Acceptable Questions (Score 1)

What I do when I interview is assume that their experience and certs are what they say they are, and I test instead for attention to detail and innovation. When somebody arrives for an interview, I provide them with a copy of the 5 main questions I am going to ask them, and allow them 20 minutes to formulate and write down their answers. This allows for people who might be very nervous about interviews, providing a mechanisim where they can get stuff down to discuss. It also levels the playing field a bit by not springing things on them. I've also in the past asked people 4 technical questions upfront, and allowed them to write notes on thie answers. The thing here is not so much looking for IP this or subnet that, but the process used, the logic of their answers, and their more general problem solving. For example, for a networking role I have asked how they would configure the VLANs on a switch given a specific environment (300 staff each site, connected via microwave, with 20 servers at site A and 10 servers at site B). There is no right or wrong answer, and if you didn't have the knowledge you couldn't do it, but it levels the playing field because the best, most logical and well explained answer might come from the guy who has never done a Cisco course. It would insult people's intelligence if I started asking what is a VLAN for and what is trunking, but given a scenario people feel more like they are showing their flair for problem solving. This whole thing is really less about "is it ok to ask tech questions of IT people before hiring them" - because frankly a business has the right to ensure their data (which IS their business) is in capable hands - and more about what are the RIGHT questions to ask of IT people when interviewing them. I think if you assumed that somebody's CV is correct enough to grant them an interview, then assume it is correct in that interview and formulate your questions based on that, rather than caatching them out. Because if you interview somebody whose experience is not what it says on their CV, then you've wasted your own time by not being astute enough to realise that prior to granting the interview.