Interview Guide: Help desk and technical support

Help Desk and Technical Support positions require a balance of both technical and customer service skills. Whether supporting internal or external clients, being tech savvy and having strong interpersonal skills are a must.

Remember that every technical environment is different. Some Help Desk professionals take five calls a day but solve problems from start to finish. Others may receive 100 calls a day but the issue is referred elsewhere for resolution. Asking the right interview questions is the key to ensuring a candidate will thrive in your environment. Pick from the questions herein that make the most sense for you.

Interview Questions

Initial Questions

1. How many years of experience do you have in a help desk environment?
2. Were you supporting internal employees, external customers or internal customers?
3. Were you the sole person responsible for Help Desk / Technical Support or were you a part of a team? If so, how big was the team?
4. Have you provided remote access support or repairs?
5. What was your average resolution time for customer support?
6. How do you prioritize clients’ requests? How would you deal with two high-priority requests simultaneously?
7. Were you required to submit reports or summaries?
8. Have you ever informed management about recurring incidences? How would you go about reporting the issue? What were the outcomes?
9. What client approach was expected of you even with demanding and difficult customers? Have you ever had to pass a difficult customer on to a superior? If so, what was the outcome?
10. What hardware or software certifications have you completed (A+, MTA, MCSA, MCSE, CCNA, CCNP, etc.)?
11. What type of issues arose that you needed to research in your last position? How did you conduct your research?
12. Describe a technical issue that was not an easy fix. What did you do to understand and resolve the issue?

Help Desk Tier 1

1. What customer issues were addressed at a Tier 1 level?
2. How was information recorded or tracked? What type of reporting systems have you used?
3. When troubleshooting, what types of procedures were you expected to use (screenshots, step-by-step documentation, etc.)?
4. How did you provide client support (phone, email, remote assistance, in-person, or other)?
5. How have you handled a language barrier when trying to solve a problem over the phone?
6. Have you configured hardware? If so, please explain.
7. What commercial (COTS) desktop or web applications have you supported?
8. Have you supported proprietary desktop and/or web applications? If so, what type? What resources were available to help you troubleshoot them?
9. What symptoms did you analyze most frequently? What was the most common issue that you could resolve?
10. What type of issues did you encounter that were more complex and needed to be escalated?
11. What types of products have you supported (software, hardware, mobile phones, phones, printers, modems, webcams, etc.)?
12. Were you responsible for: Username and password issues; Installing, uninstalling or reinstalling software; Network and connectivity issues; Printer or scanner-related issues; File server shares or permissions; User creation or decommissioning; Hardware support; Email configuration and support; Office productivity software support; Desktop imaging; Phone and headset-related issues; Antivirus/firewall software configuration

CASE SCENARIO: You have received a call from a user stating that he types in a password at the Windows Login prompt and keeps getting an error message stating that "the password is incorrect." Walk me through your troubleshooting process.

Help Desk Tier 2

1. What experience did you need to become a Level 2 Help Desk Technician?
2. Have you provided onsite support to resolve issues pertaining to software, hardware, mobile phones, phones, printers, etc.?
3. Which vendor’s networking equipment are you most familiar with (Cisco, Juniper, HP, etc.)?
4. What types of advanced troubleshooting were required most often? Were most of these issues escalated from Tier 1?
5. Have you supported or configured servers? Do you have experience with mirroring or backup systems?
6. How does VOIP (voiceover IP) work?
7. Were you required to run System Diagnostic Reports as part of monitoring systems?
8. Have you worked on an exchange server, SMTP, or other email system? Which ones?
9. Have you used disk imaging and deployment software?
10. Have you supported network connectivity issues (LAN, Wifi, VPN, firewalls)?
11. What methods did you use to bisect software issues from user configuration issues?
12. Which network monitoring systems do you have experience with, if any?
13. Which desktop and server operating systems do you feel comfortable supporting? (Windows, Linux, MacOS, etc.)
14. Have you ever supported a user base that was using cloud-based productivity systems such as Google Workspace?

Help Desk Tier 3 : High-end support

1. Were you supervising Tier 1 and 2 tech support team members?
2. Have you created (official or unofficial) documentation or procedures to increase the productivity of your team or step-by-step information for assisting clients
3. Were you in a position to do site-specific enhancements with costs to fix an issue?
4. Have you used deployment software such as SCCM/SMS?
5. Were you required to run System Diagnostic Reports as part of monitoring systems?
6. Do you have experience with network configuration and maintenance (VLANs, Routing, Wifi, VPN, firewalls)? Which vendor’s networking equipment are you most familiar with?
7. Have you ever set up or managed a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) authority system? Which technologies did you use for this service?
8. What is a VOIP gateway?
9. Have you set up or configured servers? Do you have experience with mirroring or backup systems?
10. Did you work with vendors or manufacturers to troubleshoot issues that could not be resolved any other way?
11. What certifications have you completed?
12. Have you ever, on your own initiative, proposed a changed or new capability to improve your clients' experience? What prompted this? What was the outcome?
13. Have you ever proposed a systemic fix for a problem that was being handled piecemeal?
14. Have you ever managed cloud-based systems? Which cloud services? What types of technologies did you use? (Puppet, Ansible, etc.)
15. Which network management systems do you have experience with, if any?

CASE SCENARIO: Your network is experiencing periods of slow response and you are asked to find a solution. What troubleshooting techniques would you use? Hardware or software solutions are okay and budget is not an issue.