How to hire an IT Support Specialist
What the role does, the job description, the interview questions, and the 38-minute screening pack that tells you who can do the job before you book a single interview.
The role
What an IT Support Specialist does
A IT Support Specialist sits in the IT & Infrastructure function. The sections below give you the job description, the interview questions and the screening pack for the role.
Screen before you interview
The IT Support Specialist screening pack
Fundamentals, Windows and directory admin, and the patience to explain it. Every applicant gets one link. You get one ranked report.
- 1
A user cannot log in and has a meeting in five minutes. Walk us through it.
- 2
How do you explain a technical fix to someone who is not technical?
- 3
Describe how you prioritise a ticket queue.
- 4
Tell us about a recurring issue you eliminated at the root.
- 5
Which tools do you use for remote support and device management?
Interview questions
IT Support Specialist interview questions
For the candidates who pass the pack. Each comes with a sample answer on the full page.
Ask these after the screening pack, not instead of it. A candidate who has already scored on Computer Literacy, Windows Server Administration, Active Directory, Communication has shown they can do the work, which frees the interview to do what a test cannot: find out how they think, how they explain themselves, and how they behave when something goes wrong.
- Ask every IT Support Specialist candidate the same questions in the same order. Comparable answers are the whole point; a different conversation with each person tells you who you liked, not who was strongest.
- Look for a specific example with a result, not a description of how the candidate would approach it in principle. Follow up once with “what happened next?” and stop talking.
- Score each answer before moving to the next question, and write down what was said rather than the impression it left.
- At volume, record the first 4 of these instead of calling. Candidates answer on their own time, the answers are transcribed and scored, and you keep live interviews for the shortlist.
The pack takes a candidate about 38 minutes, so a IT Support Specialist applicant arrives at this interview already measured on the parts you can measure without a meeting.
- 01
What drew you to a career in IT support rather than another technical path?
- 02
Walk me through your technical background and the environments you have supported.
- 03
How do you keep your knowledge current in a field that changes constantly?
- 04
Why do you want to work here specifically as an IT Support Specialist?
- 05
Describe your process for troubleshooting an issue you have never seen before.
- 06
How comfortable are you with Active Directory and identity management tasks?
- 07
What is your approach to supporting both hardware and software problems?
- 08
How do you handle networking basics like connectivity and VPN issues?
Frequently asked questions
Send every applicant one link that carries 4 skills tests (Computer Literacy, Windows Server Administration, Active Directory, Communication), a personality inventory and 5 one-way video questions. springhire scores everything automatically and ranks the candidates, so you interview the top few. The free plan covers 10 candidates a month.
About 38 minutes for the tests, plus 10 to 15 minutes for the video questions. Candidates complete it on their own time, on any device.
A short brief, key responsibilities, must-have and nice-to-have skills and the requirements. The JD generator writes one for this role in a minute.
Questions that ask for a specific past example and a walkthrough of how the candidate thinks. This page lists 8 with sample answers, and the full bank has more.
Yes. The free plan includes every screening tool with 10 candidate credits a month and no card. Paid plans start at $39 a month.
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