Hi,

I'm just wondering, when recruiting people for support staff, how do you know if someone's a true level 3 support or not? Is there any test or certification that confirm that this person has the required skill to become level 3 support?

Greg:confused:

I wouldn't put much weight on certifications. That just proves they can cram for an exam. You get to know your employees by working with them.

Hi,

I'm just wondering, when recruiting people for support staff, how do you know if someone's a true level 3 support or not? Is there any test or certification that confirm that this person has the required skill to become level 3 support?

Greg:confused:

Maybe try searching up technical stuff and asking questions about it, how would they resolve it things like that. Talk with your provider and ask for help, if you have a nice provider maybe they can help giving you technical questions for level3 :)

Hi guys, thanks for replying.

So basically there's not even a standard to say what the minimum requirement is to become a level 3 support.

Frimon86, what sort of questions would you ask a level 3 support? Can you give an example?

I feel that the type of questions to ask at that level wouldn't have a simple answer. So, just providing a list of questions may not help unless you truly know how to interpret their response.

I would personally be more interested in their approach to solving problems than the actual solutions.

That said, you may want to involve your best current admin in the interview process. If that is not your situation you may just want to review their resume, references and personality. If everything seems in order, just hire them and see how they work out. You will soon see how effective they are.

You could consider using something like brainbench.com to pre-qualify your applicants. You probably should also consider reading some guides on interview technique. As already noted, you should be most concerned with their approach to solving problems. Also very important is the ability to quickly parse and grasp new concepts, methodologies and technologies.

By the time a client (or a client's ticket) has reached a third level of support, that client may be not be in as much of a pleasant mood as they once were. There's probably a little bit of frustration coming from their side of the ticket. Someone in a higher level support position must be able to control his/her own emotions to the point where they won't get defensive or take offense if the client attacks at all. Tact terribly important.

ACW was right on the money with the approach to "testing" the applicant. It's the means that are important, maybe sometimes more so than the end in some cases. If a client is getting some whacky .NET error message (for example) and the first couple support tiers weren't any help, what is the next level support going to do first? Would they be able to take any established information and build upon it with their given resources and abilities?

I see, I guess a Level 3 support may not have to know everything, as long as they have to right approach to solving a problem and know where to look for the answers...

Well then I'll just have to take plunge. Thanks guys!

Greg

Even if you hire a very experienced system administrator, I'd classify him as Level2. Only when he knows your servers and systems in and out, would I call him Level3. Level3 staff should be capable of solving any issue in their area of expertise.

I'm a level 67 support.

My lizards are mostly level 2-6 support, but my cat is level 19.

Do you see what I'm getting at here? Anyone?!