Interview advice - *Updated* Waiting on HR

[dave_the_nerd]

This R serius questshun. This R serius thred.

So I have a job interview for _____ tech company Tuesday - SAN administration.

I was referred by an employee who was my prof last year at the community college I attend. I am almost done with my AS. (I'm not your average student: I have a BA and MA in an unrelated field, and have been working for a few years as a helpdesk monkey slash server admin - but just the unimportant servers.)

I'm going to be picking my prof's brain tomorrow, as well as my uncle, who is a CIO for an insurance company that also does IT consulting. (I have no idea. That's what he does.)

What kinds of questions do I ask to get the most out of it and/or that will be the most helpful to me?

Thanks ATOT.

UPDATES IN POST #8!

 

[Ruptga]

It probably shouldn't be your first question, but I would ask how their turnover rate is. That one piece of information will tell you a lot about your potential workplace.

 

[MustISO]

Honestly I would want to know why they are interviewing someone with no SAN experience to do their SAN administration.

Are they adding to the team, replacing the engineer who left or are you starting a new position/department?

 

[Printer Bandit]

do people in IT consider themselves as engineers?

 

[brianmanahan]

do people in IT consider themselves as engineers?

i subscribe to the tf2 definition of engineer - anyone who solves practical problems

 

[KentState]

do people in IT consider themselves as engineers?

Software, network and security engineer come to mind.

 

[Sonikku]

Ask if you're filling a newly created position, or if you're replacing someone who left. If they left, ask if there are any concerns you should be aware of before taking over their former job.

Read up the companies website and soak up all you can from their mission statement/goals to the philosophy behind their products. Subtly mention such things as though they were your own thoughts/way of doing things without being avert.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Update: Management emailed me over the weekend, said they wanted to offer me the job, and that they were referring it to HR with a "please rush" request.

I still haven't heard from HR. I'm assuming they're doing a background check, credit check, etc., but I'm wondering how long that usually takes. Anybody know?

It's Dell, if that makes a difference. "Dude, I'm getting a job."

 

[IndyColtsFan]

do people in IT consider themselves as engineers?

Those of us who have actual engineering degrees do.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Honestly I would want to know why they are interviewing someone with no SAN experience to do their SAN administration.

Are they adding to the team, replacing the engineer who left or are you starting a new position/department?

Adding tech school gophers to an existing support team, expecting us to learn a crapload of stuff on the job.

Assuming, I suppose, that we'll grow into the job, feel indebted, and therefore loyal and motivated. Or fail miserably and be easy to get rid of. I'm so fucking excited. (!)

 

[Elbryn]

1st level san I would say is no different than anything else. you don't do any architecting or engineering, mostly stuff that's straight forward, well documented. say san zoning, presuming the ticket either comes down in a specific format you follow the instructions to zone hba1 to spA and spB. push click, type, hit enter, activate. same with lun provisioning, presuming the ticket comes in with specific array, pool number, lun size, lun id, host id, etc.. or file system as long as the proper stuff is filled in.

honestly, i'd say that most IT jobs from a day to day can be done no problem, presuming the person doing the job is somewhat tech savvy and the process is well documented.

that said, it's an awesome opportunity to get into a higher echelon IT field with generally smaller numbers of folks who do it as compared to server people, apps people or helpdesk.

learn your basics then move on, don't get misguided loyalty to a company who will use you for as long as you're willing to be used.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I'm willing to be used as long as I'm learning stuff. I'll outgrow it eventually, I'm sure.

 

[ImpulsE69]

i subscribe to the tf2 definition of engineer - anyone who solves practical problems

It really comes with the territory in many ways. I would definitely say actual IT engineers have a different take on engineering based on "what we have" vs. "how we use it" compared to the non-engineer counterparts, but I feel I do as nearly as much engineering of the environment as they do trying to make what they "engineered" work in a manner that actually is useful.

I've been working on a rather large project directly with our engineering team for the past year and I can definitely see the difference of perspective and sometimes it can be very difficult to make them see yours.

 

[iGas]

Those of us who have actual engineering degrees do.

Do you mean the ones that can't "engineer" themselves out of a paper bag do, while the ones that are head & shoulders above the rest don't care?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Do you mean the ones that can't "engineer" themselves out of a paper bag do, while the ones that are head & shoulders above the rest don't care?

I can assure you that I can engineer rings around most, including the ones who think they're head and shoulders above the rest.