Hello there, my name is Richard McMunn from the interview training company PassMyInterview.com.
In this tutorial, I will teach you how to prepare for, and pass, a Systems Administrator
interview. If you have a systems administrator interview coming up, regardless of the organization
it is for, please do watch this tutorial from beginning to end, because I'm going to give
you a number of interview questions to prepare for and top-scoring answers! Now, before I
do that, I very warm welcome to the Systems Administrator interview training tutorial.
My name is Richard McMunn. That's me there in the center. And I've been helping people
for about 20 years now to pass their interviews. I always do that by creating new top-scoring
answers you cannot find anywhere else. On that basis, please do SUBSCRIBE to the channel
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the content and, therefore, I will create more for you. OK. Let's get in to the tutorial.
I'm going to cover a number of systems administrator interview questions and answers. Please do
take notes as I progress. If you want to pause the video at any point to write down any notes,
please feel free to do so. The first interview question I want you to prepare for is, tell
me about yourself and why you want to be a systems administrator? So, this is likely
to be the first interview question that will come up, and with the answer that you give,
we need to make sure you focus on three things: the SKILLS that you have, the EXPERIENCE that
you have acquired over the years, and then also what you can BRING TO THEIR ORGANIZATION
as a Systems Administrator. In the answer that follows, I'm going to cover those three
things - the skills you have, the experience and what you can bring to their organization.
Here is my answer to the interview question, tell me about yourself and why you want to
be a systems administrator? “I am a competent, flexible and adaptable Systems Administrator
who can be relied upon to complete tasks diligently, in line with your company procedures and also
in a timely manner to ensure the organization can operate smoothly. Over the years I have
held a number of Systems Administrator positions that have helped develop my skills from both
a technical and non-technical perspective. I feel I can bring a wealth of experience
to your team and the problem-solving capabilities and interpersonal skills I possess make me,
I feel, the perfect candidate for this position.” That is a brilliant answer to that question!
It puts you across as somebody who is professional, methodical, you demonstrate the skills you
have, the experience you have gained, and more importantly at the end, what you can
bring to their organization. Next interview question. What are the top five skills needed
to be a systems administrator? Now, of course, you and I know to be a competent and professional
systems administrator, you need a large number of skills. Systems Administrators are, in
my opinion, highly intelligent people. This interview question is assessing your understanding
and your knowledge of the job person specification, so we need to read that before we go along
to the interview. Here is my suggested answer to this interview question. “To be a competent
and effective Systems Administrator you need numerous skills and qualities. However, my
top five would be, in-depth TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE of computer systems, an ANALYTICAL APPROACH
TO PROBLEM SOLVING; having the ability to ORGANIZE and PRIORTIZE TASKS accordingly;
great ATTENTION TO DETAIL SKILLS and also a level of COMMERCIAL AWARENESS that ensures
the work you carry out is inline with your employers objectives. In addition to that
list of five important skills and qualities, you also need to COMMUNICATE EFFECIVELY and
be able to DESCRIBE TECHNICAL DETAILS AND INFORMATION IN A USER-FRIENDLY MANNER to people
who understandably do not have any working knowledge of IT and computer systems.” And
you will notice with that answer, I have given my TOP FIVE and then I have added on a couple
at the end that I think are really important. The next interview question that we need to
prepare for: Why do you want to work for our company as a systems administrator? I can
pretty much guarantee this interview question will come up, and you therefore need to prepare
an answer for it. With your response, demonstrate that you have thought carefully about why
you've chosen their company. My advice is to be COMPLIMENTARY where possible in your
answer. Here is my suggested answer to the question: Why do you want to work for our
company as a systems administrator? “I considered carefully before applying for this position
with your company because I am at the stage in my career where I want to stay with one
organization for a lengthy period of time. During my research, it quickly became obvious
that you are a forward-thinking, ethical company who wants to continually grow and develop.
I read your mission statement and your company vision and you clearly care about your customers
and clients. On that basis, I feel your company will be somewhere I will really enjoy working,
and I’ll be able to put my skills to good use in a positive team environment that is
continually growing and developing.” That shows to me that you have thought carefully
about why you want to join their company. And also, I like the fact that you are mentioning
you've read their mission statement and the company vision. So, my advice, before you
go along to your systems administrator interview, is to go on the website of the company you
are being interviewed to join and have a look at their ABOUT US section to see whether they
do have a company statement that you can refer to in your answer. The next interview question
for Systems Administrator interviews is: how would you resolve conflict with another team
member? This interview question is assessing your professionalism and your maturity levels.
And the organization and the team's objectives must always come first. You will notice in
the answer that is coming right now that I mention that I focus on the team's objective
in any conflict, to resolve it quickly. Here is my suggested answer. “I would hope to
never encounter this kind of issue, because I am firm believer that the needs of my employer
must always come first. However, if I did encounter this type of scenario, I would be
mature and professional about it and look to take positive action to resolve it as soon
as possible. This would involve speaking to my colleague in a private manner to ask if
we could work together to overcome any issues that were present. This would be through open
and honest communication; perhaps a bit of compromise on both parts, and an agreement
that we would both put any differences aside for the benefit of the team and the organization.”
That shows to me that you are a level-headed person. You are also mature and above all,
you are professional in your approach to dealing with conflict. Next interview question for
Systems Administrators. What is your biggest weakness? Again, pretty much guaranteed to
come up. Now, we need to be very careful when answering this interview question, because
we don't want to give a weakness that will hinder us from doing the job of the systems
administrator properly. Before I give you a sample answer, let's take a look at some
of the skills and qualities needed to be a systems administrator, because we don't want
to mention any of these as our biggest weakness! Problem solving capabilities. Being patient
and calm under pressure. So you can't say, one of my weaknesses is that I don't like
working under pressure, or, I am impatient, because you need those skills to be a systems
administrator! You have to be organized and have great attention to detail skills, good
level of technical knowledge, be able to follow rules and procedures and computer systems.
You have to have an enthusiastic approach to all tasks. You have to communicate properly
and have good, strong interpersonal skills and also be trustworthy, loyal and be able
to maintain confidence at all times. So, we don't want to give any of those as a weakness.
So what weakness do we give? Here is an example of one that you could give for the interview
question what's your biggest weakness? “I sometimes find it hard to strike a healthy
work life balance – I very much enjoy my work and I’m usually logging at weekends
to work on projects. Although I will always be passionate and enthusiastic about my work,
I am learning to strike a more healthier work life balance as this means I am then fully
energized and focused when I am in the office working with the team.” That is good! Another
example of a weakness might be, you could say that you don't like to ask for help at
any point, and you always try and do things yourself, when in fact, you should really
seek help if you are ever unsure. That's another good example of a weakness. There’s two
that you could use that will do you no harm when you're applying to become a systems administrator.
The next interview question that we want to prepare for is: describe a scenario when you
played a significant role in completing a challenging project? When you are preparing
your answer to this question, my advice is to use what is called the STAR method or the
STAR technique for answering behavioral type interview questions. When the interviewer
asks you to “Describe a scenario…” “Explain a situation”… “Tell me about a time
when you xyz…” then you should respond to it using the STAR method. So, you start
off and you tell the interviewer the SITUATION you are in. You then move on and explain the
TASK that needed to be done. You then go into detail and explain the ACTION that you took
to achieve the task. Then you finish off until the interview at the RESULT following your
actions. You can actually start each area of your answer by saying: “Yes, i've been
in that SITUATION before. This is what I did.” “The task that I needed to do was…”
“The action I took was…” “And the results were…” Let me give you a sample
answer using the star technique to the interview question: Describe a scenario when you played
a significant role in completing a challenging project? I was part of a systems administrator
team in a previous role and we encountered a complex IT issue which effectively slowed
down the entire company network. Time was of the essence and we needed to work together
quickly to get to the bottom of the problem to reduce any losses to the business. Each
team member was allocated tasks to try and locate the cause of the issue. We all worked
through our tasks systematically and diligently until we found the cause of the problem, which
was attributed to a computer hardware malfunction. Once the problem was located, we rectified
it quickly, got everything back up and running normally, before putting systems in place
to prevent the same issue from occurring again.” You will notice that the STAR TECHNIQUE is
brilliant for structuring answers, because it shows that you work through things methodically
and you are giving the interviewer everything that he or she needs in their answer. Next
Systems Administrator interview question I want you to prepare for is, how would you
work with difficult or demanding people? And as you and I know, as a systems administrator,
you will more often than not work with difficult or demanding people! Now, this interview question
is designed to assess your emotional maturity and your stability, and also your ability
to provide excellent service. And that's whether you are dealing with internal members of staff
from other departments or external customers or clients. Here is a brilliant answer to
this question. “To be truthful, I feel this is all part of the role of a Systems Administrator.
We live in a world that is hectic, people are under pressure, and therefore you will
encounter demanding people. And the bottom line is, without demanding people, I probably
wouldn't have a job. Therefore, I would deal with them professionally, build up a strong
professional relationship whilst acting as a positive role model for your organization.
I would always communicate with absolute clarity and make sure do what I say I am going to
do. That way, everybody is clear on any agreed tasks or projects and that also serves to
reduce any stress people are placed under.” That's a great answer to that question! Now,
if you'd like more IT related interview questions and answers, click the link at the top-right
hand corner of the video and it will go to my website, PassMyInterview.com. As I said,
if you want to watch that again, I recommend you do and take notes as you go along. I love
creating these videos for you, but I would appreciate your support if you SUBSCRIBE to
the channel. Thank you very much. And don't forget to hit the LIKE button because that
tells me you enjoy the content and I will then create more for you. Thank you for watching
and I wish you all the best for becoming a systems administrator. And more importantly,
passing your interview! Have a brilliant day. Thank you very much.