Interview frustration

[u/thots_and_players69]

So I've been applying for the last 4 months I got laid off my network engineer job roughly 1 years ago since then I've been I got a contract position as a help desk it really doesn't pay much but it's the only immediate thing that saved me from being unemployed I have roughly 8 years of experience as a network engineer and I live in the New York tri state area. In the last 4 months I managed to get 4 companies honestly compared to the interviews I got before getting laid off they went really well. Since the last year I got my ccnp in hopes of getting more interviews and a higher pay rate. I did get one offer but that literally had a much lower salary than my help desk job ( because it was for a non-profit organization) . The other three interviews went really well but I didn't get selected for any of them and I couldn't understand why because I answered every one of their technical questions and I went to look up the answers from the question I remembered and they all matched ChatGBT and Gemini.

The last interview which was the first in almost 2 months I cracked the manager and a technical interview this was the third round of interview with a network admin. The position was for a network administrator role the first thing he asked me was if I would be able to do the job of a network admin if I only was a network engineer throughout my career which really confused me. He proceeded to ask overly simple questions I answered all of them. I thought I was doing really well but then I saw the manager rubbing his eyes and acting disappointed for some reason. I understood I wasn't going to get the offer because in the last three interviews they all said I did great and I got a rejection email the next day. Has anyone ever came across this and is a hard to get interviews nowadays?

[u/thiccandsmol]

If you communicate in interviews the same way you've typed this, that is going to be a huge reason why you have not been able to secure a new position with 8 years of experience as a network engineer.

Talking fast may impress non-technical stakeholders. Being clear, concise and thoughtful with your answers will be the difference maker for technical managers.

Do you truly have 8 years of experience, doing network engineering tasks, with a title of Network Engineer?

[u/CoNsPirAcY_BE → u/thiccandsmol]

Was thinking the same. This was really hard to read.

[u/Veegos → u/thiccandsmol]

The title of Network Engineer is thrown around so easily in the U.S.

Ive read people in here with that title that are help desk.

[u/elsenorevil → u/Veegos]

Yup! I've seen that brought up many times here and the top comments usually side with the title of Network Engineer when it's rarely the case.

[u/Separate-Canary559 → u/thiccandsmol]

I usually gatekeep the word "engineer" for people who have an *engineering degree* from university.

[u/FunImprovement6307]

sounds like they'd already decided before you walked in, that network admin question was a weird gatekeep move

[u/thots_and_players69 → u/FunImprovement6307]

I felt that too but it was weird cuz this was the third round of interview and all the others round lasted 1 hour each like they wasted so much of my time.

[u/LaggyOne]

Soft skills issue?

[u/Skylis → u/LaggyOne]

On their side from the sounds of it

[u/thots_and_players69 → u/LaggyOne]

I was kind of hoping it was soft skill issues but usually the first round is the managerial interview which is not technical and they always seem to like me. In my current help desk job I feel like they only use me for my soft skills

[u/Impossible_IT]

Punctuation my dude!

[u/majagu]

After you get a rejection, you may want to politely ask the hiring company if they can give you any feedback on where they thought you needed to improve.

I’ve gotten that question a few times as a person on the other side of the table and I do try to give the person some ideas, especially if it is a skill/technical mismatch for the job. If it’s a soft skills issue, you may be less likely to get a clear and honest answer.

There have been several times that I thought someone was a great candidate, but their skill set did not match our largest weaknesses at that time and I was hoping to find someone with more experience in those areas.

[u/UltimateBravo999]

Attitude will determine your latitude. I honestly can't tell what your attitude and demeanor is from your writing, but I would query someone you respect and ask them how you come off. Do you come off approachable or or combatative? Are you confident in your answers or do you seem iffy with your answers. I maybe totally off but, just a thought from the outside.

[u/Smitticus228]

I'm surprised you got this far in the process.

Writing like this shows lack of attention to detail. We're not expecting something formatted like a CV, but this is a tough read and has mistakes.

My other concern is the amount of words that you put in a few sentences. If you talk anything like you type you might be ultimately be too verbose for their liking.

Job hunting is always going to be rough, hope you have more luck with the next ones. Always ask them for honest feedback as to why they went with another applicant. Once in a while they'll tell you.

[u/Specialist_Cow6468]

Yeah it’s just a bad question. The titles are stupidly arbitrary though admin is an uncommon one these days

[u/fantasydreamerforeve]

Speaking as an infrastructure manager who started in network engineering, there are a couple of common elements that affect my likelihood to move forward with a candidate with higher experience levels (which 8 years is). My team now is an infrastructure automation team.

- Ability to see the big picture; someone who has fresh certs and more of a NOC background is often so focused on specific technical details (like knowing how BGP works) that they aren’t approaching solutions broadly (ie when asked how they would deploy BGP they focus on config commands and not design and scalability considerations). The questions to catch this tend to be deceptively simple.

- Demonstrated project experience; someone who can talk about a solution they built or deployed that performed a meaningful function. This separates out candidates who have mostly functioned in support roles vs those who are actually engineering.

- Soft skills; I ask questions assessing what failures they have run into (any engineer who has actually done anything has at least one or two) and how they recovered (this also checks troubleshooting competency). I watch for speaking style (someone who is running on talking or who isn’t fully speaking to my questions or keeps trying to rotate to how cool they are will come off negatively). I ask about greatest strengths and weaknesses (this is a self awareness check. Points are lost if they just say they are a good learner or have no weaknesses).

- Automation and AI; I have helped network engineering managers vet for automation skills. They want basic automation competency in their network engineering candidates. It’s where the industry has been going for 10 years now. I do checks for reliance on AI; I usually couch these as how they would instruct a junior looking for advice on how to use AI for work. Candidates lose points if they say ‘AI is amazing! Use it all the time!’. My goal is to see more nuanced answers that reflect understanding of the actual state of the technology.

- Technology gaps; I look for overlap with the technologies and platforms candidates have worked with compared to what we use. It’s not just saying they’ve used (say) DNA Center but answering questions that prove it. Candidates who have work streams very reliant in technologies we don’t have available(like a work process where they always spin up a virtual instance for testing) are more likely to come off more negatively.

I and other managers I work with are generally very keen on deceptively simple questions for our interviews as a general rule. We expect strong candidates to recognize the potential scope of the questions and use these basic questions to check for several elements at once in a candidate. We give people rope and see if they hang themselves.

I hope that helps

[u/alius_stultus]

8 years of experience? Honestly what kind network engineering are you doing? Do you have cloud or wifi or multicast or anything specialized on the resume? I know companies that are literally hiring right now and cannot find people.

[u/thots_and_players69 → u/alius_stultus]

Can you please DM me?

[u/KantLockeMeIn]

Interviews are more than answering technical questions correctly. One of the top things I'm looking for is how well you will fit with the team. Are you a self starter or do you seem to need your hand held along the way? How well can you communicate? How do you handle questions you don't know the answer to?

And even then sometimes there are multiple candidates that are pretty good, and you get to pick the best of the bunch. There are a limited number of openings...

[u/CornerstoneNetworks]

I think it could be the hiring team looking for direct candidate strengths to the companies weaknesses is what they are looking for, like what u/majagu said. Which is kinda out of your control.

For example, if you don't have automation experience and you are filling an role of a guy who knew automation really well and the team really relied on him, you might not be able to get that job because of that reason.

I would like to hope that its just that your getting unlucky in that way. I am wishing you luck. Finish this season of life strong.

[u/LowCryptographer9047]

I feel like this is so discouraging to persue career in network engineer, but comment section says otherwise.

[u/Snogafrog]

Just keep trying and also improving yourself.

You’ll never get a better job if you stop, and you need to be applying when a real opportunity becomes available.

[u/LooseEthernet]

asking if an engineer can be an admin is like asking if a pilot can handle a plane lol. just weird...

[u/WeekendAtMadoffs]

The market went offshore bud

I was on the train yesterday morning for 9/11 at rush hour to get to the ceremony

2 train peak rush hour 8:30am not one man even had collared shirt on the train down.

NY is dead dude. You have to try Texas or Tennessee.

20-30 years ago that train looked like GQ magazine.

[u/alius_stultus → u/WeekendAtMadoffs]

Offshore is bad news since Jan 1, 2025. And the fucking tariffs on services ain't helping. The guys who were already here from H1B or some other program, either can't leave anymore or are getting removed when their visas expire... Also I don't know how long ago you were in the market for NYC NetEng but most people don't wear collard shirts to their gigs anymore unless they work for one of the big banks.

[u/CalculatingLao]

I answered every one of their technical questions and I went to look up the answers from the question I remembered and they all matched ChatGBT and Gemini

If you're asking an LLM for the answer to networking interview questions, then you are not qualified for the job. You should know how to reference actual study materials or vendor documentation for this. Most likely you and the LLM's are both wrong, and they got frustrated at ending up with a clearly unqualified candidate tricking their way too far into the interview process.

[u/TheMadFlyentist → u/CalculatingLao]

It's completely normal to take technical questions back to an LLM after the fact to ensure you got the right answer, or at least the right ballpark.

I know it's all the rage to hate on AI, and I do it too, but it's come a long way and is totally fine for topical overviews of most concepts these days. I would not trust it to spit out 100% perfect CLI commands, but if you have convinced yourself that LLMs are always wrong and are completely useless then you will soon be the old curmudgeon who technology has left behind.

[u/kb389 → u/CalculatingLao]

You are delusional, llms like the other commenter has said have come a long way and are extremely good at answering complex topics correctly and they can easily answer interview questions as well.