You are first-line IT support, and the first person into the IT office. It is 07:04. The incident lead and the backup administrator are not in yet. Until somebody more senior has this, it is yours.
"Every folder on the Finance drive has a file called RESTORE-MY-FILES.txt and none of my spreadsheets open. They all end in .lk7 now. Is the server broken? Can you fix it before the nine o’clock?"
You are judged on three things. Accuracy: did you work out what was really wrong and deal with it. Economy: how directly you got there, in the incident’s own minutes. Integrity: what you preserved, who you told, and whether you claimed anything you had not established. The third is the one people fail.
Finish it, with any outcome, and its interview pack unlocks: 4 questions with weak, good and strong answers, the follow-up, and the trap.
Choose one
Incident log
Everything you do, in order. This is what a real handover is written from.
Nothing has happened yet.
How bad is it
Wrong moves push this up. Containing the problem pushes it back down.
What you have established
Facts you have actually observed, not guesses.
Nothing yet.