Insights, tips, and industry news
A breakdown of the QTS Critical Operations Technician interview — the process, the timeline, the kinds of questions that come up, and how to prepare, based on public candidate reports.
hat QTS actually pays critical operations technicians and engineers, the requirements to get in, and how to land a role at one of the fastest-growing data center operators in Virginia, Iowa, and beyond.
Chicago joined a growing list of cities pushing back on data center growth with a mayoral executive order, while Fermi Inc. disclosed a federal subpoena tied to its Texas megacampus. On the markets side, CoreWeave beat Q2 estimates and popped after-hours, then gave up those gains and more by the following week. Nvidia locked in up to $105 billion in financing for an OpenAI data center in Ohio.
Data center interviews test more than technical recall — they test whether you understand uptime, safety, and how your role fits into the bigger operational picture. This guide breaks down what interviewers actually screen for across technician, engineering, NOC, and facilities roles, with concrete prep steps and questions to expect.
What a critical facilities engineer earns in data centers, what the role involves, and how to break into it from HVAC, electrical, military, or industrial maintenance backgrounds.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered a statewide audit that freezes new data center grid connections in ERCOT's 474-gigawatt interconnection queue. Meanwhile, AMD and Arista Networks both beat Q2 earnings expectations this week, but their stocks tell very different settled stories once the initial after-hours reaction faded. AMD also moved to acquire AI inference chip startup Taalas.
What to expect in a Google data center technician interview — how long it takes, the difficulty, the questions candidates report, and how to prepare for each round.
What Google data center technician jobs pay by level, what they require, and how to actually get hired in 2026 — including the contract-to-hire route that gets you inside a Google site faster.
What to expect in a Microsoft data center technician interview — how many rounds, the technical and behavioral questions candidates actually report, and how to prepare for each.
What Microsoft data center technician jobs pay, what they require, and how to actually get hired in 2026 — including the roles that need U.S. citizenship and how the path compares to Amazon.
A power fault near Ashburn, Virginia knocked 3,000 megawatts of data center load off the grid and is still reverberating through the industry. Meanwhile, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Vertiv delivered wildly different stock reactions to record AI infrastructure spending this week, and a fresh wave of local moratoriums shows no sign of slowing down.
What Amazon data center technician roles actually pay, what they require, and how people really get hired — including the no-experience path. An independent 2026 guide.