Hi everyone,
My background is in academic research with a number of FEA structural projects under my belt. I am considering a move into industry as a FEA analyst possibly in the oil/gas industry.

I'm sure there are some on here that have been on interview panels and have a good idea what to look for in candidates or maybe others have been through the interview process and have a few do's and don't to pass on!

One limitation I have is that I have only dealt with problems with linear elastic material properties. Would this be a big issue? I think important skills would include being able to determine the quality of a mesh, being able to identify singularities, being able to produce simplified hand calculations to back up results or to get upper or lower bounds for solutions.

I think one worry about an academic coming into industry is that there may be too much focus on the theoretical side of things. However I have worked on projects whereby FEA results have been verified with results from lab testing.

Anyway as with anything I think preparation is key so I would appreciate any advice that could be passed on.

Thanks!

You have hit on the major ones for me: hand calcs, lab tests and mesh sensitivity, basically validation. I do also ask about non linear deformation, contact and material properties but those are nice to haves and can be taught. I find the best way to learn is to participate in these forums and help others solve their problems. I get more exposure here than I would ever get within any company besides the software companies or resellers. I hope this helps.

Rob Stupplebeen
https://sites.google.com/site/robertkstupplebeen/

If you're interested in the oil and gas industry, you're going to need to learn the relevant Codes and Standards. Do you even know what they would be? If I were interviewing you (and I have conducted many similar interviews over the past 5 years), that's equally as important as the FEA stuff. Unless, of course, you are expecting to be paid the same as someone with no experience...

emphasise the +ve ... knowing the theoretical background will help you work the tool better. so you haven't done NL ... so what ! it's easy to learn how to set up a run, it's harder to understand what's going on inside the "black box", but that's your background/interest, and i'd expect you've got the "nouse" to figure it out.

So, given what's been said, one might possibly want to be able to crank out some hand calculations, on demand.

TTFN
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All are good replies and definitely should be considered in depth - especially knowledge of the codes. However, never think you are any worse than anybody else. From your background I would suspect that you will not have difficulty in identifying less than ideal calcs even in the most expert companies.

What area of oil and gas industry are you looking at ?

You gotta be a good BS detector. How do you decide if the inputs are reasonable? How do you decide if the outputs, given those inputs, are reasonable? The only real hiring mistake I've made was picking someone with an outstanding academic record who was never able to develop the ability to recognize that an answer was off by orders of magnitude.

Doug

Download some technical papers in the related field esp simulation works done by experts. Get ABAQUS Student license for less than $100 and start working on the tutorials in the manual. Those nonlinear chapters are good start.

YK