What is the best way to prepare for a technical phone interview?
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Do you review material you are already familiar with? Or not familiar with?
Do you keep a cheat sheet (sounds bad) by your side, such as tcp/udp port numbers for known protocols, domain fsmo roles and their function, terminology definitions, etc?
What do you do or say if you're asked a question you are not very familiar with?
How much depth do you cover on each technical answer you give?
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As trite as this may sound, I just answer honestly. Rarely do I have anything to study before hand other than a job description, which if I didn't think I knew enough about most of the things on the description, I wouldn't try to get an interview. If there's something I don't know the answer to, I simply say I don't know, or haven't had the chance to experience
$the_thing.Concerning a cheat sheet, I, myself, wouldn't use one. I think if I'm having to reference once that would potentially lead to awkward pauses in the conversation, as well as a chance of missing some pertinent detail to the question that may be added while I'm looking up an answer.
As far as depth, that varies depending on the question asked. "What port does DNS use?" will have a much shorter answer than "Can you explain how DNS resolution works.
To answer your post title: "It depends."
Couldn't help myself. -
@EddieJennings said in What is the best way to prepare for a technical phone interview?:
As trite as this may sound, I just answer honestly. Rarely do I have anything to study before hand other than a job description, which if I didn't think I knew enough about most of the things on the description, I wouldn't try to get an interview. If there's something I don't know the answer to, I simply say I don't know, or haven't had the chance to experience $the_thing.
I noticed one of my phone interviews I did, I really didn't prepare much, and actually did it during my lunch break. I actually did better (went to next step) on that one than the one I studied my tail off, and had "several" cheat sheets.
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@EddieJennings said in What is the best way to prepare for a technical phone interview?:
As far as depth, that varies depending on the question asked. "What port does DNS use?" will have a much shorter answer than "Can you explain how DNS resolution works.
That makes sense to me too, but reading online some say you should elaborate even if it's a short answer. Like ex: "DNS uses port 53, which uses both the udp and tcp protocol. Most of the time it will use UDP, because it's faster, which will increase the response time each time a client queries its DNS server."
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@Fredtx said in What is the best way to prepare for a technical phone interview?:
I noticed one of my phone interviews I did, I really didn't prepare much, and actually did it during my lunch break. I actually did better (went to next step) on that one than the one I studied my tail off, and had "several" cheat sheets.
All interviews are conversations, and I think having said sheet distracts from you being able to play your part. Remember the other side of a technical interview: Reviewing the interviewer. If your interviewer is asking some bizarre questions like "explain why faxing is more secure than E-mail," then that place might not be the right one for you.
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@Fredtx said in What is the best way to prepare for a technical phone interview?:
Do you review material you are already familiar with? Or not familiar with?
Only if it improves my comfort level. If it makes me nervous, then no.
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@Fredtx said in What is the best way to prepare for a technical phone interview?:
Do you keep a cheat sheet (sounds bad) by your side, such as tcp/udp port numbers for known protocols, domain fsmo roles and their function, terminology definitions, etc?
No, but I've never had an interview for a job that I'd want that would ask such silly things that anyone could look up or Google (and often should, just to be safe in a production world.)
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@Fredtx said in What is the best way to prepare for a technical phone interview?:
What do you do or say if you're asked a question you are not very familiar with?
Just be honest. If that's a problem for them, they were never going to be a seriously good fit anyway. Don't get me wrong, if you know nothing that they need, that's a problem and you aren't likely to get the job, lol. But I mean that if they think you have to know exactly everything that they know and will learn nothing going into the job, they're a joke and will never find a candidate that fits that bill. You could ask anyone, even the most senior person ever, some obscure port numbers or specs that you know by heart and they'd not have the slightest idea. Anyone who asks that stuff in an interview has no clue what they are doing and isn't qualified to run any interview at all (unless they are only doing so in order to see how you react to being interviewed badly - which is a pretty questionable tactic given that that's how most interviews go.)
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@Fredtx said in What is the best way to prepare for a technical phone interview?:
How much depth do you cover on each technical answer you give?
Just keep going until they are annoyed at you knowing more than they gave you credit for.
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@Fredtx said in What is the best way to prepare for a technical phone interview?:
@EddieJennings said in What is the best way to prepare for a technical phone interview?:
As trite as this may sound, I just answer honestly. Rarely do I have anything to study before hand other than a job description, which if I didn't think I knew enough about most of the things on the description, I wouldn't try to get an interview. If there's something I don't know the answer to, I simply say I don't know, or haven't had the chance to experience $the_thing.I noticed one of my phone interviews I did, I really didn't prepare much, and actually did it during my lunch break. I actually did better (went to next step) on that one than the one I studied my tail off, and had "several" cheat sheets.
Mostly, most likely, because interviewing is highly random and what you do to prepare has very little effect, unless it causes you to feel more or less anxious.
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@Fredtx said in What is the best way to prepare for a technical phone interview?:
@EddieJennings said in What is the best way to prepare for a technical phone interview?:
As far as depth, that varies depending on the question asked. "What port does DNS use?" will have a much shorter answer than "Can you explain how DNS resolution works.
That makes sense to me too, but reading online some say you should elaborate even if it's a short answer. Like ex: "DNS uses port 53, which uses both the udp and tcp protocol. Most of the time it will use UDP, because it's faster, which will increase the response time each time a client queries its DNS server."
It's not elaborating if it is part of the answer. So "it depends, almost always 53/UDP but 53/TCP is still a standard, just very uncommonly used" is fine. Talking about UDP vs TCP is not a part of the question at all and is just filler. There's a difference between explaining the answer, and giving a different answer.
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@Fredtx said in What is the best way to prepare for a technical phone interview?:
Do you review material you are already familiar with? Or not familiar with?
I usually review material what was provided by the recruiter.
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@Fredtx said in What is the best way to prepare for a technical phone interview?:
Do you keep a cheat sheet (sounds bad) by your side, such as tcp/udp port numbers for known protocols, domain fsmo roles and their function, terminology definitions, etc?
I had a recruiter provided me some questions to prepare in case I get asked questions outside of what I already know.
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@Fredtx said in What is the best way to prepare for a technical phone interview?:
What do you do or say if you're asked a question you are not very familiar with?
I have no problem telling them that Iām not familiar with...
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@Fredtx said in What is the best way to prepare for a technical phone interview?:
How much depth do you cover on each technical answer you give?
Unless they asked for an in depth answer, I give them a brief summary.
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@black3dynamite said in What is the best way to prepare for a technical phone interview?:
@Fredtx said in What is the best way to prepare for a technical phone interview?:
Do you review material you are already familiar with? Or not familiar with?
I usually review material what was provided by the recruiter.
Which typically isn't very much, but yeah, definitely review that.
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This from @StorageNinja I think? has helped me in the past, and also made me smarter at interviewing the company that's interviewing me:
https://thenicholson.com/thinking-taking-offer-need-know/
Believe it or not, you should likely be turning some places down even if they send you offers.
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Some good stuff from everyone! Appreciate it!
