[cisco-voip] A little Fun

Mon Oct 8 15:03:42 EDT 2007

I was always surprised by how many engineers, particularly mid-level
engineers, didn't understand what ARP really did.  Sure they could
recite the definition but they really didn't have a clear understanding
of the OSI model so didn't really understand what ARP really did.

The problem with scenarios is that are many possible solutions where you
may only be looking for one.

Someone earlier had offered the scenario "You've upgraded the IOS on a
router and now you can't get to it.  What do you do?"  Well there are
any number of different options depending on the circumstances and
environment you are working in.  

The Hold-down question is pretty good.  The IP Phone registration
question is a little too broad, IMO. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Charles [mailto:jonvoip at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 2:53 PM
To: Gibson, Brian (Jersey City)
Cc: Syed Khalid Ali; ryan speed; cisco-voip at puck.nether.net
Subject: Re: [cisco-voip] A little Fun

But then you miss the depth of their skill...

Personally, if a CCNA doesn't know what ARP is or does, he might as
well use that cert to wipe his butt with for all it's worth...

A better one would be:

Explain how hold-down works for a distance-vector routing protocol...

Explain the IP Phone registration process...

etc...

I am not a fan of the factoid questions... I prefer the scenarios...
cuz if they can't shoot trouble, it is unlikely they can do
anything...

Jonathan

On 10/8/07, Gibson, Brian (Jersey City) <brian.gibson at stifel.com> wrote:
> Personally I try to stay away from engineers specific configuration
> questions because being able to answer those questions doesn't speak
to
> their overall networking knowledge but rather their configuration
> experience.  You can teach anyone to configure a router or switch.
You
> can't teach them how IP operates.
>
> Anyway here are some basic questions I ask mid-level people I
interview.
>
> 1. What is the purpose of ARP?
>
> 2. How does traceroute operate?
>
> 3. If you did a ping test and the response you received was "TTL
expired
> in transit" what does that most likely indicate?
>
> 4. Why is UDP used for multimedia services rather than TCP?
>
> 5. What does IGMP do?  What does PIM do?  Extra credit for being able
to
> differentiate between sparse and dense.
>
> Don't ask questions that are specific to your environment since the
> prospective employee doesn't know your environment.  And don't try to
> catch the interviewee on gotchas.  The purpose of the test is to get
an
> idea of how good the engineer is, not make him or her feel dumb
because
> they forgot some relatively minor point.  Also broader questions allow
> the interviewee to speak so you can get a better idea of their
technical
> communications skills.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cisco-voip-bounces at puck.nether.net
> [mailto:cisco-voip-bounces at puck.nether.net] On Behalf Of Syed Khalid
Ali
> Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2007 10:05 PM
> To: ryan speed
> Cc: cisco-voip at puck.nether.net
> Subject: Re: [cisco-voip] A little Fun
>
> hi,
>  here r a few:
>
> what is unicast, broadcast and multicast
> how a switch learns a mac address
> what does snap do at osi layer 2
> what is mdix
> difference between routing and switching
> how to bridging avoid loop in switched network
> how to avoid loop in distance vector protocols
> types of routing protocols
> what protocol and port number does bgp uses.
> what types of area does ospf support
> different between types of lsa in ospf
> why need redistribution
> why need route summarization
> what is cidr
> why do we need hierachy in ospf or is-is. can we do so in eigrp as
well.
> is is-is independent of ip protocol. if yes what is the advantage
> what does a pasive interface do
> difference between ccm, ccm business edition and ccme
> what voice signaling protocol does ccm use
> in how many ways we can implement call control (centralized or
> distributed)
> in a  voice enabled network
> when to use mgcp/h323 and sip
> what voip signaling protocol does ccm use
> how to calculate bandwidth for viop enabled network
> difference between the call control methods.
> what is the recomended anti virus for ccm
> why need a sperate voice vlan
> what is the qos value for voice and voice control traffic
> what is difference between congestion management and avoidance
> techniques available in cisco ios to do congestion management and
> avoidance
> (eg: fair queue,cwfq, llq, red and wred)
> what is 802.1p
> phone get the ip and vlan but unable to register with ccme/ccm  why?
> what is v3 vpn
> what are the phases in establishing a vpn.
> why is the difference between site-to-site and access vpn.
> what is the command to see vpn peers
> why use gre tunnels with ipsec vpns?
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "ryan speed" <rspeed at gmail.com>
> To: <cisco-voip at puck.nether.net>
> Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2007 3:08 AM
> Subject: Re: [cisco-voip] A little Fun
>
>
> > never hurts to throw a scenario or two in.
> >
> > you're tasked with upgrading the ios (pre-definined) on a voice
> > gateway for a remote customer, what steps would you take and what
> > precautions would you deem necessary for a trouble free upgrade with
a
> > solid backout plan in the event something goes wrong.
> >
> > take that answer and move onto another scenario (which if they
> > answered the first one correctly should result in a pass or fail
> > situation)
> >
> > you've upgraded to the new ios and rebooted the router, 30 minutes
> > have passed and you're unable to reach the router, how will you
> > proceed to troubleshoot/rectify the situation so the customer isn't
> > stuck with a dead router with 12 hours till business opens again.
> >
> > On 10/5/07, Kevin Dunn <cheesevoice at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Thought you guys might want to take a break and help me out on a
> >> "related"
> >> issue...
> >>
> >> We are interviewing new Network Engineer Applicants next week.
> >>
> >> While I was writing up my list of questions (the boss needs 10) I
> thought
> >> I
> >> would throw this out to you guys.
> >> If you could write an interview question for your next Network
> Engineer
> >> (let's say Professional Level certification in Networking, Security
> or
> >> Voice)
> >> what would you ask them?  (try to keep it technical, nothing about
> >> Packer's
> >> tickets or Beer...lol)
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> cisco-voip mailing list
> >> cisco-voip at puck.nether.net
> >> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/cisco-voip
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
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> > https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/cisco-voip
> >
>
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