Big interview, need big help

[hybridised]

Hi everyone,

I've stumbled upon this website in an effort to help me prepare for an interview for a major defence contractor in the UK. I have recently graduated with a degree in Electronic & Electrical Engineering and wish to use my skills in the defence sector.

As part of the interview process I have to do the following as quoted from the correspondence from the company. I was just wondering if anyone could give me some advice on how to prepare and whether or not I should talk about something technical or personal for the presentation section.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

H

=========Quoted email below ====================

"1/ A 90 minute technical interview with the relevant senior staff to get to know you as a person and to understand how we may best use your skills and knowledge.


2/ A 10 minute presentation by you to a small group of staff (maximum audience of 4) followed by 10 minutes of discussion. This is a chance for you to talk about something you are familiar with and is to stimulate a discussion, it is not an assessment of your presentation skills, it is to assess your communication ability. There is no requirement to prepare slides, sitting and talking round a table is fine however you can bring a PowerPoint file on a memory stick or CD (We use Office 2003 under XP)."

 

[GregLocock]

Assuming that it is item 2 you are concerned about (perhaps your communication skills need more precision) I think you'd have rocks in your head if you decided to discuss your recent holiday, for example.

An obvious topic would be:

a project that you did at uni that went well and that you enjoyed, and that is interesting.

Bring graphs. Engineers love graphs. Bring drawings, or preferably hardware.

In a similar situation I brought the schematics for 'my' solar car along, and we then spent an hour talking about it. That worked.



Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[hybridised]

Thanks for the speedy response, my careers advisor seems to think that talking about a hobby would be a good way to go, I disagreed with her and left confused.

I thought maybe talking about my thesis would be a sound option as it involved pretty much all the key elements of project management, but then again i could end up repeating myself during the technical interview if I was quizzed on my project work.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Career advisors don't know squat about engineers.

Talk about a hobby only if it involves engineering or would be of interest to most engineers.

Don't talk about something that you merely watched. You will be questioned _intensely_ about any expertise that you claim, so you have to walk the walk and show the scars.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[MintJulep]

This is a chance for you to talk about something you are familiar with and is to stimulate a discussion, it is not an assessment of your presentation skills, it is to assess your communication ability.

I've got to go with your career adviser on this - provided you have at least one interesting hobby, and actually know something about it. If your hobbies are bird watching and needle point, select a different subject.

I would not select a past project - yawn. Besides, you will have exhausted past projects in the 90 minute interview.

 

[GregLocock]

Yes, that is a danger.



Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[kchayfie]

I would talk about a hobby if it includes some sort of transferable skills that will be useful when it comes to your day job e.g. your last holiday would be a fine subject if you have just organised a ski-trip for 50 people: getting that number of people to cough up the cash and show up on time in the right place demonstrates a useful level of organisation skills.

If the hobbies don't demonstrate useful traits for the working world, stick to the uni projects as safer subjects. Chances are the second group will include different people and you'll be able to talk about your projects in a different way anyway...

 

[epoisses]

Don't forget to stimulate and lead the discussion, they wrote already that it's more important than the presentation itself.

 

[kelowna]

Aren't you too worried about too little? It seems obvious from what they told you that the 10 min presentation is to assess your communication skills, so the topic is not really an issue. Not that I would recommend anything stupid, but if I was doing the interview, and after 90 minutes of technical interview, choosing something 'non technical' could be refreshing and show that you are not monodymensional.

 

[epoisses]

What if communication skills = explaining a technical topic in simple terms?
What if communication skills = make an audience enthusiastic about a topic that if presented by anyone else would be boring?
What if communication skills = succesfully stay in the lead the discussion after the presentation, succesfully cut people short who think they should destroy the discussion with a 30 minutes rant about something non-related, or who knows what other scenario they may prepare to test you!

What if ... anyway you don't know but if I were hiring someone, I'd try to get 110% information out of that presentation, which means all of the above and maybe more.

So you'd better get out of your comfort zone and put 110% in there as well, including explaining something complex and presenting it in an enthusiastic manner, and prepare yourself on how you will handle that discussion.

Either that or play it safe and see that somebody with more ambition gets the job.

Not that I want the adrenaline to come out of your ears now, don't get me wrong, but just don't underestimate it

 

[KENAT]

"Major Defence Contractor in the UK" I'd guess BAE Systems (the other major defence contractor in the UK is actually French and most of the middle sized ones are American). Plus FYI in this context contractor is a US term, not used as much in the UK.

I interviewed for BAE Systems twice. First for a year out 'intern' type position which I didn't get (everyone else I interviewed with got positions even though originally they only had 2 and 5 of us interviewed!). The process was actually pretty painless.

Second time was at Bristol (now part of Airbus) for a graduate job. I passed the interview but it was clear I was more interested/more suited to working in the Military part. They transferred my application but the Military side didn't want me!

At the second one I was interviewed by I think 2-3 people and they did ask some general technical questions. I also had to take an aptitude test although I didn't have to give a presentation.

My opinion is that your Thesis may be an excellent topic for the presentation, so long as you don't draw on it too much during the 90 minute interview.

The hobby idea is great if it's vaguely relevant, eg model planes, car racing etc. If it's stamp or coin collecting maybe not. Even if it's just something that most people will find interesting it could be OK, but I think keeping it vaguely engineering or at least workplace related might be a good idea.

You could always have 2 prepared, on technical one non technical and pick which one after the first part of the interview!

Do read up on projects that the company may be working on and if you can somehow relate something you did in a project or Thesis to one of their current projects this may work well.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[hybridised]

Thanks for that KENAT, your reply has been a big help, as well as everyone elses.

The position I am most interested in is within the company software dept. My thesis was based around using PIC microcontrollers and designing embedded software. Therefore I think i will give a brief overview of PIC MCU highlighting on archetecture, pros/cons and give some basic programming examples on how to control some of the main features of the PIC MCU.

The company i have the interview with is selex sensors and airborne systems, once BAE Avionics, they still use the GDF and SIGMA programs that BAE introduced. So hopefully there will be some similarities with your BAE interview and mine.

 

[IRstuff]

Your choice of topic seems to excellent and relatively germane to Selex's product line.

Make sure you know your material. My previous company's communications classes recommended being able to brief any presentation without referring to the charts, other than to make sure you and the chart are on the same page. Nothing communicates better than confidence and in-depth knowledge of your presentation material.

If you don't know the answer to a question, don't BS, but offer to find the answer and to get back with them later.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[KENAT]

My interviews were back in 98 & 99 respectively so things may have changed.

Good luck!

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[johnsoju]

I currently work for Airborne Systems in the States, actually been on for just a short time and have gone through the interview process. It was actually pretty laid back after we got through some of the technical stuff. They asked a few questions to make sure I knew what I was talking about, then it seemed they more or less wanted to know about how dedicated I was and if I would get along with the team. We seem to use a minimum amount of engineers to get a lot of work done, which is cool because you're involved on every level of the project from start to finish. So I think a lot of the second part of your interview is actually going to be focused directly on how well you can communicate an idea to the team.

Of course I can't directly speak for the UK branch, however every one of my interviewers has been transfered from that division sometime in the last ten years.

 

[FiltrationEngineer]

I'd talk about your career goals and why you want to work in the defense sector. I would leave out the part about why you want to work for them.

Also, I think its very important to interview the company as much as they interview you. Research them and ask them hard questions like, "where do you see the company in 5 years?" and "What is your strategy to increase market share?"

When you ask them stuff like that it makes you sound smart and also makes them think they have to compete to get you to work there.

 

[MedicineEng]

First:
Know who is going to be in the audience.
Will it be engineers? Will it be office staff? Will it be workshop staff? Will it be cleaning ladies?
Each one of these audiences have different interests. As some pointed out, if you have to propose a subject to foster discussion, you will have to know upfront who is going to attend the presentation .
If for engineers eventually stress test analysis or automation is a sufficiently interesting to keep them discussing for hours, for office staff it will be as interesting as getting a shot of penicilin.
There is no harm to pick up the phone and speak with your contact point in the company. It will only show your interest and your effort to make a proper presentation.
Pick up the phone and get more information.
Good luck

 

[Nuked]

hybridised,
I recently went through the interview process a few years ago, specifically with a large petrochemical company, we also had to do a short presentation which they actually gave us some suggested topics. One of the guys interviewing (not me) gave a presentation on how to make spaghetti bolognese, and he got the job.

As long as you have in-depth knowledge and can demonstrate that during the presentation I wouldn't worry too much about the subject matter.

Also think about how you would like to progress over the next few years and try to bring it up in the interview, progression towards chartered engineering for example or going onto further education part-time. Do plenty of research on the company itself as you will inevitably be asked about it.

Good luck for the interview!

Ronnie

"Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired"
Jules Renard (1864 - 1910)

 

[KENAT]

When I interviewed as BAES I believe that both times it was engineers that did the actual interview. HR did up front stuff, paperwork etc but I don't think they even attended the real interview.

May not be the same now but it's the info I have.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[hybridised]

Well ive had the interview and it was a really good day. I had to do my presentation first as soon as i got into the building and it was a nervous 10mins but i did well, threw in a few techy jokes, asked the audience a couple of questions etc etc.

Since the presentation was the bit i was least looking forward too i felt as though I could relax for the rest of the day. I was giving a tour of the site and got on really well with my escort and you know what, it felt good to be there, felt as though I could really fit in.

The technical interview went ok, i left feeling positive and I was quizzed mainly on explaining hardware to a software guy using flow charts, right at the end the hardware engineer said i've got a hard question now and slap a piece of paper down in front of me and asked if i knew what the circuit did, it was complimentary logic and got through the truth tables, slowly though to make sure i didn't make any stupid mistakes.

Fingers crossed, its good that there wasn't any major moments where i thought OMG.

Thanks all