Tips
1. This position is EXTREMELY competitive. Show that you want this job.
2. If you don't know something during the interview process, don't BS, admit it.
3. It is impossible to feel fully prepared during this interview process. Understand the basics on what they're going to ask you about and be able to explain it to someone who has no idea about the subject. 4. Don't get too wound up into the technical, it's a waste of time for now.
5. Find a way to stand out from the rest of the applicants. For me, I have previous sales experience and a music background.
6. Sales experience. I can't emphasize this point enough. This gave me a very competitive edge. Even if you haven't sold anything before, practice role playing with people who have.
7. They're looking for people who can hold conversations, are honest, have sales/business acumen and will work hard. Treat interviews as conversations.
8. Don't be hostile to other candidates during the final round. Make friends, not enemies. You never know when someone can give you some great advice or hook you up with a job opportunity in the future.
9. Connect with current CSAP employees to answer questions you may have. Talk to your recruiter.
10. DO NOT WRITE ON THE WHITEBOARD AND SPEAK AT THE SAME TIME.
~Every year the interviews are run slightly different~
Round 1: 2 Minute Video
Cisco gives you about 2 weeks(?) to make a video answering a behavioral question.
I did a little bit of editing and had a photography friend help me out. Dress nicely and tell a story relating your 3 points.
Round 2: WebEx Interview
All ASE applicants had 2 parts to this interview: behavioral and technical. This will be done over WebEx (Cisco's version of Skype) and will be about an hour in length.
Behavioral:
Don't BS. Your interviewer will ask a variety of behavioral questions. The STAR approach is great for organizing your ideas and answering questions.
Technical:
Cisco provides 3 questions to have answered before through code. Further questions were asked based on these 3 questions to test my knowledge. Personally, I felt I dropped the ball with my responses. I forgot what polymorphism is and couldn't give a good response to the differences between functions and variables in python. Because of this, I followed up this interview with emails explaining my answers with both words and more code. I think if I didn't do this I would have probably been knocked out this round.
Round 3: Final Interview
They will fly you down to their training/research facility in Raleigh, North Carolina for a day of interviews. As mentioned above, this is a whole day with other applicants who spent just as much or more time than you preparing for this interview. Study hard, work hard and be confident. Remember, they wouldn't be investing this much time into you if they weren't interested. Interviewers will be in person or over WebEx. The interview process is divided into 4 activities in no precise order:
Aptitude test
10 hard multiple choice questions you can't study for. Even if you get just 2 right, it doesn't mean you're disqualified. Quick tip for this: I think Cisco wants to see how you handle failure before going into the other parts of the interview. Don't think too much about this section. You can't control the past, only the present to shape your future.
Behavioral interview
For this one I was in front of 2 managers. The first part consists of behavioral questions. The second part of this also tested my knowledge of networks. For this part, Cisco gives you an hour video explaining all of the information that will be asked. Given the off chance that the interviewer asks you something you don't know, admit it. Do not BS. Work your way through a solution and email the interviewer afterwards with a correct answer. Treat as a conversation.
Sales Role Play
This is where you show your sales/business acumen. You will be provided with a test case weeks before the interview to study. Consider this. How much does the potential client know about networking? Do they need someone else to sign off on an investment like this? What is the most important problem they need fixed? Provide studies and cases to affirm your solutions through a conversation. Use the whiteboard. Don't go over 20 minutes.
Presentation
For this part you'll have 10 minutes to explain something to 3 Cisco Employees.
How does Cisco's Digital Network Architecture (DNA) provide customers a competitive edge?
This may seem basic, but remember to answer the question. Engage the audience and explain things through analogies. Use the whiteboard.
I received a letter of intent to hire the next day. Others may take weeks.