Just picking your brains....We are hiring another Voice Network Engineer and the candidates they like have NO NORTEL experience, but do have experience with NEC and Avaya. I'm not familiar with those systems (from a programming point of view) so i'm not sure how similiar they are. Basically, will I end up having to train these people from scratch on Nortel, or is there enough cross-over that they can pick it up fairly quickly? We are scheduling in-person interviews soon, but I'm not sure what type of things I should be asking technical wise to judge their experience. We have 4 sites, with 2 CS1000s, 1 61c, and 2 81c PBXs with some BCMs and CISCO stuff thrown in...
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Interview questions
- Thread starter pbxNewb
- Start date
Get the basics first I say:
Ask them what color the 24th pair of a binder is.
Ask if the tip side is green or red, wh/bu or bu/wh
Ask what ringing voltage is on an analog DID (there's none, ever
Ask how to sum two cells in Excel.
I hate "tests" but it will get you info before it's too late.
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GHTROUT.com - Help for Nortel Meridian/CS1000 System Administrators
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Ask them what color the 24th pair of a binder is.
Ask if the tip side is green or red, wh/bu or bu/wh
Ask what ringing voltage is on an analog DID (there's none, ever
Ask how to sum two cells in Excel.
I hate "tests" but it will get you info before it's too late.
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GHTROUT.com - Help for Nortel Meridian/CS1000 System Administrators
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5 groups, 10 questions each. 1. Terminal input questions. 2. Trunk and PRI connection questions. 3. Wiring and connections questions. 4. Telephone and IP configuration questions. 5. Handling your customer questions.
Your best candidate will be the person that will learn something everyday while on your job. Aggressive means he may take your job someday, but that will keep you on your toes too.
DocVic
Dedicated to Nortel Products till the end.
Need help?
Your best candidate will be the person that will learn something everyday while on your job. Aggressive means he may take your job someday, but that will keep you on your toes too.
DocVic
Dedicated to Nortel Products till the end.
Need help?
You can't fire me because you can't afford to have some else make those mistakes all over again!"
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GHTROUT.com - Help for Nortel Meridian/CS1000 System Administrators
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GHTROUT.com - Help for Nortel Meridian/CS1000 System Administrators
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avaya is a pretty no
tech box, nec can get into tech pretty quick.. i have to disagree with both replies..
question
1, why in the heck do you want to learn this box..
2. how long fo you think a tdm background is going to keep you employed
3. give me three reasons to go to voip at this time..
if your using just TM, hire the 1st one that can type. he will never need to learn the switch, just station admin.
one of my on site techs here does not know his color code. after 10 years he's never needed to term a single binder.
john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc
tech box, nec can get into tech pretty quick.. i have to disagree with both replies..
question
1, why in the heck do you want to learn this box..
2. how long fo you think a tdm background is going to keep you employed
3. give me three reasons to go to voip at this time..
if your using just TM, hire the 1st one that can type. he will never need to learn the switch, just station admin.
one of my on site techs here does not know his color code. after 10 years he's never needed to term a single binder.
john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc
btw, questions one and two, any answer is right, just watch how well they handle themselves while trying to think. question three any answer is wronge, no one can think of a single reason for voip EXCEPT duing a new install. cisco is selling great for now, datageeks know how to spell cisco. i've taken out as many as i've installed..
why would you interview anyone with zero exp on the gray box? your site sounds like an install i worked back in 99
john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc
why would you interview anyone with zero exp on the gray box? your site sounds like an install i worked back in 99
john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc
I'd also ask if they either have current networking background or have an interest in such. Since VoIP is becoming more and popular I'd almost prefer a person with knowledge of networking and next to no experience with Nortel.
Then ask yourself a question prior to the interviews. Do you know the Nortel side well? Any one can learn the little grey box if they have a great teacher that knows their stuff.
Another question would be scenario types. Ex. There's an issue, not a big user impacting one, but an issue none the less. Not knowing the answer, what/where would you go for help? Sites like this one are awesome and testing one's ability to use all resources around them including this site could make or break a person.
Another favorite of mine is asking the person to describe their most stressful outage/issue and have them tell you their troubleshooting steps. If you get a very detailed answer that includes all the little steps needed, that may be a person to look at twice. If you get well I called my vendor and waited on them, you may want to put the lure back in water to see what other fish you can catch, lol
Prior to my jobs working on Nortel, I had outside plant experience (POTS install and cable repair) and I was lucky to have a boss that hired me Nortel green. She showed me what she knew, perhaps grooming me, and I haven't looked back since. If you can be the grooming type, anyone with the initiative, who works well under stress is trainable.
Then ask yourself a question prior to the interviews. Do you know the Nortel side well? Any one can learn the little grey box if they have a great teacher that knows their stuff.
Another question would be scenario types. Ex. There's an issue, not a big user impacting one, but an issue none the less. Not knowing the answer, what/where would you go for help? Sites like this one are awesome and testing one's ability to use all resources around them including this site could make or break a person.
Another favorite of mine is asking the person to describe their most stressful outage/issue and have them tell you their troubleshooting steps. If you get a very detailed answer that includes all the little steps needed, that may be a person to look at twice. If you get well I called my vendor and waited on them, you may want to put the lure back in water to see what other fish you can catch, lol
Prior to my jobs working on Nortel, I had outside plant experience (POTS install and cable repair) and I was lucky to have a boss that hired me Nortel green. She showed me what she knew, perhaps grooming me, and I haven't looked back since. If you can be the grooming type, anyone with the initiative, who works well under stress is trainable.
Johnthephoneguy
Technical User
I would think there are enough Nortel techs out of work that it would be easy to find a qualified one without needing to be trained!
JohnThePhoneGuy
"If I can't fix it, it's not broke!
JohnThePhoneGuy
"If I can't fix it, it's not broke!
i have found out that 70 percent of data geeks can not learn command line.. and trying to get one capable of walking in with the box down and working with hardware/software and endusers... i would rather train the other way, i can teach a tdm tech all he's needs to know to do voip in a couple of days..
the network geeks set up the vlans, we've got a full class b to assign a sub-net per site.. you don't need a ccie after that
john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc
the network geeks set up the vlans, we've got a full class b to assign a sub-net per site.. you don't need a ccie after that
john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc
Problem with the data folks is they can't bring themselves to stoop down to our telecom level. Now a days you almost need someone with a mixed bag of experience, whether that experience is on the data, pc or server side. Most folks fail to realize that we support much more than just phones.
We recently brought on a pc tech to join our team, he "thought" he knew what he was in for, phones no big deal right? Then he realized we support applications on servers, take care of our own addressing scheme on the net side, replace hardware, install desktop app's oh and work on phones. Needless to say he's a bit overwhelmed, but he's willing to learn and is picking up our side fairly well.
And I agree there's plenty of out of work Nortel tech's out there, sadly alot of them went to other fields when their job died out. Management sometimes will lean towards getting a less experienced tech for a cheaper salary than a seasoned vet that wants to be paid. Sadly its just the way this market seems to be going.
We recently brought on a pc tech to join our team, he "thought" he knew what he was in for, phones no big deal right? Then he realized we support applications on servers, take care of our own addressing scheme on the net side, replace hardware, install desktop app's oh and work on phones. Needless to say he's a bit overwhelmed, but he's willing to learn and is picking up our side fairly well.
And I agree there's plenty of out of work Nortel tech's out there, sadly alot of them went to other fields when their job died out. Management sometimes will lean towards getting a less experienced tech for a cheaper salary than a seasoned vet that wants to be paid. Sadly its just the way this market seems to be going.
- Thread starter
- #11
i have a feeling they are hiring with an eye towards the "future" where someone thinks its a great idea to replace all the nortel equipment with Cisco. I don't know why everyone fails to understand that you can't just have your existing cisco network engineers all of a sudden support all the phone stuff too, just because it says "cisco" on it. Not to mention the huge cost involved in swapping out these large Nortel systems with a cisco solution...
- Thread starter
- #13
bhassell2000
Technical User
Can I work on your 61s and 81s?
Thanks,
Buddy
Linked in Profile
Thanks,
Buddy
Linked in Profile
I haven't been to any call manager classes, and so far, the major differances I see between Cisco and Nortel is terminology. Once you figure out what cisco calls x which equals to nortels z it sort of starts to make sense.
That's at least on the gui interface side of the cisco. The backend router stuff you'll need some classes, ccna wouldn't hurt and making nice with your network folks to show you stuff not covered in boot camps. Worse case at the end of the day you are an experienced nortel tech with a ccna, not a bad combo to have on the ole resume.
That's at least on the gui interface side of the cisco. The backend router stuff you'll need some classes, ccna wouldn't hurt and making nice with your network folks to show you stuff not covered in boot camps. Worse case at the end of the day you are an experienced nortel tech with a ccna, not a bad combo to have on the ole resume.
bhassell2000
Technical User
I dabble in our call manager building sets and stuff, that part is fairly straight forward. I am suppose to sign up for CCNA training to learn the router/switch stuff too
Thanks,
Buddy
Linked in Profile
Thanks,
Buddy
Linked in Profile
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