What are the top most questions you would like to ask while interviewing for a support guy

1) Server Admin
2) Tech Support Guy ( Chat/Tickets)

Di

I have never had to hire staff, so I'm not talking from any past experience here, just what I would consider first when I am in that position.

Personally my first thought would be to ignore whether he or she has the skills for the job, but determine whether they have the right personality for the work environment. Specific skills can be taught a lot easier than you can change a person to fit in your work environment. As a result I feel their personality is more important than their skill set, and should therefore be determined before anything else.

Give him several scenarios and see how he would solve them and what his thought process is.

I have never had to hire staff, so I'm not talking from any past experience here, just what I would consider first when I am in that position.

Personally my first thought would be to ignore whether he or she has the skills for the job, but determine whether they have the right personality for the work environment. Specific skills can be taught a lot easier than you can change a person to fit in your work environment. As a result I feel their personality is more important than their skill set, and should therefore be determined before anything else.

I have had this philosophy backfire on me before so be careful.

If you hire someone and they do not have the required skill set you will end up spending your own time to train them. If you have job like I have, where a 24 hour day is not long enough, you have lost valuable time to complete your own work. Not only that, but you end up doing the other persons job in the process.

When hiring a server admin, you may have to take a chance. If you don't know anything about server administration, they could BS all the way through the interview and you wouldn't even notice. Check up on everyones credentials and references and make sure you click with the person.

When hiring customer service, that should be easy. Every business should have a mission statement and philosophy. They should be told to understand what that is and how important it is to your company. They are, afterall, dealing with your customers (or potential ones at least).

If you hire someone and they do not have the required skill set you will end up spending your own time to train them. If you have job like I have, where a 24 hour day is not long enough, you have lost valuable time to complete your own work. Not only that, but you end up doing the other persons job in the process.

Oh, for sure Eiolon. I didn't mean to suggest you should ignore whether the applicant has the required skill set, but more so, I personally would put their personality first. If they pass the personality test, then I would decide whether they have the required skill set. :)

- people skills
- dedication / reliability
- technical knowledge

I'd check them in that order and not hire unless all 3 were present.

uf! hiring people it's the hardest thing i think web hosting business have, i mean:

- If you take a tech guy, in 6 months probably he are going to put his own business online, just take a reseller account and that's all! (i talk by experience, 2 guys i had on the past do this exactly at 6 month)

- If you don't take a tech guy, only and administrative person (sales, etc) ... well, this don't solve very much the problem

My big suggestion:

stay alone as long as you can

That's how i'm now, and how i hope to stay for a long, loooong time :)

uf! hiring people it's the hardest thing i think web hosting business have, i mean:

- If you take a tech guy, in 6 months probably he are going to put his own business online, just take a reseller account and that's all! (i talk by experience, 2 guys i had on the past do this exactly at 6 month)

- If you don't take a tech guy, only and administrative person (sales, etc) ... well, this don't solve very much the problem

My big suggestion:

stay alone as long as you can

That's how i'm now, and how i hope to stay for a long, loooong time :)


Unfortunately, you can be alone only for a certain period of time. Once your business grows, its inevitable.

I would recommend to try and get someone you know to help out, perhaps someone from school, college or work. That is what we have, all of us are friends from college and it is working out great.

Another idea is to actually hire some locals in the area. You then have the opportunity to meet them face to face and see how they are. This may be tough for the graveyard shift, but you will definitley cut out most of the riff-raff.