Networking skill requirement for IT managers

[vintagehardware]

A friend of mine is looking for a competent IT manager for his company of about 30 but growing fast. They do about 50% hardware and 50% software development. He has asked me for some advice on some job skill requirements/interview questions. For me the most difficult part is how to draft networking skill requirement and some probing questions. For example how to gauge a person's knowledge on network security? Or ability for rapid response when a network breach happens?
They currently don't have anyone who understands networking at a high level. It's an interesting problem: you want to hire someone who knows more than you on some subjects, but then you don't understand the answers to distinguish between real talent and someone who exaggerate their skills....

Are there any standard questions/problem pools similar to what's abundant around for software developers? Some questions which has somewhat precise answers like asking a software engineer how to perform a quick sort?

 

[MBastian]

A manager or an engineer? Imho a manager should stay out of the details and trust his engineers. The difference between tactics and strategy.
That said I'd always start with very basic questions. You would be supprised how many self-proclaimed experts don't know http error codes, the difference between TCP and IP (lol), what SNI stands for, what tools to use to see why a process or OS is misbehaving or what are the best practices and dont's when considering container technologies. Personally I do not trust people to build a house when they struggle with hammers and nails.

For high level problem solving that might not help. I'd ask about former projects, obstacles and incidents and how he helped to solve them. Have someone in the room that can ask for details.

 

[kapone]

Pay me enough and I'll do it!