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

by clicking the red button below the video, and then you will not miss out on any of the

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you gave the video a LIKE. (Thank you very much!) That always tells me that you are enjoying

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.