1. Can you tell me a little about yourself?

2. How did you hear about the position?

3. What do you know about the company?
4. Why do you want this job?
5. Why should we hire you?
6. What are your greatest professional strengths?
7. What do you consider to be your weaknesses?
8. What is your greatest professional achievement?
9. Tell me about a challenge or conflict you've faced at work, and how you dealt with it.
15. What are you looking for in a new position?

 What interests you about this position?

 What certifications do you hold?
 What do you do to maintain your technical certifications?
 What automated-build tools or processes have you used?
 What development tools have you used?
 What languages have you programmed in?
 What source control tools have you used?
 What technical websites do you follow?
 Describe a time when you were able to improve upon the design that
was originally suggested.
 Describe the most innovative change that you have initiated and what
you did to implement this change.
 How do you handle multiple deadlines?
 How do you keep current on this industry?
 How do you troubleshoot IT issues?
 Tell me about the most recent project you worked on. What were your
responsibilities?
 Tell me about the project you are most proud of and what your
contribution was.
 Give an example of where you have applied your technical knowledge in
a practical way.
 What is the biggest IT challenge you have faced, and how did you
handle it?
 Have you worked with software vendors? How do you handle vendor
relations?
 How important is it to work directly with your business users?
 How would you rate your key competencies for this job?
 If hired, is there anything you would change about this IT team?

 What challenges do you think you might expect in this jobif you were
hired?

 In network security, what is a honey pot, and why is it used?

 What are the most important database performance metrics, and how
do you monitor them?
 What are transaction logs, and how are they used?
 What do you do to ensure quality in your deliverables?

 What do you consider documentation, and why is it important?

 What do you do to ensure you provide accurate project estimates?
 What do you expect in the solution documents you are provided?
 What elements are necessary for a successful team, and why?
 What have you done to ensure consistency across unit, quality, and
production environments?
 What is a cross site scripting attack, and how do you defend against it?
 What is a SAN, and how is it used?
 What is clustering? Describe its use.
 What is ETL and when should it be used?
 What is most important - quality or quantity?
 What is structure?
 What is the difference between OLAP and OLTP? When is each used?
 What is the role of continuous integration systems in the automated-
build process?
 What is the role of SMNP?
 What is the role of the DMZ in network architecture? How do you
enforce relational integrity in database design?
 When is it appropriate to denormalize database design?
 When is the last time you downloaded a utility from the internet to make
your work more productive, and what was it?

 Which do you prefer: service oriented or batch oriented solutions?

I am interested in this job as a programmer because I am extremely interested
in, and skilled at, learning and excelling at new technologies. I have already
learned and mastered programs and languages ranging from Python to Java,
and I look forward to mastering more programs as they're developed. I am also
interested in creative problem solving, a skill I developed when working as an
analyst for the past ten years.

I'm looking for a bigger challenge and to grow my career, but I didn’t feel like I
could give equal attention both to my job search and to my full-time work
responsibilities. It didn’t seem ethical to slack off from my former job in order to
conduct my job search, and so I left the company.
 Sample IT Interview Questions
1. IT Network & Telephony

 Have you planned and implemented additions and significant modifications to

your company’s IT infrastructure? Describe your contribution.
 Tell us about any procedures you have implemented to improve network security
or in other areas.

 Describe the maintenance and administration routines you utilized to ensure

effective corporate VOIP/WAN/IT network performance.

 Have you upgraded the company’s telephone or email system to a VOIP or

unified messaging system? Describe the process and the factors you considered in
choosing the new systems.

2. General Maintenance & Help Desk Administration

 Describe a situation in which you were involved with one of the following:
troubleshooting procedure, system backup and failure recovery.
 What IT tracking software have you used to monitor/maintain remote systems?

 Have you interacted with customers or internal clients on a daily basis? What
level of help desk support have you provided to resolve IT-related issues?
 3. IT manager, IT Project Management

 Describe your methods used to build and maintain subcontractor and vendors
relationships and to manage the purchase of hardware and software products.
 Have you developed a disaster recovery/alternative plan to ensure continuous
availability of computer systems throughout the Corporation?

 Have you developed an IT security policy?

 Describe the hands-on support and training program you used to ensure cross
company utilization of computing infrastructure.

 Have you been responsible for the budget of the IT systems of the company? Tell
us how you monitored costs, business plan and cash flow.

For more related job interview questions for IT manager, refer also to –

 Project manager Job Interview

 Team Leader Job Interview

4. General common questions:

 How do you keep yourself updated with technology, considering that technology
today is enhanced almost every day?
 What kind of attitudes do you find it difficult to work with? How do you handle
people with the particular attitude?

 How did you prepare for this job interview?

 In your previous job, did you handle a team? If yes, could you tell us of an
example when you coordinated your team with the client in a successful manner?

 We expect our managers to work more than eight hours a day, how flexible are
you with your work hours?

 What is the timeframe since when you have been looking for a job, or how long
have you been looking for a job now?

 Can you share with us the most satisfying moments in your professional life?

 What are your financial expectations from the job?