r/sysadmin • u/CurrentFig3376 • 4h ago

General Discussion Interview Question: How often do you update/patch your system?

I was asked this question during an interview and I said "it depends on what exactly you're updating, but I update as often as it's needed."

I don't think this was the answer they were looking for, but how would you answer this question?

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u/6SpeedBlues 3h ago

In short, it completely depends on how urgently an issue needs to be addressed and whether there is a sufficiently tested patch available.

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u/Ssakaa 1h ago

It's an interview question. Your "In short" is barely more demonstrative of your knowledge and understanding than OP's nebulous "it depends". Don't sell your knowledge short, in this case literally, in an interview. Scope it down by their reaction as needed, but start off showing a bit of both comfort in your own knowledge and enthusiasm.

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u/6SpeedBlues 1h ago

I don't disagree with ensuring they understand that I understand, so the "in short" is really just a conversation starter with them.

However, I don't provide free consulting services and you have to be a little wary of where some of these questions are really going when you're interviewing. So, I'd be happy to engage in a discussion with them, ask if they have specific example scenarios and similar, but I would instead discuss with them the kinds of avenues I would follow to -make- decisions on when to apply certain patches but I would stop short of providing anything too "concrete" for general use (if that makes sense).

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u/Ssakaa 1h ago

I'm of the attitude that... if they're fishing for free consulting, fine, interview practice is interview practice. You can generally sus out the pure consulting fishing pretty easily, and fire back some organizational questions that'll make them uneasy, and call it yourself with a polite thank you.

If they're asking open ended questions, they want to see how you engage with it. Almost everything we do in IT starts with someone throwing around an open ended question. If you close off, freeze up, or otherwise won't engage in a discussion that blatantly exists to provide you a platform to sell your skills on... someone else will.