Seven IT Asset Management Interview Questions for Hiring
If you’re an IT director or ITAM lead and in the process of building (or improving) your ITAM team, you’re in a precarious position. Your hiring decisions are critical because of the massive impact your department can have on the entire organization.
I’ve assisted healthcare conglomerates, global insurance companies, large manufacturers and more in structuring their ITAM teams. And I’ve discovered through the process that no matter how many years of experience a candidate may have or how stellar their references are, there are other qualities and characteristics which are equally, if not more, important.
As a matter of fact, by far the most talented ITAM team members I’ve coached are less experienced than their more seasoned colleagues. They all seem to share are these four qualities and characteristics:
- Persistence
- A Logical and Ordered Mind
- A Love of Research
- An Insatiable Thirst for Knowledge
So, how do can you uncover, during an interview, whether your candidate possesses the above qualities and characteristics? You must ask them some very specific questions:
Seven IT Asset Management Interview Questions For Hiring
Question 1:
Have you ever worked on an ITAM project that suddenly ran into trouble?
If they answer, “No,” – show ‘em the door. ITAM projects always run into trouble!
Question 2:
At what point in the timeline did the trouble begin?
You need folks on your team who sense trouble early before too much damage has been done.
Question 3:
What steps did you take to solve the problem?
By asking about the steps they took to solve a problem, you will uncover whether this is a person who thinks in a logical and ordered manner. They should be able to describe the system they used to root out the issue, step-by-step. If their answer is something like, “I made it up as I went along,” as a member of your time, they will likely miss things and won’t be able to prove to you that they have done a complete and thorough job.
Question 4:
What types of resources did you reach for when you were faced with this problem?
This is one of the most important IT Asset Management interview questions to ask. An ideal team member will do their own research or turn to resources they are already familiar with before asking for help. Now, I’m not advocating never to bring in help, but ideally, you want to fill your team with folks who will exhaust every possibility before asking for it.
These answers will clue you in on whether they love doing research. They’re not afraid of using complex resources that take great focus and patience to get through. If they did all their research on Reddit or Wikipedia, they would not be an effective member of your team.
Question 5:
Do you belong to any professional organizations such as IAITAM?
You want folks who have passion for what they do and feel they are part of a community of like-minded professionals. It’s not a job for them; it’s a profession.
Question 6:
Have you pursued continuing education on your own?
If a candidate takes courses on their own time, it shows they have an insatiable thirst for knowledge. And that’s a good sign.
Question 7:
What kinds of things do you like to read or watch?
Of course, you want a team member who spends some of their free time reading about ITAM, but it’s all they read; it shows a very narrow range of interests. You want folks with wide and varying interests – multi-faceted people who don’t rely on only one source of information.
Interestingly, I’ve discovered that people who love true crime podcasts and series make terrific ITAM team members! They must know how the story unravels and how the layers were pulled back to discover the truth. They absolutely have to find out if their early instincts were correct, and if they have to sit through eight or more episodes to get the answer, they’ll gladly do it.
And that’s how problems get solved in ITAM. Systematically. Step by step.
You want people who won’t stop until they’ve uncovered the problem and how it happened and who will use every resource at their disposal to solve it before calling in outside help. And, if they’re so passionate about the work, they devote some of their own time to hone their skills even better.
Question 1:
Have you ever worked on an ITAM project that suddenly ran into trouble?
If they answer, “No,” – show ‘em the door. ITAM projects always run into trouble!
Question 2:
At what point in the timeline did the trouble begin?
You need folks on your team who sense trouble early before too much damage has been done.
Question 3:
What steps did you take to solve the problem?
By asking about the steps they took to solve a problem, you will uncover whether this is a person who thinks in a logical and ordered manner. They should be able to describe the system they used to root out the issue, step-by-step. If their answer is something like, “I made it up as I went along,” as a member of your time, they will likely miss things and won’t be able to prove to you that they have done a complete and thorough job.
Question 4:
What types of resources did you reach for when you were faced with this problem?
This is one of the most important IT Asset Management interview questions to ask. An ideal team member will do their own research or turn to resources they are already familiar with before asking for help. Now, I’m not advocating never to bring in help, but ideally, you want to fill your team with folks who will exhaust every possibility before asking for it.
These answers will clue you in on whether they love doing research. They’re not afraid of using complex resources that take great focus and patience to get through. If they did all their research on Reddit or Wikipedia, they would not be an effective member of your team.
Question 5:
Do you belong to any professional organizations such as IAITAM?
You want folks who have passion for what they do and feel they are part of a community of like-minded professionals. It’s not a job for them; it’s a profession.
Question 6:
Have you pursued continuing education on your own?
If a candidate takes courses on their own time, it shows they have an insatiable thirst for knowledge. And that’s a good sign.
Question 7:
What kinds of things do you like to read or watch?
Of course, you want a team member who spends some of their free time reading about ITAM, but it’s all they read; it shows a very narrow range of interests. You want folks with wide and varying interests – multi-faceted people who don’t rely on only one source of information.
Interestingly, I’ve discovered that people who love true crime podcasts and series make terrific ITAM team members! They must know how the story unravels and how the layers were pulled back to discover the truth. They absolutely have to find out if their early instincts were correct, and if they have to sit through eight or more episodes to get the answer, they’ll gladly do it.
And that’s how problems get solved in ITAM. Systematically. Step by step.
You want people who won’t stop until they’ve uncovered the problem and how it happened and who will use every resource at their disposal to solve it before calling in outside help. And, if they’re so passionate about the work, they devote some of their own time to hone their skills even better.
To Recap
Nothing about ITAM is easy, and that includes building an effective team. The best ITAM teams are filled with folks who are persistent, can think in a logical and ordered manner, love to do research, and have an insatiable thirst for knowledge. They have wide-ranging interests and are not afraid of reading complicated material.
If you’re building your team, the next time you sit down with a candidate, give my seven IT asset management interview questions a try. You may be surprised that someone who looked good on paper is not your ideal ITAM team member, and someone who didn’t look so good on paper, is.
The above content is based upon a chapter of my book, Rethinking Information Technology Asset Management, where I lay out my Pragmatic ITAM Method which is helping hundreds of organizations cut their ITAM spend without buying less software. To get your copy, click here.
