Interview Questions for AS400 Administrator

[PaulaJ]

Any suggestions for Interview Questions for an AS400 Administrator? especially non-technical ones. How can you tell if someone really knows what they are doing?

 

[koresnordic]

The one that always gets to me is "what is your biggest fault?". It's like - what is wrong with you and why should we employee with this problem?



Graham

 

[tcsbiz]

PaulaJ,

I've worked in AS/400, iSeries development since the '80's and I have never seen a real, live AS/400 Administrator. The system administers itself unlike most non-AS/400 systems. I've seen shops use programmers as part-time admins.

What do you want the Administrator to do? If it's not technical in nature, why would they be the Admin? Maybe the person you're looking for is really an operator?

If the admin will be responsible for other networks such as Windows, Linux, Unix, etc, they would need general network admin knowledge.

Tom.

 

[PaulaJ]

We need the SA to help set up the system, devices, jobd, printers (some on SNA connections, some with IP Sessions). They need to be able to help us monitor the jobs and system resources. I've been an AS400 programmer for 16 years and know just enough to be dangerous. This has been done for us up to now by the 3rd party that owns the system we currently operate. We are bringing a new AS400 in house and will have to do this ourselves in future. We do not have a technical oriented IS staff, primarily operators and analysts. I have been asked to come up with some questions that might help indicate whether the interviewee is just blowing smoke or really knows their stuff without getting too technical as the persons doing the interview wouldn't know if the answer was accurate anyway. We have a couple of resumes that IBM gave us and are getting new ones now from the area. Having had some bad experiences with employees that seemed to have all the answers up front but actually didn't have a clue, I was hoping for some insight as to some specific questions that might shed some light on the process. Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[tcsbiz]

PaulaJ,

Ask some general questions first where you know the answer.
Questions like:

1. What is a jobd? What is it used for?
2. What is the difference between batch and interactive jobs?
3. How often does the AS/400 have to be rebooted due to a problem? Kind of a trick question since it isn't called reboot but IPL. The answer should ne something like infrequently or rarely.
4. What does IPL stand for? Initial Program Load.
5. What is IP and why is it important? Internet Protocol. It is important because it has become the standard for connecting hardware and is considered an "open" standard. Sometimes used with TCP (Transmission/Transaction Control Protocol) as in TCP/IP. SNA (System Network Architecture) is IBM-specific and considered a "closed" standard. Most AS/400 shops that I work in use IP now for all connections.

If you get bad responses to those questions, don't go further with that candidate. They don't know enough about the platform.

Asking question for which you don't know the answer can be dangerous. How do you know if the person is legit? I guess you don't.

What I would do is this:

1. Ask the 3rd party who is now doing the admin to sit in on the interviews.
2. Ask the 3rd party to devise some questions since they know the setup like the backs of their hands.
3. Learn from them how the system is setup. Learn the terms they use and why it is set up that way.
4. Give the candidates a real, live test. Ask them to sign on (give them a password you set up for the purpose) and perform sepecific admin tasks such as determine printer setup, start and stop printers, start and end subsystems, etc.
5. Show the candidates the physical network and have them explain the technology behind it and how it works.
6. Write a looping program. Submit it or run it interactively and have the candidates identify the problem program and cancel the job with and without logging.

These are some ideas I have used in the past and they seem to work o.k. The live test is good to use because you find out if the candidates have actually ever signed onto an AS/400 and can find their way around. Also, you find out who comes prepared for the interview. I've seen people complain about not knowing in advance they were going to have to do something live. But, I think that someone applying for this type of job should expect to be tested this way.

Just a few ideas.

Tom.

 

[PaulaJ]

Thanks for the good suggestions. I have come up with a written test that should show expertise and also documentation and writing skills. We'll see how it goes.

 

[junglejimv]

The "need" to employ a fulltime System Administer is based upon the size of your organization, the number of physical locations, and the number of employees, along any current or future remote access and/or web interactions.

It would be crucial that such a person can create remote output queues tied to HP (and others) printers via jetdirect cards. This person should also thoroughly understand the implications of your backup strategy (you might want to explain the current strategy and then ask for some feedback). Having a representative from the outsource company was an excellent startegy. Good to have someone along who can detect a wolf in the henhouse.

If you employ BRMS for your backup, or if you have or intend to purchase third party productivity tools ... quiz them.

Have the interviewee explain the process of ordering both individual and cumulative ptf's, and how they are installed. MAybe give them a trick question of whether the installed ptf's should be permanently applied (no they should not .. too many bugs in this world)