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When you’re applying for a job as a computer technician, getting an invitation to an interview is an exciting reward for all your hard work. This doesn’t mean that your work is finished and now you just have to show up at the meeting and hope you can answer the questions, though.
It’s true that if you get asked to an interview, the hiring manager already saw something they like in your resume and cover letter, so you don’t have to start from scratch as far as selling yourself as a candidate goes. However, being successful in an interview still requires preparation.
After all, you don’t want to feel like a deer in the headlights and stumble through your meeting, damaging that great first impression you worked so hard to create. Additionally, if you’re already nervous about the interview, preparation can help calm your nerves and make you more confident going in.
The first thing you can do to prepare is to review your resume, even if you think you have it memorized by now, and note the main qualifications and accomplishments that set you apart from other candidates applying for the position.
When you’re in your interview, you can focus on highlighting those qualifications in your answers. This will help you form responses when you can’t think of anything to say and stay on topic.
In addition to this, the best thing you can do to prepare for a job interview is to practice answering sample interview questions. Being ready to answer questions as seemingly simple as, “Tell me about yourself” or as complex as asking you to solve a technical problem on the spot can go a long way in helping you respond more quickly and eloquently in your meeting.
In this article, you’ll find sample interview questions and answers focused specifically on a position as a computer technician. You likely won’t run into all of them in your interview, and there will be more that aren’t listed here, but use these as a starting point to help you get your mind around the types of questions you might encounter and how to answer them.
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What skills and qualifications make you a good computer technician?
I’m attentive to detail, which allows me to do great work with minimal mistakes. I also really enjoy working with people, which has served me well in my interactions with users. When I started pursuing a career as a computer technician, I didn’t realize how much customer service would be involved, but it was a nice surprise.
Describe your troubleshooting process.
First, I try to learn everything I can about the problem by asking lots of questions and listening to the person who is experiencing the issue. Then, I ask the person what they’ve tried to do to fix it, if applicable.
I then go through a checklist of tests to try to find the root of the problem. Once I do that, I can take the necessary steps to fix it, or if I can’t find the issue, I’ll go to someone with a different perspective or more experience for help.
How do you stay up to date on the latest technology trends and developments in your field?
Since technology is always changing, I believe that continuously learning about your field is vital to being a good computer technician. Because of this, I subscribe to two different industry newsletters, and I make it a goal to attend two professional development events each year.
Sometimes this is a class in a skill I want to add to my repertoire or brush up on, and other times it’s a conference where I can hear from the experts on the latest best practices and innovations. I also follow a few different industry leaders and organizations on social media so that I can see their latest updates.
Tell me about a time you managed a high volume of work that had tight deadlines?
While I was at my most recent position, there was a time when three major projects happened to all be due in the same month. At the beginning of the month, I mapped out all of the steps I needed to complete for each project and how long each one would take me.
I then created smaller deadlines for myself to act as checkpoints, leaving plenty of space for mishaps and other tasks that would inevitably come up before the actual deadlines. By doing this, I still had a busy month, but I didn’t feel behind and I was able to finish everything on time.
What is your process for clearly explaining technical details to end-users?
When explaining a process or problem to a user, I try to balance simplifying it so that they understand with not making them feel less-than or dumb for not knowing it in the first place.
To do this, usually, I’ll start a step more advanced than the person might be able to understand, and then I’ll continue to explain in subtly simpler terms if I can tell they aren’t tracking with me.
I’ll also say something about how this is a problem that a lot of people come to us with or how no one knows that it can be an issue until it happens — something to help them not feel dumb or like I’m annoyed that they brought this problem to me.
How do you organize your day when you have to manage a large amount of work?
I like to end each workday by creating a list of to-dos for the following day. I prioritize my tasks and plan to work on the top priorities first so that I know I’ve gotten them done if and when something else pops up.
At my most recent position, I also started blocking out time on my schedule to work on projects. If a pressing meeting or something came up, I could adjust the specific times, but having a few hours each day for uninterrupted work boosted my productivity significantly.
Tell me about a time you used your technical skills to solve a practical problem?
When I worked in the IT department at a school, we’d run updates overnight, but some of the oldest computers would still be going when teachers tried to log in in the morning.
I changed our system so that we could choose which computers we wanted to update during the night and then do the same for the others the next night, giving them all plenty of time to complete. Staggering the updates like this resulted in fewer errors and fewer frustrated teachers.
If you could change anything about being a computer technician, what would you change and why?
I enjoy most aspects of being a computer technician, but with anything, there are downsides. The biggest one for me, in this case, is that I have to occasionally frustrate or inconvenience others in the organization to implement something that will help them down the road, even though they won’t see the benefits right away.
I understand this is part of the job and that my work does help my coworkers and company, I just wish it could be in a way that wasn’t annoying to them in the process.
What are your go-to resources?
I have several resources that I use regularly, but most often I turn to Tech Support Forum. There I can find conversations with other professionals about best practices, solutions to problems, and other helpful information. I’ve saved myself a lot of frustration and time by looking up my problem on this website before I try to research it myself.
If you noticed an error in your coding, what would you do?
I would log or report it as I would any other error and then I would fix it, as long as I was confident I knew how to do so correctly, taking care to record my work in the patch notes. I’d also then take time to review the rest of my work to make sure I didn’t create another error like it anywhere else.
How do you ping a device on the network?
You open a command prompt where you type “ping” and the IP address or domain name.
If you encounter a problem you don’t know how to solve, how do you approach it?
I first spend some time using my go-to resources to try to figure it out on my own, but if I can’t find the solution or am afraid I’m going to make it worse by trying something, I go to someone with more expertise to ask for help.
I do this pretty quickly after I realize I’m not finding the solution to ensure I’m not wasting company time by taking the long way to find the answer.
Tell me about a mistake you made at work. How did you respond?
One day at my first job, I was poking around in a program I was unfamiliar with and somehow shut down the computer I was working on. When I got it up and running again, it appeared to have had its memory wiped.
I immediately told my supervisor what had happened, and thankfully he was able to restore it. Since then, I’ve always been extra cautious when teaching myself a new program, and I ask someone for help or look it up if I’m at all in doubt.
What are your professional goals, and how does this position fit into them?
As a recent graduate, my immediate goal has been to get some practical experience in the industry and learn from more experienced professionals. The computer technician team at this company is well-respected, and I’d love to learn from them and grow in my skills here for the foreseeable future.
Eventually, though, I’d like to go back to school for a computer engineering degree so that I could qualify for more advanced positions.
Which antivirus systems are you familiar with?
I used both Microsoft Security Essentials and McAfee at my last position. I’m most familiar with those, but I’ve also used Symantec a few times and am at least generally familiar with it.
I learn these types of systems quickly, though. I had to pick up Microsoft Security Essentials for the first time when I started my last job, and just a month later I was helping my boss with questions about it.