| General > General Technical Chat |
| Advices for the Job interviews |
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| tom66:
My suggestion is to have a few things memorised for the common questions; "What makes you want to work for <ACME Incorporated>?" --> Well, you are applying, so hopefully you know! Why would you want to work for a company you don't like? Hint, the answer is never 'for the money' or 'to have something to do' ... "Give me an example of a challenge you have had professionally or personally and how you resolved that" --> This is a common one and I don't think there's a right answer. Just choose a moment in your life that's vaguely relatable about a time you had to compromise with someone else and solve a problem. It's a silly question about team-building but frankly it doesn't filter for anyone decent. "What is your biggest weakness?" --> Give some vague answer like how you're too hard working and sometimes miss the big picture, but you've been trying to do better at that. Again, another stupid question that comes up far too often and I'm not convinced it filters for anyone other than class-A bullshitters. "What are your strengths?" --> Hopefully you have an idea of where your skills are best applied, so just give an honest appraisal of these and talk about things you're learning. "How did you start in engineering/what gets your interest in engineering?" --> Many people started early in engineering or did internships beforehand, so talk about these. If not, you probably still have some reason you did engineering in college or you're doing it as a career, so mention that. "Do you have any other questions?" --> ALWAYS, ALWAYS have questions after the interviewer has asked theirs. In the ideal world, you thread your questions in with theirs, but I appreciate this is harder to do for a first few interviews. But an interview should be a conversation. You are interviewing them as well, because you are going to potentially spend years with these people. Of course, you will also have common engineering ones, like, here is a circuit diagram, how does this circuit work, what is wrong with this circuit, how do I do this with <X> parts? So you should practice and understand common circuits and designs. |
| coppice:
Its highly likely you will screw up your first attempts at being interviewed, whether you are confident or not. You just don't know what to expect, so however much you prepare things will still take you by surprise. Good interviewers should make allowance for your nervousness, so you might think you've screwed up, and still get an offer (unless they are specifically interviewing for a job that demands confidence in dealing with others, which is rare for an entry level job). If you know some experienced job interviewers it can be really valuable to engage in dummy interviews with them. Interviewers vary a lot in both their attitudes and the kinds of things they ask, so try more than one dummy interviewer if you can. |
| rhodges:
--- Quote ---"What is your biggest weakness?" --- End quote --- Filing trip reimbursement forms. I absolutely HATE doing that. |
| RJSV:
Tom66 have a good answer, regarding always have questions for your interview. For that, I don't think it's bad if you have a short little paper sheet, having a brief list... Say to the interviewer: "I had jotted down a couple brief questions, about Suthlam Fridge-Tech. Just let me get that, OK ?" Then you have a tidy paper, unfold and ask, plus mention why: "Just so I don,'t miss something". Do that right, and it doesn't look stupid: it can convey that you are careful (about a possible hire-relationship.) And maybe keep that little manuever brief: I mean like 90 seconds. (Plus it demonstrates you did some prep, for an important potential relationship, for many future years. I think a recruiter (that you trust) could mention you a little nervous initially. That kind of talk is often 'off the record'. "He was nervous, but then we got a coffee, downstairs. I was amazed what he said about working at INTEL / etc etc." So you want to be ready for some short, appropriate invite to "grab a donut, downstairs in cafeteria" (As long as appropriate / and not pressure for some personal favor not associated with a hiring process). Love to hear more about Eastern Europe job scene! - Rick |
| Psi:
Yeah, most people screw up their first one. It's normal. I screwed up on my first one too. Ideally bring something in with you, something to show off your design skills and talk about. It can be a hobby project. Ideally something physical, plus maybe a print out of it's schematic and PCB etc.. or a section of interesting code you wrote, if it has code any. (Don't print out all the code, just any cool bits) This helps in a few ways. - It demonstrates that you actually have technical ability and puts you ahead of people who show up with nothing. - You can show it off to them and explain how it works in detail because you know it very well. - You will find it much less stressful to talk about something that you know well and be less nervous talking about it. - It uses up interview time on something that you know and reducing the interview time where they might ask you questions you don't know. - Instead of being asked random questions they ask you questions about the thing you brought in, which are usually much easier questions to answer. You are controlling the topic and making it an area you know and are interested in talking about. If you're lucky, you will just sit there for the entire interview time talking with their engineers about your product, how it works and what decisions you made when designing it and problems you encountered and how you fixed them. There won't be any time left for anything else. Usually the engineer interviewing you is just as annoyed about having to come up with general questions to ask you as you are annoyed about having to answer the questions. So having something to talk about makes their life easier too and they will like that. |
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