Job Interview help - Engineering related

[fridge]

I have an interview on Monday for a Design Engineering position with an agriculture/construction equipment manufacturer (Case New Holland). I had a phone interview last month, and it was the normal stuff (leadership, initiative, do you shave your balls, etc). I forgot to ask what type of interview I am having, but she told me that it would be a 3-person interview.

I'm a little nervous because at my last interview for an Industrial Engineering position with Canada Post, I had 3 engineers grilling me about [nerd speak] 5S & lean manufacturing, task time, work sampling, how I would handle a national data sampling project, blah blah blah [/nerd speak]

This is an entry level job (I graduate in April), and they train you how to use their software (I'm guessing ProE), but I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on stuff I should do to prepare, or do you think this will just be a regular behaviour-based interview?

[bookem]

Where are they located?

[Daywalker]

can't help you with that, but I'm going to be in the same boat in 12 months time. If you post up a TR, I won't laugh, I'll even appreciate it.

Good luck, don't forget the firm handshake or the goodbye kiss (actually only one of those).

[hev]

I am in a position where I give a lot of interviews. I have 10 questions that gradually increase in difficulty level. The point of the questions though is not the answer, but the abilitly to come to some kind of logical response. If the only thing the interviewee can do is say, "I don't know" well that's pretty poor. If they can steer there thinking in some kind of meaningful direction than I can get a feel for theire thought process.

$.02

[DownhillRider]

^ Any examples of what the questions might be like? (hardest one)

[fridge]

Where are they located?

Unfortunately they are located in Saskatoon, so no moving west (yet) for me.

[JR]

Listen to Hev. The answers are not so important. Give an answer to every question. If you get a stumper, ask to come back to it if possible. Be engaging, look the interviewers in the eye and use their names. Keep your hands on the table in front of you and minimize the fidgeting. Go to your happy place pre-interview. Take some time for a walk or something to loosen you up.

There are probably many people who will do as good or better job than you. The secret is to come across as a really balanced, rational, and thoughtful. Let's face it, you're fresh out of school. Are they going to expect you to solve all the worlds problems? Not likely. They just want to get a sense of who you are as a person.

Good luck.

[JR]

Sorry, Questions.

Why do you want to work for our company.

What is your least favourite thing about potentially working for our company.

How do you deal with conflict in the workplace. Give an example.

Do you subscribe to any trade related magazines or newsletters.



The secret to answering. Be quick on your feet and spend some time thinking up your answers ahead of time. All answers can be bent to fit many questions.

[L8APX]

Coming from a eng that has had 5 eng jobs, I would say be your self and try to convey that you can adapt to their working environment and style. As a new hire with no experience, you should rest on your education and let them know that you are willing to do what is required to suceed at their company. sans sucking some engineers balls. So be yourself and make sure you want to work and live there for at least 3 years. Turnover of new hires scares employers. Good Luck

[DJSapp]

Learn as much about the company and the position as possible. This is one of my biggest turn offs during an interview. We tell all of our recuits to visit out website, and then if they don't know the first thing about us when they walk in, it looks really bad.

P.S. All entry level engineers know the same thing: nothing. Everything you learned in college is useless for the first year and a half.

[mntlion]

at the end when they ask "do you have any questions for us" the last question you ask is, "how do I stack up to the other interview" shows leadership, thinking other ways, and not passive etc. When I did my interviewing for my staff this winter I liked it when one person asked that.

mind you I'm a ski bum that fits ski boots and fixes bikes, not solving the worlds problems .....

[L8APX]

mind you I'm a ski bum that fits ski boots and fixes bikes, not solving the worlds problems .....

Around here, those fixes go a long way. KUTGW

[bookem]

I do a lot of hiring for technical positions. One mistake that a lot of entry level applicants make is to adopt the "I'll do anything" stance. Very rarely do employers want someone to sweep the floors on top of their other duties. Another similar mistake is to offer to work for free during a probationary period- if they are interviewing people than money is not the issue.

I also tend to throw in oddball questions to gauge how grounded in reality the applicant is, such as "How did you get here today? (bus, car, bike etc) and how much did your transport weigh?" (I had one guy tell me his Civic weighed 250 pounds) or "How many gas stations are there in Canada?"

I guess since it is in Saskatoon you don't need to clarify the 20 cm rule

[Beaver]

Fridge, I thought you had a jawb in the Kootenays. What happened?

[slim]

I'd be suprised if they ask you technical questions. I think they'll ask you more questions aimed at figuring out how you think, what your working habits are like, what type of person you are, etc.

At least that's how we interview our applicants right out of school. Folks with work experience get treated completely differently.

[P_McPoser]

I'm going to agree with slim etc. When I interview new hire engineers, I'm just looking at their answers to see how well they communicate their knowledge of the field. I'm not looking for anyone to do calculus for me or design something.....Just be yourself and don't be afraid to talk. That is the biggest turn off in an interview for me, someone who doesn't talk and ask questions. We are interviewing you for your benefit too, we don't want you to take a job with us and then quit 5 months down the road because you hate the work, the town, the other employees, etc etc.

[cj001f]

It totally depends on who does the interviewing - former coworkers of mine loved to ask new college grads technical questions. I never bothered. Coming out of school maybe 40-50% of my interviews featured technical questions, and a majority of those were oncampus interviews. If it's a site interview maybe 1 person will ask tech questions - and as said above, it's more thought process related.

[fridge]

Fridge, I thought you had a jawb in the Kootenays. What happened?

I did, but they said that I would be replacing a guy named Beav who had a porn collection that would make Larry Flynt proud




I'm just taking every interview I can get right now to get the experience and really figure out what I want to do/where I want to go.

I shouldn't have been worried about the interview at all, it was pretty standard. They asked me one question about what sort of process I would go through if I noticed a certain part kept failing. The hardest question was about if I was given $1 million to start an Engineering company, who would I hire and why? Then, he crossed me up after I just finished explaining why I would hire them by asking which one of them I'd fire and why?

The interview went well, but it was the aptitude/other tests & plant tour that pissed me off. In total I was there for over 4 hours

[P_McPoser]

Interviews with my company last 8 hours...That's not abnormal in a plant/mine/process type company...

I did, but they said that I would be replacing a guy named Beav who had a porn collection that would make Larry Flynt proud




I'm just taking every interview I can get right now to get the experience and really figure out what I want to do/where I want to go.

I shouldn't have been worried about the interview at all, it was pretty standard. They asked me one question about what sort of process I would go through if I noticed a certain part kept failing. The hardest question was about if I was given $1 million to start an Engineering company, who would I hire and why? Then, he crossed me up after I just finished explaining why I would hire them by asking which one of them I'd fire and why?

The interview went well, but it was the aptitude/other tests & plant tour that pissed me off. In total I was there for over 4 hours

[Snow Dog]

at the end when they ask "do you have any questions for us"

Ask if they have unrestricted high speed Internet access because you like to hang out online all day.