Other Interview Questions

Personal Questions

• What does excellent customer service mean to you? 
• What is your biggest strength? What is your biggest weakness? 
• What do you find most rewarding about working at a help desk?

IT Questions

• In which IT areas do you consider yourself to be an expert? 

Tips for responding: Be strategic! If you know the company’s help desk gets a lot of questions around one area, make sure to include that in your response. 

• How do you keep your IT knowledge and skills current?

Tips for responding: You can talk about online resources or social media accounts you follow, as well as any classes you have taken (or plan to take). 

• What is ITIL? How can you apply ITIL to your position at a help desk?
• What programs have you used to log and date calls?

Tips for responding: List out specific programs. It can be helpful, as well, to emphasize your willingness and ability to pick up new software technologies easily. 

Behavioral Questions

• Tell me about a time when it was particularly difficult for a caller to explain a problem to you. How did you reach an understanding of the issue?

Tips for responding: Using the STAR technique can help you provide a succinct response.  

• Give me an example of a time when you had to simplify complex information to explain it to a caller.
• Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a particularly hostile customer or caller. How did you handle the issue? Is there anything you would have done differently?

Tips for responding: Don’t try to dodge the question by saying you’ve never dealt with a difficult customer. That’ll seem disingenuous. Instead, focus on how you formed a connection or overcame hostility by solving the problem or explaining it. 

• Tell me about a problem you had to solve that tested your analytical abilities. What resources did you use?
• How have you responded in the past when you received negative feedback from a customer or caller about you personally?

Situational Questions

• Imagine someone calls with a technical issue with which you are completely unfamiliar. How would you handle the situation? 
• Imagine a caller has trouble understanding what you are trying to explain to him. What do you do to help him understand you?
• If a customer calls saying his computer won’t boot, how will you troubleshoot it? 
• If someone finds that their Internet connectivity is down, how will you fix the problem?

In addition to job-specific interview questions, you will also be asked more general questions about your employment history, education, strengths, weaknesses, achievements, goals, and plans. Take the time to formulate and rehearse your answers to these questions. This will give you an added boost of self-confidence during the interview itself.