Tips for interviewer
Tips for interviewer
(OP)
Did a quick search, lots of threads with tips for the job interviewee but not so many for the interviewer so here goes.
I've just been asked to interview a potential senior Mechanical Engineer tomorrow morning (9:30 PST to be precise).
I've reviewed a good few resumes before and I've done a few interviews before but mostly to assess a particular aspect of someones qualification (such as drafting/GD&T etc.) not just a general 'sit with this guy for 1/2 an hour and get a feel for him to see if you think he'd be a good fit'.
So, any suggestions of the questions you'd ask, or other tips?
I'm not particularly interested in any 'trick' question or anything too 'HRish' but am willing to be persuaded otherwise as to their merit.
Cheers,
I've just been asked to interview a potential senior Mechanical Engineer tomorrow morning (9:30 PST to be precise).
I've reviewed a good few resumes before and I've done a few interviews before but mostly to assess a particular aspect of someones qualification (such as drafting/GD&T etc.) not just a general 'sit with this guy for 1/2 an hour and get a feel for him to see if you think he'd be a good fit'.
So, any suggestions of the questions you'd ask, or other tips?
I'm not particularly interested in any 'trick' question or anything too 'HRish' but am willing to be persuaded otherwise as to their merit.
Cheers,
Posting guidelines FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm? (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?





RE: Tips for interviewer
Ask him about his hobbies. For mechanical engineers, that's a relevant question. I prefer hot rodders, model railroaders, and gunsmiths.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Tips for interviewer
Use the phone - same as above.
Use the computer - write a memo that makes sense.
Knows something about your company
Knows something about engineering
Can he manage a few people
Can he prioritize
Can he get things done in a timely manner
Can he read
Can he Google
If he/she can do all this - you might have a winner.
RE: Tips for interviewer
If it was a personality clash, does that trend follow them or does it follow their last boss. Independent investigation prior to the interview might help with that.
Regards
Pat
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RE: Tips for interviewer
"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - Robert Hunter
RE: Tips for interviewer
When you beat your wife does she deserve it?
When you stole from you last job did you feel bad about it?
Really though I would start a conversation about the general job and let them speak about his past experiences. During this time I would be looking for clues as to what type of person they are and if they would fit in well with the organization. Does he want to be the boss? Does he think he is above doing busy type of engineering work? Will he produce inferior work if assigned lower level tasks? Some experienced people can bring a lot to the table but if they don't have any real interest other than getting a paycheck then it won't be good for anyone. All you'll get is a talking head sitting around who isn't producing.
RE: Tips for interviewer
All good suggestions so far... ask him to describe a project you can grasp well, then ask the same about something you don't know well (but can likely comprehend) and see how well he does describing it to a layman.
Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: Tips for interviewer
Look at what types of skills are required for the position. Are they technical? People skills? Both? Will they be learning most of the time? Leading other engineers? Talking with suppliers or customers?
Focus your questions on the areas appropriate for success in the job.
RE: Tips for interviewer
I'd let others dig deeper into the technical qualifications (especially if only 30mins are allowed), and focus more on discovering if the candidate has any "chips on his shoulder" or "quirks" that might not be nice to deal with on a daily basis if the person is hired.
Topics of conversation: enjoyed sports, hobbies, favorite food, last or future vacation
"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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RE: Tips for interviewer
RE: Tips for interviewer
RE: Tips for interviewer
What one task (product, project, analysis ...) is he happy with.
What one task is he unhappy with.
If you have time, if he could be a color, what color would he be?
RE: Tips for interviewer
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Tips for interviewer
I have been told a few times that if we have the right candidate come in for one of our posted job positions I would be in on the interview.
RE: Tips for interviewer
I then asked him about work related but not hardcore technical stuff - like are you ok learning a new CAD system (not that exact wording but along those lines) what's your philosophy on GD&T/drawing standards (feeding off stuff in his resume) things various.
I basically managed to discuss non technical work related stuff in a way to find out if he had an obvious chip on his shoulder, was happy doing 'dull & dirty' work etc.
I also tried to remember he was interviewing us and so tried to give him a reasonable amount of info - hopefully not enough to put him off though!
I thought it went pretty well and told my manager he looked like he'd be a reasonable fit, a bit more outgoing than many around here but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
I then asked him what color he wished he was but he got all upset said something about discrimination due to being Hispanic and that he was gonna call the ACLU - so I promptly walked him over to his next interviewer that was handily HR.
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Tips for interviewer
Regards
Pat
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RE: Tips for interviewer
Regards
Pat
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RE: Tips for interviewer
I didn't really ask him what color he wished he was, I was being facetious about monkeydogs suggested question and how it could have gone horribly wrong.
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Tips for interviewer
I am sure monkeydog was referring to moods of colours, not race.
Regards
Pat
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RE: Tips for interviewer
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Tips for interviewer
http://www.nceng.com.au/
"A safe structure will be the one whose weakest link is never overloaded by the greatest force to which the structure is subjected" Petroski 1992
RE: Tips for interviewer
Regards
Pat
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RE: Tips for interviewer
I thought his post was funny.
Just a play off of previous posts on the off-the-wall interview questions.
RE: Tips for interviewer
This simple question accomplishes several things:
1. It identifies that a disappointingly large percentage of candidates for mechanical engineering positions do not have a grasp of even as simple a fundamental as force equals pressure times area.
2. It identifies the candidate's ability to produce a technical sketch to illustrate a concept.
3. It identifies the candidate's ability to explain how something works.
RE: Tips for interviewer
I guess you wouldn't hire me, then. All these years I have been using that very thingy to check my tire pressure, it never occurred to me to draw a sketch about how it works. Of course, now that you mention it, I am just going to have to figure that out.
But really, be careful with questions like that, unless you have a few of them that cover a broad spectrum of what you are looking for. You wouldn't want to be turning away candidates that can do process simulations in their head or design a helicopter rotor assembly from scratch simply because they have never bothered to take apart the guts of a tire gauge to see how it works.
If the candidate has made it to an interview, then that candidate should already be there on the strength of what he or she has been able to demonstrate that he or she knows or has done. Ask the candidate about those things and look for how those skills might fit to what you are looking for. It's easy to find countless things that you know something about that somebody else knows nothing about, but that's not being fair, and it does a disservice to the interview candidate.
On the other hand, I suppose questions like that become fair if they are aimed at trying to assess how well a candidate can think or conjecture or formulate; then you are evaluating a "thought process", not a "knowledge". Then questions like that are in-bounds.
Regards,
SNORGY.
RE: Tips for interviewer
"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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RE: Tips for interviewer
It's an engine
It's a gasoline engine
It's got four cylinders
etc
etc
People who recognised that it had twin balancer shafts were doing well.
Best answer he ever had (and one he hadn't even realised) was that the drawing of the gear mesh between the shafts was wrong - the helical gears wouldn't mesh like that.
I was once given a drawing of a diesel fuel injector and asked to describe what I thought would happen to the needle as the pressure increased. A pretty good practical question about pressure area and force. The extra points came for realising that as soon as the needle had started to lift, the area that the pressure was acting on suddenly increased.
- Steve
RE: Tips for interviewer
My response:
"I'm here talking to you, aren't I?".
The other candidate got the job. He turned out to be the wrong candidate.
Regards,
SNORGY.
RE: Tips for interviewer
I used to give an interview that lasted about 40 minutes, and included:
- In-depth questions about subjects the candidate should have understood, based on whatever was claimed in his or her resume. E.g. "What does a moderator do?" for someone who claimed expertise with nuclear reactors. Or "Write a program to do <nested loops> in any computer language you like, and then explain to me how it works" for programmers.
- A bunch of simple but possibly tricky questions stolen from textbooks or other interviewers. E.g. "What parameters do I need to know to predict the deflection of a single beam used as a bridge?", phrased in a folksy way as a story involving alligators in a creek.
The really stressful part of my interview was that I never revealed whether the candidate's answer was correct or not; I just started the next question.
I recommended a relatively small number of candidates, all of whom worked out well. I wrote brief reports to HR, and was occasionally asked to defend them, which I could do because I kept whatever the candidate scratched out, and my own post-interview notes in enough detail to reconstruct a narrative of the interview.
... But after a while, I noticed that HR was only sending me people they clearly didn't want to hire, but didn't have a legally defensible reason to exclude. ... and that some real barrels of hair were just showing up to start work.
That's when I knew the company was doomed, and so was I. What little remains of it is up for sale again.
Now, I think putting the candidate at ease may be a better tactic, so you can get them talking about themselves, and hope to find out to whom they're related. Because of my terrible handwriting and use of symbols and sketches, my notes from those days would probably be incomprehensible anyway, but it may be better to leave nothing for a lawyer to discover.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Tips for interviewer
Early in my career, I worked for my father. He was really good at creating prolonged awkward silence (usually while he was pondering what was said to him). This often made people uncomfortable in his presence, so they would talk to fill the voild. Many times, I watched and listened while some of these people accidentally spilled details that they should have kept to themselves.
RE: Tips for interviewer
RE: Tips for interviewer
- Steve
RE: Tips for interviewer
Do you have any compassion?
Regards
Pat
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RE: Tips for interviewer
http://www.nceng.com.au/
"A safe structure will be the one whose weakest link is never overloaded by the greatest force to which the structure is subjected" Petroski 1992
RE: Tips for interviewer
if you are looking for an Enginner to DO the work, make sure the candidate is not doing MBA at night. A sure sign that the guy wants to be a boss in the short term and not be an Engineer.
Another one I like: We all had setbacks in our lives, tell me about one of your setbacks or disagreements with your colleagues/bosses and how did you handle it?
RE: Tips for interviewer
Good on ya,
Goober Dave
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RE: Tips for interviewer
RE: Tips for interviewer
Regards,
SNORGY.
RE: Tips for interviewer
Name your least favorite boss...
Name your favorite boss...
My answer was the same for both. Had a rocky start with a boss that caused lots of tension and frustration on both sides due to differing styles and lack of trust on his part (micro-managing). But after time he gained trust in my skills and decision making and then we had the best relationship of any so far.
<tg>
RE: Tips for interviewer
Personally I let HR figure out the personality stuff and concentrate on the technical stuff.
Don't forget to do a little selling and give them time to ask questions. Especially for engineers where investing things is part of the job the types of questions they ask can be the most important thing you find out.
RE: Tips for interviewer
ENG-tips needs an edit button.