Review the evidence signals before interviewing. Then use the anchored descriptions—not instinct alone—to choose the score that best matches each answer.
01
Evaluation factor
Technical depth
35% weight
Check depth on BGP and OSPF behaviour, VLAN and VXLAN design, MPLS, QoS policy, and firewall rulesets; ask which vendor CLIs (Cisco IOS-XE, Juniper Junos, Arista EOS) they run daily.
Evidence to listen for
Explains the physics or mechanism behind their work, not just the tooling
Names the standards, tolerances, and constraints they designed against
Can defend a design decision under follow-up questions
Distinguishes what they personally engineered from what the team delivered
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Cannot explain the fundamentals of their own stated specialism.
2
Needs Improvement
Knows the vocabulary but not the underlying mechanism; struggles under follow-ups.
3
Satisfactory
Solid working knowledge for the role; depth thins out on edge cases.
4
Very Good
Strong command of the domain; explains trade-offs and defends decisions well.
5
Excellent
Explains route reflectors, BFD timers and MTU or MSS pitfalls precisely, and names certifications such as CCNP or JNCIP with real config experience.
02
Evaluation factor
Work that shipped
30% weight
Probe concrete builds: datacentre spine-leaf migrations, SD-WAN rollouts, campus refreshes, IPv6 addressing plans. Ask for site counts, circuit types, cutover windows and measured downtime.
Evidence to listen for
Names specific programmes, parts, or systems that reached production or field use
States their own scope inside the project
Can give measured outcomes: yield, cycle time, cost, failure rate
Explains what went wrong and what they changed
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
No delivered work; experience is coursework, lab-only, or purely observational.
2
Needs Improvement
Contributed to projects but cannot say what shipped or what their part was.
3
Satisfactory
Has delivered real work; outcomes described without numbers.
4
Very Good
Names shipped work and their scope, with some measured results.
5
Excellent
Describes a named cutover with scope, maintenance window, rollback plan and post-change latency or packet loss figures they personally owned.
03
Evaluation factor
Diagnosis under uncertainty
20% weight
Test troubleshooting of intermittent faults: asymmetric routing, duplex mismatches, spanning-tree loops, DHCP scope exhaustion. Ask how they use packet captures, SNMP or NetFlow, and syslog correlation.
Evidence to listen for
Describes a real failure they chased to root cause
Shows a method: isolate variables, reproduce, measure, eliminate
Distinguishes correlation from cause
Says what they ruled out and why, not only what the answer turned out to be
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
No diagnostic method; guesses or escalates immediately.
2
Needs Improvement
Trial and error with no structure; cannot explain how they narrowed the cause.
3
Satisfactory
Reasonable method on familiar problems; less structured on novel ones.
4
Very Good
Clear systematic approach with a real root-cause story.
5
Excellent
Walks a specific outage from alert to root cause using Wireshark traces or interface counters, and names the permanent fix, not just the restart.
04
Evaluation factor
Working across the org
15% weight
Assess how they coordinate with security, server, and application teams during change windows; look for CAB approvals, documented runbooks, and handling carrier or ISP escalations.
Evidence to listen for
Explains technical constraints to non-technical stakeholders without condescension
Has negotiated scope, cost, or timeline with manufacturing, product, or suppliers
Documents decisions so others can act on them
Takes review feedback without defensiveness
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Cannot communicate outside their specialism; dismissive of other functions.
2
Needs Improvement
Communication gaps cause rework; avoids stakeholder contact.
3
Satisfactory
Works adequately with other teams; documentation is thin.
4
Very Good
Communicates clearly across functions; reliable collaborator.
5
Excellent
Cites change tickets, vendor TAC cases pushed to resolution, and clear diagrams or IPAM records that let others operate the network unaided.
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