The Anatomy of the Most Challenging Network Engineering Interview Question

In October 2019, I presented “Some boring network engineering interview questions and how to replace them with smart ones” at NANOG 77 in Austin, TX ( • Some boring network en... . An attempt to challenge the status quo around the quality of interview processes that was a new and different topic at the time. The recording of the session on TH-cam has had one of the highest number of views and the authors received numerous questions and positive feedback. This time for NANOG 85, we are submitting a follow-up topic "The Anatomy of the Most Challenging Network Engineering Interview Question".
Speaker: Kam Agahian

[@CoinJarMusicVideos]

Of course highly technical questions are tricky because the interviewer and applicant haven't agreed on the perspective from which they're viewing the question - but honestly, often I find I'm on a call and 4 in the team are in India or offshore, and I (in the USA) can hardly make out what the India team is saying.. there's an awkward wait because of the distance lag, making a Q&A difficult, and it's rarely if ever possible to get into a technical discussion with any depth because of this. The cards are stacked, but I ask myself, with the level of difficulty of this job, am I willing to deal with these hurdles every day for what they're offering? Almost always the answer is no. When I worked in Cisco TAC we'd ask for an email if we couldn't understand them.. that's the reality of working globally. Is that an answer your interviewer is going to find acceptable? I doubt it.

[@wkc073406]

Fair point. Globalization brings challenges that one can sometimes avoid.

[@mnsubuga]

This is a good one