BLACK OPS SOLUTIONS · IT Graduate IT Interview PackAU · 2026

IT Support Officer · graduate level · Australia

Graduate IT Support Officer

The first person anyone calls, and the most common way into infrastructure work.

Job description · fictional employer

Graduate IT Support Officer

Banksia Learning Group

Location
Brisbane northside - on site 4 days, travel to other campuses about fortnightly
Employment type
Full-time, permanent - 24-month support to systems pathway
Salary
AUD $66,000 base + 12% superannuation
Reports to
IT Operations Manager
Intake
January 2027, before the school year starts - applications close 17 October 2026

About us

Banksia Learning Group runs six independent schools across south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales - about 9,000 students and 1,100 staff. Our IT team is fourteen people supporting 2,600 managed devices, six campus networks and a teaching day that does not tolerate an outage between 8:55am and 3:15pm.

The team you would join

Service Delivery is six people: four support officers, a team leader and you. Behind us sits a systems team of three who run identity, servers, backups and the network. This role is deliberately built to move you from the first team into the second.

What you will do

  • Work the service desk queue - accounts, devices, printing, classroom AV, the phone that rings during period one
  • Go to the classroom when a lesson is failing, and get teaching moving before you get comfortable diagnosing
  • Image and deploy devices across a fleet of about 2,600 laptops, desktops and iPads
  • Administer accounts and groups in Entra ID and Active Directory, including the enrolment churn every January
  • Take a real part in the start-of-year rollout, which is the largest single event in a school IT calendar
  • Write knowledge base articles so the same problem is never solved from scratch twice
  • Pick up supervised infrastructure work from month six - patching, backup checks, monitoring, small scripts
  • Join the rostered after-hours support during exam blocks and enrolment. Paid, capped, and never a surprise

What we are looking for

  • A completed or in-progress diploma or bachelor in IT, computer science or a related discipline - or demonstrable equivalent experience
  • Real patience with people who are stressed, non-technical and running out of time
  • A troubleshooting method you can describe out loud, rather than a list of things you try
  • Working knowledge of Windows, and a basic picture of DHCP, DNS and wireless
  • Willingness to be on site, move equipment and get under a desk. This is not a remote role
  • A Working with Children Check (Queensland Blue Card), or eligibility to obtain one, and a current driver licence

Nice to have

  • A home lab, or a history of fixing other people's machines properly rather than by reinstalling
  • Any PowerShell, even a script that only you have ever run
  • Exposure to Microsoft 365 admin, Intune, Jamf or Google Workspace
  • Retail, hospitality or call centre work - the front-line skills transfer directly
  • CompTIA A+ or N+, or Microsoft fundamentals certifications

What you would work in

Microsoft 365Entra IDIntuneActive DirectoryWindows 11Windows Server 2022Jamf (iPads)Meraki wirelessPaperCutFreshserviceVeeamPowerShell

What the program gives you

  • A named buddy for six weeks and a queue that is deliberately filtered while you learn
  • Paid certification path - MS-900, then EndPoint Administrator or Azure Administrator - with study leave
  • One day a week with the systems team from month six, on real infrastructure work
  • A defined move to Systems Administrator (Level 1) at 24 months, subject to review, with the criteria written down from day one
  • School holidays are genuinely quieter. That time goes to projects, study and taking leave

How the process runs

  1. 1

    Application

    CV plus three short written questions. No cover letter.

  2. 2

    Phone screen

    20 minutes - logistics, Blue Card eligibility, driver licence, shift and travel expectations.

  3. 3

    Practical interview

    45 minutes - we describe faults and hand you a misbehaving laptop, and watch how you work.

  4. 4

    Panel

    45 minutes with the IT Operations Manager and a head of department, who is the customer here.

  5. 5

    Checks

    Referees, Blue Card and a right to work check before an offer is confirmed.

Service desk work is a legitimate and fast route into infrastructure, and we treat it that way rather than as a holding pen. If you meet most of the essential criteria and none of the desirable ones, apply anyway. Reasonable adjustments are available at any stage of the process - tell your talent partner what you need.

Interview questions · 21 questions with model answers

Graduate IT Support Officer

Answers are hidden by default so you can attempt each one first.

Motivation and behavioural

Asked in the phone screen and again by the panel. Temperament matters more here than in any other technical role.

  1. Why a support role rather than a graduate developer program?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Has a real reason - wants breadth, wants hands on hardware, wants to see how an organisation runs
    • Understands support is where a lot of good infrastructure people started
    • Can say where they want to be in three years and how this connects to it
    • Honest if they applied for both

    Red flagDescribes it as somewhere to wait until a better job appears.

  2. A teacher is angry, the projector will not work, and 28 students are watching you. What do you do?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Gets the lesson running first - a cable, a different input, a laptop, the room next door
    • Keeps the diagnosis short and quiet rather than performing it in front of the class
    • Acknowledges the teacher without arguing about whose fault it is
    • Comes back afterwards and fixes it properly, and says when

    Red flagStarts troubleshooting from first principles while the class watches.

  3. Tell me about a time you fixed something for someone non-technical. How did you explain it?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Explained it in terms of what the person could do next time, not what the fault was
    • Left them more capable rather than more dependent
    • Did not talk down to them, and can demonstrate that in how they describe it now
    • Wrote it down somewhere if it was likely to recur

    Red flagTells the story as an example of how little users understand.

  4. You will see the same five problems every week for a year. How do you stay engaged?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Treats repetition as data - the same ticket five times is a problem to remove, not to solve again
    • Reaches for a knowledge base article, a script or a config change
    • Finds the interest in the users and the environment rather than only in the fault
    • Honest about which parts would grind on them

    Red flagSays it will be fine and offers nothing they would actually do about it.

  5. You will be working in a school. What does that change about how you work?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Knows about the Blue Card and takes safeguarding as a real obligation rather than paperwork
    • Professional boundaries with students, including online and on devices
    • Treats student and family data as sensitive - who can see what, and why
    • Knows to escalate a welfare concern to the right person rather than handling it alone

    Red flagTreats it as an ordinary office with shorter users.

Troubleshooting and fundamentals

Asked in the practical interview. Method matters more than the right answer first time.

  1. A user says the internet is down. What are the first four things you check?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Establishes scope first - one person, one room, one campus or everyone
    • Separates the layers: link, address, gateway, name resolution, the application
    • Checks whether they can reach anything by IP, which splits DNS from connectivity
    • Asks what changed - new device, new location, something plugged in this morning

    Red flagRestarts the machine and hopes.

  2. Walk me through what happens when a laptop plugs into the network and gets an address.

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Broadly gets the DHCP exchange - the client asks, a server offers, the client requests, the server acknowledges
    • Knows the lease brings more than an address: gateway, DNS, sometimes a search domain
    • Recognises a 169.254 address as no DHCP response, and knows that narrows the problem immediately
    • Comfortable saying which parts of it they are less sure about

    Red flagCannot connect the address on the laptop to anything that hands it out.

  3. A staff member cannot log in. Walk me through it.

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Finds out whether it is this machine or every machine, this user or several
    • Separates the credential from the account: wrong password, locked out, expired, disabled, wrong username format
    • Checks the obvious human causes before the exotic technical ones
    • Knows a cached profile can let someone in locally while the account is actually broken

    Red flagResets the password immediately and closes the ticket without finding out why.

  4. What is the difference between an account, a group and a permission, and why do we put people in groups?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Permissions attach to groups; people move in and out of groups; access follows the role
    • Knows why per-user permissions become unmanageable and unauditable
    • Connects it to leavers and movers - the access that never gets removed
    • Can describe checking what a group actually grants before adding someone to it

    Red flagWould grant the access directly to the person because it is quicker.

  5. Printing has failed for one classroom but the room next door is fine. How do you narrow it down?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Scopes it: which users, which printers, which queues, since when
    • Splits the chain - device, driver, queue, print server, network, the printer itself
    • Tests from a known-good machine and a known-good account to halve the problem
    • Checks the boring causes early: paper, toner, a cable, a printer that has been moved

    Red flagReinstalls drivers on every machine in the room as a first move.

  6. What is the difference between redundancy and a backup, and what makes a backup real?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Redundancy survives a failure; a backup survives a mistake, and deletion replicates instantly
    • Knows RAID is not a backup and can say why
    • Wants copies that are separated - different media, off site, ideally not writable by the same account
    • A backup is not real until a restore has been tested, and can say when they would test it

    Red flagSays the data is safe because it is on the server, or in the cloud.

Systems and administration depth

The panel interview. These are the questions that decide whether you move into the systems team.

  1. You have 2,600 devices to prepare before students arrive in January. How do you approach it?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Builds one standard image or profile and deploys it, rather than touching machines individually
    • Tests on a small group first, including a real classroom, before the whole fleet
    • Plans for logistics: staging space, labelling, power, who physically moves them, spares
    • Has a checklist and a way of knowing which devices are done

    Red flagDescribes configuring machines one at a time and expects that to scale.

  2. A staff member leaves on Friday. What has to happen to their account, and when?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Disable rather than delete, and do it at the time HR says, not later
    • Revoke sessions and remove device access, not just change the password
    • Deal with the mailbox and files - delegate, retain or archive according to policy, and know who decides
    • Reclaim the licence, and follow a documented offboarding checklist rather than memory

    Red flagDeletes the account immediately, or leaves it enabled because someone might need the files.

  3. Why is patching hard in practice, and how would you run it in a school?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Knows the hard part is not downloading updates - it is windows, reboots and machines nobody can touch during teaching
    • Uses rings: a test group, then a broader group, then everyone
    • Plans around the calendar - holidays, exam blocks, the first week of term
    • Tracks compliance, and chases the machines that never report in rather than assuming they are fine

    Red flagSays to turn on automatic updates and considers the question answered.

  4. A teacher asks for local administrator rights so they can install software. What do you do?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Finds out what they actually need to install, and why, before answering
    • Offers the supported route first - a packaged deployment, a self-service portal, an approved install
    • If it is genuinely required, makes it time-limited, approved and recorded
    • Can explain the risk in terms the teacher cares about without lecturing

    Red flagGrants it to be helpful, or refuses without offering any path forward.

  5. What goes into a knowledge base article, and what makes one useless?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Titled with the symptom a user would search for, not the technical cause
    • Steps that match what is actually on the screen, with the version and date visible
    • Says what to do when the steps do not work, including who to contact
    • Useless when it is written for the person who already knows the answer

    Red flagHas never written one and does not see why the team would need them.

  6. How would you know whether an IT team is doing a good job?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Looks past raw ticket counts to time to resolve, repeat tickets and backlog age
    • Counts the tickets that should never have needed to exist
    • Asks the customers - teachers and staff - rather than only reading the dashboard
    • Weighs disruption during teaching hours more heavily than disruption at 4pm

    Red flagAnswers with closed tickets per day and nothing else.

Scenario

Read it aloud and let them drive. The first week of term is when this job is actually tested.

  1. It is 8:40am on the first day of term. Around 180 Year 7 accounts cannot log in. Classes start at 8:55. What do you do?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Establishes the pattern fast - one year level, one campus, one action in common
    • Communicates early to the people who are about to walk into classrooms, before the fix exists
    • Looks for a workaround that gets lessons started while the real cause is found
    • Escalates immediately rather than protecting the ticket

    Red flagStarts working through the accounts one at a time, silently.

  2. You find the accounts were bulk-created with a password expiry that triggered overnight. What now, and what do you tell people?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Fixes the setting for the group rather than resetting 180 accounts by hand
    • Tests on two accounts before applying it to all of them
    • Tells staff what students should do, in one sentence they can read aloud in class
    • Records the time it happened and what was changed, while it is still fresh

    Red flagApplies a change to all accounts without testing it on one first.

  3. At 9:30am the head of the junior school wants to know why this happened and whether it will happen again. What do you say?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • States plainly what happened and what has been done, without jargon
    • Distinguishes what is known from what is still being confirmed
    • Does not blame a colleague or a vendor in the corridor
    • Commits to a specific follow-up time rather than an open-ended promise

    Red flagExplains password policy internals to someone who asked a yes or no question.

  4. What would you change so this cannot happen next January?

    Show what a strong answer coversHide answer

    A strong answer

    • Fixes the creation process, not just this year's accounts
    • Adds a check before term starts - a test login as a real student, days ahead
    • Writes it into the start-of-year runbook rather than into their own memory
    • Picks one or two changes that will actually get done, not eight

    Red flagSuggests being more careful next time.

Questions to ask them

Bring three. Interviewers remember the candidate who asked something they had to think about.

  • How many tickets does the team take in a normal week, and what does the first week of term look like?
  • Who decides what gets automated, and is there time set aside to do it?
  • What does the move from support into the systems team actually look like, and who has done it recently?
  • What is the oldest system you are still running, and what would it take to retire it?
  • How much of the year is consumed by the start-of-year rollout?

Example CV · fictional candidate

Michael Tran

Written to the job description on the previous tab. Notes on the right explain each choice.

Michael Tran

Graduate IT Support Officer

Brisbane QLD · 0400 000 000 · m.tran@example.com · linkedin.com/in/michael-tran-it · Blue Card held · Open driver licence

Professional summary

IT graduate with two years on a university service desk and eighteen months in retail technology before that, so I have handled the stressed user and the impossible deadline in both settings. Comfortable working a queue, imaging a fleet and writing the article so the next person does not have to ask. Building toward systems administration and doing it deliberately.

Technical skills
Support
Windows 11 and macOS, device imaging and deployment, printing, classroom and meeting room AV, ticket triage
Identity and cloud
Entra ID and Active Directory - accounts, groups, group policy basics; Microsoft 365 admin centre; Intune (learning)
Networking
DHCP, DNS, VLAN basics, wireless troubleshooting, patch panels and structured cabling
Scripting
PowerShell - bulk account tasks, reporting; basic bash
Servers and backup
Windows Server 2022, Hyper-V and Proxmox (lab), Veeam (lab restores tested)
Ways of working
Freshservice and Jira Service Management, knowledge base writing, asset registers
Education
Bachelor of Information Technology (Networking and Systems)
Feb 2023 - Nov 2026

Griffith University, Brisbane

  • Credit average, with distinctions in Network Fundamentals, Operating Systems and Systems Administration
  • Studied part time from 2024 while working four days a week on the service desk
  • Final project: automated onboarding for a simulated 500-user environment. See Projects below
Experience
IT Service Desk Officer (part-time, 24 hrs/week)
Feb 2024 - present

Griffith University, Digital Solutions

  • Around 55 tickets a week across accounts, devices, printing and teaching space AV, with a first-contact resolution rate of about 70%
  • Imaged and deployed 300+ staff laptops across two rebuild rounds, including the labelling and asset register work nobody volunteers for
  • Wrote 14 knowledge base articles; the two on wireless enrolment cut repeat tickets on that issue by roughly half over a semester
  • First responder for teaching space failures during class time, where the target is a working room in under ten minutes
Technology Sales and Repairs Associate
Aug 2022 - Feb 2024

Northgate Electronics, Brisbane

  • Diagnosed and repaired customer laptops - drives, memory, thermal, malware removal and data recovery
  • Explained faults and options to customers who were often upset about cost or lost data
  • Trained four new starters on the repair intake process
Holiday Program Technology Assistant
Dec 2023 and Jul 2024 (school holiday blocks)

Brisbane Community Learning

  • Set up and ran devices for a coding holiday program of about 60 primary students
  • Held a Blue Card and worked to the program's supervision and safeguarding rules
Projects
Home lab - a small enterprise, on purpose
Proxmox, Windows Server 2022, Active Directory, pfSense, Veeam
  • Domain with group policy, a file server with real permission structures, and a firewall separating a lab VLAN
  • Broke it on purpose and restored from backup four times - the last restore took 22 minutes end to end
  • Documented in a runbook I actually follow, because I have needed it twice
Bulk onboarding script (final year project)
PowerShell, Microsoft Graph, CSV
  • Creates accounts, assigns group membership and licences, and produces a report of what it did and what it skipped
  • Refuses to run against production without a dry-run flag, because I got that wrong once in the lab
  • github.com/michaeltran-it/bulk-onboard
Community device repair days
Volunteer, one Saturday a month
  • Repaired or set up around 40 donated laptops for a refugee resettlement service since 2024
  • Wrote a one-page plain-English setup guide that goes out with each machine
Leadership and activities
  • Peer trainer for new service desk casuals - four inducted since 2025
  • Volunteer, Brisbane refugee resettlement service, device program, 2024 - present
  • Griffith IT Society, events volunteer, 2024 - 2025
Certifications
  • CompTIA A+, November 2024
  • Microsoft MS-900: Microsoft 365 Fundamentals, June 2025
  • CompTIA Network+, in progress - exam booked April 2026
Referees

Available on request.