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When you're interviewing for a technical position,

you'll likely have one or more interviews where you'll

specifically need to demonstrate

your technical skills and knowledge.

These interviews may take the form of

technical troubleshooting scenarios or

explanations of technical concepts and subjects.

As we've said, you want to have

a solid foundation for all the fundamental concepts.

A good interviewer will push

you to the limits of your knowledge.

This means it's very likely

that during an interview you'll reach

a point where you're not sure you know

the right answer, this is expected.

But you shouldn't just say, "I don't know."

If you were supporting a user,

you wouldn't say it then either.

It's okay to admit you're not sure,

but you should then explain

what you would do to find the answer.

As an IT support specialist,

you should expect to often face

new and unfamiliar problems.

Having a good problem solving strategy is

more important than knowing all the answers.

If the question you're answering is big and complex,

outline how you'd break down

the work needed to solve the problem

before going into the exact details

of what needs to be done.

If you're thinking about what

the best solution could be,

share your train of thought with

your interviewer so they can follow along.

Thinking aloud not only helps

the interviewer see your thought process,

but it also helps you work through the problem.

For example, if you get stuck

with a technical troubleshooting scenario,

you can try and recap what information you've

gathered and state potential causes that can be

ruled out with certainty and then try to figure out

what info is still missing to rule out other causes.

When you mention concepts or technologies,

you should be ready to explain them and

articulate why you might choose one thing over another.

For instance, if you're working through

a networking problem and say something like,

the problem might be related to the DNS settings.

Be ready to explain what DNS is,

and why it relates to the issue.

You should also clarify the questions constraints.

Don't assume anything, it's okay and even expected to ask

the interviewer follow up questions to

ensure that the problem is correctly framed.

Always use the data and evidence you have

from the interviewer to inform your next steps.

For example, if you need to solve a problem about

a user being unable to connect to an internal system,

you should ask follow up questions like,

what operating system the user is using,

how their computer is

supposed to connect to the network,

what error messages they are getting,

whether other users are affected?

Your goal is to narrow the scope to find the root cause.

If the question is very complex,

it might become difficult to

follow or explain the solution.

In this case, it's useful to take

notes and use diagrams to illustrate the problem.

You can use this process when it makes sense.

It doesn't mean you need to

write everything down during an interview.

Sometimes the answer is straight forward and you can just

go ahead and explain it without writing anything down.