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Technical skills assesment test - for low level intern

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by jolson 1 view

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I'm hiring some low to mid level interns (Call it Tier 1) to assist IT at the college whenre I work. I've been looking for a basic computer/technical skills test, but I can't seen to find anything other than interview questions.

What I'm looking for is a test or pool of questions that I can use to judge their basic computer, hardware and networking skills.

Things like "What is an IP address?" "How do you format a hard drive?" "Describe a USB cable." That type of thing.

Does anyone know of a good resource?

Due to the small size, hiring here is so much more informal than anywhere else I have worked, I really don't know where to look. HR always had that for me.

3 replies

by jplconsultant

Is it possible for you to give them hands-on testing? For example, I've handed job candidates boxes of parts and a stack of instructions. The instructions say, basically:

1. Build 3 machines: 2 workstations, 1 server
2. Create a network running Windows 2003 AD
3. Create 6 user accounts: 2 admins, 2 users (accounting), 2 users (sales).
4. Everyone logging in must have these policies take effect: a) map to a certain share b) screen save policy of... c)blah blah
5. Everyone in accounting must have these policies: a) not access to the sales folder b) full access to accounting folder c) etc.
6. Everyone in sales must have these policies
a) etc.

That let's me see their ability to handle hardware, software installation and configuration, etc. I can ask questions about specific things based on what I see them doing.

Also, I may leave out certain things. For example, I may not mention anything about OS Security updates. I want to know if they're going to only do what the directions state, will they recognize the potential security hole and enquire or will they simply take the initiative to set that up? If they apply the updates, do they configure a GPO to manage updates automatically? etc.

It takes a while to set up, it's not easy nor is it always practical. It can also take ALL DAY. But if you can do it, it's a good way to get a lot of your questions answered without having to ask, you get good insight into the person's ability(ies) and see them in action.

JPL()

by jolson

Hands on is a good idea.

I'm looking for pretty low level staff, so it should be even easier to create some hands on lessons.

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