Free · 2-page worksheet

The 12 questions they’ll actually ask you

And what each one is really testing. Two pages, twelve questions, and a blank box under each one, so you write your own answers instead of memorising mine.

Send me the sheet ↓

I sent sixty-plus applications. I stopped counting, and most of them never replied. I had one certificate and no IT experience: ten years of shift work in a feed mill, and a couple of VMs running on my gaming PC.

The thing that got me the job wasn’t the certificate. It was answering “have you worked with Active Directory?” with the story of the Group Policy I wrote that locked me out of my own domain.

This is the sheet I wish I’d had. Not twelve answers to memorise. Twelve questions, what the interviewer is actually measuring behind each one, and room to write your own answer out of your own lab.

What’s on it

  • All twelve questions, grouped the way an interview actually runs
  • The one-line “what they’re really testing” under each. This is the part nobody tells you.
  • A blank box per question, because a memorised answer sounds memorised
  • On the back: the four homelab builds that answer most of the twelve, and what to do first

Tier 1 · The screen

  1. 1Tell me about yourself
  2. 2Why do you want to get into IT?
  3. 3You’ve got no IT experience. Why hire you?
  4. 4What have you been doing to learn?

Tier 2 · The technical ones

  1. 5Have you worked with AD or Group Policy?
  2. 6A user can’t log in. What do you check?
  3. 7Someone’s lost access to a shared folder
  4. 8Software onto 50 machines

Tier 3 · When it goes wrong

  1. 9A user’s furious and it’s not your fault
  2. 10Something you couldn’t fix
  3. 11Tell me about a time you broke somethingThe one they actually decide on
  4. 12Do you have any questions for us?

What each one is really testing, plus the blank answer boxes, is on the sheet.

Where should I send it?

Pop your email in and it’s on its way.

🤞 Don’t miss these tips!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Free. One email to confirm, one with the sheet. Unsubscribe whenever, no hard feelings.

I’ll also send the odd email when I put out something worth your time: lab builds, career stuff, the things I got wrong. That’s it. I’m not going to sell you anything for a while.

— Trev | I broke it. Fixed it.

Scroll to Top