You've all heard these familiar refrains: Do more with less, adhere to the latest regulations, protect data from disaster and so on, all at an ever-decreasing cost per terabyte. That's quite a job description and it's hard to fill based strictly on resumes, say recruiters and HR representatives. As a result, an increasing number of companies are using technical interviews as part of the recruiting process. If you blow the interview, your prospects will plummet.

Why the interrogation? Hiring managers want to separate potential super storage administrators from less promising candidates in a field where traditional markers aren't always relevant. Many people working on leading-edge storage projects haven't had much time to build a substantial track record of accomplishments. Storage job titles and job responsibilities vary from company to company. Assessment tests which measure a job candidate's knowledge in storage are rare, and storage certification programs and exams are mostly product and vendor focused.

Technical interviews take different forms. Usually, the interviewer will tell you to solve a storage problem. The person conducting the interview may then give you hints of what they expect, or may give you no direction at all, and sometimes with or without a timeframe. Of course, the problem usually can be solved in numerous ways, and no one solution will be the correct one. And even if you solve the problem elegantly, it may not be enough to get you the job - other factors besides technical knowledge can destroy a candidate during the hiring process. Besides revealing how you attack a problem, a technical interview shows how well you work in stressful situations.

Once the problem has been presented, make sure you ask for additional information and clarification of the problem. You should never assume that you've been given all the data necessary to solve the problem. Probe to find out what are the interviewer's expectations, what kind of resources are available and what kind of budget has been set for the project. Make sure you and the interviewer agree on what the problem is and what an acceptable solution would be. Test your understanding of the problem and clarify your assumptions. The kind of questions you ask shows the interviewer how you analyze and approach a problem. This, of course, is how it is done in the real world, especially if you are interviewing for a job with a major consulting company.

Once you begin working on the problem, devote enough time to the overall design of how you would solve the problem. Almost all technical interviews are designed to give some insight into how you approach a problem, not only how much code you can write in a specific length of time. This is especially true for a storage problem - there are various ways to successfully solve a storage problem, but some of these solutions may rob from Peter to pay Paul, or box you into an expensive single vendor solution. In other words, be prepared to identify possible bottlenecks, optimizations and alternative solutions. Make sure you explain the pros and cons of each solution. Remember, there are no completely right or wrong solutions.

After you finish your exam, ask the interviewer for a little extra time to talk about your experience working in teams, on important projects, dealing with customers to define requirements and, if it applies, managing people. All the other basic stuff about not bad-mouthing a prior employer, not talking a lot about your personal life, not name dropping and not pretending to be a savior, you already know.