You have always wanted to work in computer
forensics and now finally you have been invited to an interview. How should you
prepare? Well, the first thing to do is to get the interview into perspective
and develop the right mindset. Let me say right now that you will not be
successful at some interviews for a broad spectrum of reasons outside your
control from not having the right technical skills through to the interviewer
having just had a major argument with their partner ten minutes before you walk
in to the room.
If you don’t get the job, it really isn’t the end of the world so learn from
the experience and use it at the next interview. Looking through the statistics
of the 50+ computer forensic candidates we have placed into their first role,
over 60% of candidates were successful at their second or third interviews,
often due to learning from an unsuccessful first interview.
Computer forensic job interviews take all sorts of formats with some being very
technical, but most tend to be a mix of assessing three key areas: technical
skills, competencies and personality. I will discuss all three separately, but
- and keep this quiet - in my experience, as long as you can demonstrate a
certain technical level, interviews at this level often come down to the
interviewing manager liking you personally. This actually makes sense as the
company is really buying your potential at this time and they want to take
someone in whom they can invest time and money.
However, the interviewer will not feel positive towards you if you cannot
answer any of their technical/competency related questions so that is your
first area to prepare:
1. Technical questions
The technical level you need to demonstrate varies considerably depending on
the job and organisation. Just make sure you do all the obvious things like
researching the areas mentioned on the job description, read the forums, listen
to the podcasts etc to ensure you are fully updated on current technical
thinking and advances.
The golden rule here is not to try and bluff your way through when you don’t
know the answer. If you don’t know the answer to a technical question please
just say so but then suggest areas where you may go to find the answer if you
were asked the question in a work environment.
If you are not technically strong enough for a role, there really is nothing
you can do about it on the day.
2. Competencies
Most interviewers will concentrate their questions around the following
competencies: Interpersonal skills, problem solving and decision making,
planning and organising, information handling and analysis, written/oral
communication skills, teamworking.
All you need to do is to prepare three/four examples of each before the
interview. Really try to balance the examples from different aspects of your
life such as college, work experience, hobbies, private research and any other
aspects of your life. This preparation should avoid you having to desperately
think of new examples under pressure on the day.
3. Personality
Remember, if the interviewer doesn’t like you then it is very unlikely that you
will be successful. When answering technical questions it can become easy to
become almost robotic in our answers and, in my experience, more people fail
computer forensic interviews for not allowing their personality to come through
than for any other reason.
Think about it: if you get the job you will often be spending days/nights at a
time with the interviewer under pressurised conditions far away from home. This
isn’t the time to run through your stand up comedy routine but do be yourself
and interesting/interested.
Get excited, prepare well, be yourself - and good luck!