IBM Technical Support is an integral part of IBM Software Subscription and Support. Every year, IBM recruits freshers in bulk for IBM Technical Support jobs openings. Apart from IBM, several other companies also offer IBM technical support services for which they need Technical Support Officers. Being a personalized, proactive, preemptive, predictive and smart support service field, IBM requires trained IBM technical support personnel. In order to build this talent pool, IBM and its vendors hire freshers in bulk every year and train them. If you are interested to become an IBM technical support officer or you are about to attend an IBM technical support interview, prepare the following questions and answers.
- Do you know about our products and company?
In order to answer this question, go through IBM Technical Support job descriptions and the website properly.
- What is IBM’s mission?
- IBMers value dedication to every client’s success.
- What are IBM’s products and services?
- What is IBM known for?
- What are some recent updates or changes in the company?
- What is BIOS?
- BIOS is non-volatile firmware used to perform hardware initialization during the booting process. The name originates from the Basic Input/Output System used in the CP/M operating system.
- What experience do you possess in technical support field?
- If you possess any knowledge in the field, flaunt it to be an ideal candidate. Present your opinions in a professional and positive manner. Talk about your internships and trainings in the field, if any.
- Tell me about yourself?
- What are the hardware components of desktop computer/laptop?
- Monitor, keyboard, computer data storage, hard disk drive (HDD), graphic card, sound card, memory (RAM).
- What do you know about our organization?
- Start your answer with a positive point about IBM and then bring up a challenge they are solving for the market in the field of technical support.
IBM interview process for freshers
In your IBM interview process, you have to clear the written test or a technical round and the technical cum HR interview round. Also, you need to meet the following criteria. For IBM GBS (Global Business Solutions) division, the test will be non-technical. For IBM GTS (Global Technological Solutions) division, the test will be technical. Criteria to be met by freshers in an IBM interview process are as follows:
- Academics: You should have scored atleast 65% or above in your B.Tech/graduation as well as in Class X and XII. During the interview, you should not have any backlogs.
- Test pattern for IBM interview: Question paper will have sections with fixed no. of questions. You have to solve the paper within a stipulated time limit.
Test pattern for IBM GBS & GTS
| Section Name | Questions | Time (in min) |
| Number Series | 18 | 40 |
| Quantitative Aptitude | 18 | 40 |
| Business Communication | 22 | 20 |
| Total | 58 | 100 |
IBM test pattern for GTS is the same. The extra part would be a trickier ‘Quantitative Aptitude’ section and an additional ‘Work Style Personality Test’. The face to face interview rounds would be carries out to filter candidates further, basis their communication skills and presence of mind.
- Technical interview: Freshers would be asked questions related to their graduation subject or a particular technical field. Most of the questions would be based on technical activities carried out in IBM for the particular job profile. So you should be prepared with answers that are related to all the technical work required to be done as a part of the job applied.
- HR Interview: It is the final step to select a candidate or a future IBM employee in the IBM interview process. IBM interview questions asked in this round will determine a candidate’s personality. While some of the questions would be simple like your introduction or “Describe yourself”, Qualification, Experience, Industry specific experience, Courses done, your strengths and weaknesses, salary expectations, friends, family etc.
You may feel some of the above questions are no brainers. But please make a note of the answers above as jobseekers generally fail to answer questions as simple as these. Also. in order to get recruited as an IBM technical support person or an IBM Technical Support Engineer, you should prepare yourself to meet the following criteria.
- You should to be a super motivated and innovative individual.
- You should have an understanding of the IBM z/OS environment.
- Your job role will need you to specialize in problem determination or in other words, problem and source identification skills.
- You will be expected to apply new tools, utilize technical and negotiation skills in collaboration with team members as well as the client.
- You should know how to prioritize and diagnose problems to resolution.
- Your responsibilities may also include the ability to communicate action plans to the client or an IBM representative.
- With minimal guidance, you should be adept at recommending and implementing new or improved features to existing technical support tools, procedures, and processes.
During the IBM Interview Process your interviewer will make it clear that you will be expected to contribute to overall department growth and wellbeing alongside the above deliverables. But in order to get recruited as an IBM Technical Support Engineer, you should be able to deliver the following as well.
- This IBM Technical Support position entails you to provide L1 remote support or on-site technical support as a fresher.
- An IBM Technical Support professional’s position requires an understanding of host base architectures.
- You must pick up the layout and usage of z/OS memory, both real and virtual within the first month. So please arrive prepared to the interview with some basic training.
- You should have a decent knowledge or proven experience in IPCS tools and commands for analyzing system and heap dumps. In case that sounds tough, please join a training institute to get hands on practice.
- With time, you should develop experience in installation and configuration of z/OS products which integrates with Unix System Services (USS), RACF, TCP/IP and APPC.
- You can pick up additional pointers on other MVS subsystems and J2EE technology to excel in the interview.
- If you are hands on in CICS, DB2, IMS, Web Services for CICS and IMS, or any other Service Oriented Architecture, it will add brownie points.
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