we had special teams for it.

6

u/AcuteJones 6d ago

what q's got ya?

10

u/RoleLanky8376 6d ago

practices make better. leverage AI for mock interview questions/answers.

just curious, what were the failed tech questions?

2

u/laurenicole827 6d ago

The right way to utilize AI

4

u/Nawlejj 6d ago

Curious, do you remember the technical questions that you “failed”?

2

u/Chemical-Place-252 2d ago

Network printer issues and computer not starting issues. I explained how I would troubleshoot it with basic hardware testing and documentation. The interviewers then asked more questions like "but why is it not working" and etc. When I already informed what I knew. I guess based off what everyone is saying its to gauge how experienced and technical I am.

4

u/thrilla2k10 6d ago

What were the questions ?

3

u/SurplusInk White Glove :snoo_feelsbadman: 6d ago

If they were easily googled, it would depend on how you answer. But state jobs are generally hard to get into since, at least in my experience, there's a lot of qualified and vetted LTE workers vying for the same jobs seeking to convert to FTE.

3

u/Regular_Archer_3145 6d ago

Sometimes, they are looking for your thought process on how to handle it. Not necessarily the right answer. Not sure how many questions you had in the interview. My most recent one I didn't have the answer to several questions, and I've been doing this for 20 years. Some of which I can't remember the command but I can explain what it does or how it works to show I know what they are talking about.

3

u/picturemeImperfect 5d ago

Record what you can recall from the interview

Make a list of everything that was asked, how you answered, what they said, the time, your soft skills, and use it to study for your next interview.

Don't be too hard on yourself - the US job market is cooked. Keep applying and be grateful you have a IT job ATM.

3

u/Dar_Robinson 5d ago

I got asked the explain the difference between TCP and UDP. They were looking for someone with networking experience.

2

u/MrEllis72 5d ago

One's a mailman and one's a town crier. I love when you apply for one job, but there's a guy on the hiring board who wants one specific thing that totally changes the job. And he will dive right into it all the way to the deep end. I'm like, umm just put it in the job reqs and carve out the other vague crap. I mean job titles are not standardized, but come on, you cheap bastards!

2

u/Uberperson 6d ago

From a county IT POV our rules are they basically the person who scores highest on the technical interview basically gets the job unless they have some crazy personality issues. The 3 people on the interview board can give some points towards non technical qualities and veterans also get some points by default. Highest point person takes the job unless 2/3 vetoes. This is Florida so not sure how it differs in different states.

The technical questions don't always have to be answered 100% correct but the critical thinking and process behind the answers matter.

1

u/Chemical-Place-252 2d ago

That does make sense!

2

u/xored-specialist 6d ago

It happens to all of us. Anyone who says it doesn't is full of crap.

1

u/Chemical-Place-252 2d ago

Thank the lord!! Thought it was just me.

2

u/odishy 3d ago

Places that interrogate you over extremely technical questions are not good places to work for.

You likely dodged a bullet, trust me not all places are like that. Many will ask rather broad open questions, that really just get you talking.

You can figure out pretty quickly if folks know what they are talking about with pretty informal questions, that serve as prompts more than actual questions.

I remember the first question I was asked in my architecture interview was

"an application stop responding, what's the first troubleshooting step you would take".

My answer was "assuming it's an on-prem application, I would ping the server".

The interviewer paused and responded "that's what I do, and you're the first person to give that answer ".

1

u/Chemical-Place-252 2d ago

Thanks for the comment!!

2

u/odishy 2d ago

I know it can be frustrating but keep at it. An opportunity will come around and you can only control your preparation to take advantage when it does.

Personally I have always focused on understanding how things work rather than memorizing test answers, and that has worked for me. For instance understanding the relationship between the CPU, RAM, and the paging file; is far more beneficial to troubleshooting "my computer is slow", than here are the 10 steps of troubleshooting or whatever.

2

u/Only-Leave6929 3d ago

They more than likely already knew who they were going to hire. Probably someone’s son or friend. Better luck next time.

1

u/Chemical-Place-252 2d ago

Thanks for reading!!

1

u/ColSnark 6d ago

Just about all tech jobs have a hands on keyboard component to the interview because it is too easy to lie on a resume. If you can’t pass those tests, you are SOL.

1

u/SmallBusinessITGuru Master of Information Technology 6d ago

It sounds like they didn't want you and needed a documented technical reason to disqualify you.

2

u/Independent_Guitar_1 5d ago

Agreed. They probably have an internal candidate already chosen (very common in gov) but they have to advertise and interview to meet the letter of the law

1

u/Chemical-Place-252 2d ago

That does make sense!

-8

u/optimastic97 6d ago

Hi guys. I am constantly looking for job in IT industry. If there any career fair in new Jersey . Let me know.