An interview for the position of IT technician tests your technical abilities as well as your communication skills.
This means that you will have to prepare yourself for a bombardment of technical questions and some that test your analytic abilities.
As an IT technician, your primary job will be to manage hardware and software solutions for clients and handle troubleshooting duties.
These are the two major areas on which interview questions will be focused, so it is vital to delve into ways of how you will answer them. Many IT technicians work on helpdesks so you may be tested on your ability to provide excellent customer service.
While you might not be tested much on your knowledge base, it is important to be prepared for any questions.
Remember that it is the simple questions that end up confusing us during interviews, so be prepared for virtually anything that will help you.
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Here is a set of interview questions (and their answers) that you may encounter during an interview for an IT technician’s position.
IT Technician Interview Questions and Answers
1. Describe the typical duties of an IT technician?
An IT technician is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the allotted systems. Duties of an IT technician also include providing troubleshooting support to clients and employees of the firm either personally or over the phone.
2. What experience do you have in handling hardware and software solutions for companies?
I have worked with both small and large companies and have provided them with IT solutions based on their needs. From configuring LANs to handling MANs, I have done it all. I can handle configurations of all popular Windows-based programs and environments.
3. What is a usefulness assessment? Why is it important?
A usefulness assessment is basically assessing whether specific technology will be successful within the company. Since companies differ in sizes and requirements, it is essential to perform usefulness assessments so that any technology solution that you suggest or implement does not go awry.
4. What is the role of analytic thinking in an IT technician’s job?
Analytic thinking is critical. IT technicians have limited time to perform a vast array of work duties, and if they do not think analytically, much time is wasted.
When a customer calls in with a problem, he doesn’t want to be made to stay online for a long time while you look through books to understand the problem he has presented to you. You need to be able to quickly understand the problem and devise solutions on an immediate basis.
5. Relate a situation in which your mettle and patience as an IT technician were truly tested. What did you learn from it?
A client had called in with a problem. His Internet was not working. I went through the entire rigmarole of Internet configurations which took three hours.
When all options were exhausted, I politely told him that I could not see any problem except his Wi-Fi button being switched off. That was the problem! I learned that it is often the smallest of issues that need to be explored before moving on to bigger ones.
6. What is a usefulness assessment? Have you ever conducted one?
Usefulness assessment refers to testing a particular technology for its productivity for a specific firm. I have been conducting usefulness assessments in routine for all new software introduced at and developed by the software house where I worked, during the past three years.
7. Tell me about a time where you had to tackle a difficult client?
Last year it so happened that a client called and his system was not showing some useful data due to a bug. The client was in a panic and could neither explain the problem adequately nor could follow the instructions I was giving over the phone.
I handled the situation by calming him down and explaining that I would do whatever possible to retrieve his data files. Then, step by step, with a lot of repetition and slow instructions, I was finally able to recover the data he needed.
8. What are the three strengths that make you a good IT technician?
Adaptability, good analytical thinking, and strong communication skills qualify me for this role.
9. Why do you think the role requires excellent interpersonal and communication skills?
The major part of an IT Technician’s job is troubleshooting, and half of the time it needs to be done over the phone, which demands excellent communication as well as interpersonal skills. Even if the task has to be done in person, one needs effective communication strategies to gather all the required information and to understand the problem.
10. Tell me about your qualifications and certification in IT that render you worthy of this job?
After earning an Associate’s degree in IT, I attained certification in C++, Linux, and Cisco, which qualifies me to be an IT technician.
11. What is a bug?
A bug is a defect or fault in a software program that causes it to perform in an unexpected and unintended manner.
12. Differentiate between RAM and ROM?
RAM is the system’s random access memory which is meant for short term storage while ROM is the read-only memory that is non-editable and used for permanent data storage.
13. What are hard disk partitions?
These are divisions or sections made in a hard drive to enable better space management.