Skip to contentSkip to footer
  • Community
  • Jobs
  • Companies
  • Salaries
  • For employers
      Notifications

      Loading...

      Elevate your career

      Discover your earning potential, land dream jobs, and share work-life insights anonymously.

      employer cover photo
      employer logo
      employer logo

      Ambac

      Is this your company?

      About
      Reviews
      Pay and benefits
      Jobs
      Interviews
      Interviews
      Related searches: Ambac reviews | Ambac jobs | Ambac salaries | Ambac benefits
      Ambac interviewsAmbac Systems Administrator interviewsAmbac interview


      Glassdoor

      • About / Press
      • Awards
      • Blog
      • Research
      • Contact Us
      • Guides

      Employers

      • Free Employer Account
      • Employer Centre
      • Employers Blog

      Information

      • Help
      • Guidelines
      • Terms of Use
      • Privacy and Ad Choices
      • Do Not Sell Or Share My Information
      • Cookie Consent Tool
      • Security

      Work With Us

      • Advertisers
      • Careers
      Download the App

      • Browse by:
      • Companies
      • Jobs
      • Locations
      • Communities
      • Recent posts

      Copyright © 2008-2026. Glassdoor LLC. "Glassdoor," "Worklife Pro," "Bowls" and logo are proprietary trademarks of Glassdoor LLC.

      Company Bowl sample

      Want the inside scoop on your own company?

      Check out your Company Bowl for anonymous work chats.

      Bowls

      Get actionable career advice tailored to you by joining more bowls.

      Followed companies

      Stay ahead in opportunities and insider tips by following your dream companies.

      Job searches

      Get personalised job recommendations and updates by starting your searches.

      Systems Administrator Interview

      8 Aug 2009
      Anonymous employee
      New York, NY
      Accepted offer
      Neutral experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I applied through an employee referral. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Ambac (New York, NY) in Jan 2008

      Interview

      The company does things differently I guess from typical employers because they have a lot of "hands-off" managers who do the interviewing. This part of the interview process is not focused on the responsbilities, but mostly probes into how hard-working you are, how committed to delivering on your committments, available to work from home, on the weekend, while on vacation yada yada yada..... You will meet these managers if you pass the interviews with several technical guys. The technical people who are really really really really really really sharp, with a million years of experience! no kidding, will grill you and ask you questions that would make you feel like you are on Jeopardy and you don't even understand English. The reason, I found out, is that you won't only be doing what you are hired to do, but EVERYTHING that exists there. You will wear so many hats, you will be juggling hats all the time. You won't have time to specialize in anything, and your experience in all subjects becomes shallow, UNLESS, you are an insanely SMART person like those guys interviewing you. I am still in awe of some them like AS, and FB. In general, if you show that you are resourceful, organized, quick-learner, curious about IT, and have a nack to solve problems, and to understand the business, then you are a shoe-in. After interviewing with these guys, you'd feel like you are joining NASA or something. Then comes the aftermath - the "hands-off" managers who begin to ask you about tasks they themselves are clueless about. They are always looking for new people who know a lot, because, as I learned, they surround themselves with them as IT human shields. btw - You will succeed if you are a workaholic, and fail if you expect a 9-5 job.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      The difficulty is not in any one question, but the range of subjects: Do you know what derivatives are? SWAPS, bonds, market data? How well do you know sqlserver, SYbase? How do you do compress database dump? Can you script in Korn shell? How do you set variables? call a function? What's the difference between L5-20P and L6-20P? R? How do you what files are open? Have you managed multiple projects at the same time? What do you know about networking? Domains? Solaris.
      Answer question
      1