Systems Administrator Position Overview

The execution of the company’s IT systems such as hardware, software, and network depends on the systems administrator. Systems Admins make the first point of contact in a company, so candidates need to possess excellent troubleshooting skills. Also, they should be able to explain technical details to a non-technical audience. So, while interviewing, analyze the knowledge of IT best practices of the candidates.

A System Admin has to deal with issues such as upgrading servers and installing applications and backing up and recovering data. So, it is wise to choose candidates with broad technical backgrounds.

This highly-responsible position requires someone with excellent troubleshooting skills. They should be able to explain technical details to a non-technical audience in an easy-to-understand manner.

Skills to look for:

• MCSE and RHCE certifications.
• Oracle Linux System Administrator.
• Knowledge of CompTIA Server+
• VCP6-DCV: VMware Certified Professional 6 – Data Center Virtualization

While interviewing a candidate for the post of System Administrator, ask the following important interview questions: 

Operational and Situational Interview Questions

• Suppose you try to fix a problem, but your attempt fails. What will you do?
• How would you help an employee having trouble joining a video call while working from home?
• If an employee asks you to help with a slow computer, how will you diagnose the problem?
• If some employees complain about their internet speed, what would you do to identify the problem?
• What are the three major attributes of a great Systems Administrator?
• How will you handle the worst virus issue?

Role-specific Interview Questions

• What is the difference between Windows Pro, Windows Home, and Windows Server?
• Why should we use external media such as hard disks for backups?
• Describe the configuration process for a printer in Windows 10.
• How will you share two monitors with a single System?
• What is garbage collection?
• What are the main Email Servers and which are their ports?
• According to you, how often and why do we need to upgrade a server?
• How will you renew IP address from the command prompt?

Behavioral questions

• How do you prioritize your tasks?
• Did you ever run into a situation when you didn’t know how to resolve an issue? How did you handle that?
• Do you prefer working individually or in a team?
• How do you stay updated with the latest IT developments?