Screening Questions for engineer 4

[controlnovice]

Giving a phone interview (being the interviewer) to a prospective process engineer with 5-10 years experience, what would be your 5 screening questions?

______________________________________________________________________________
This is normally the space where people post something insightful.

 

[Unotec]

Why would you like to work for this company?
What do you like about (field applicable) engineering?
What is your experience in this or other fields?
What is your hobby?
What do you enjoy doing the most?

<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying ” Damn that was fun!” - Unknown>>

 

[Unotec]

Oh, I forgot..... Which is your favourite web page?

<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying ” Damn that was fun!” - Unknown>>

 

[MadMango]

What has been your most successful accomplishment at work?

Can you explain about a situation where you have changed your opinion about a course of action to take?

What lead you to become a process engineer?

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of these Forums?

 

[JMirisola]

Why do you want to work for this company?
How do you handle dissenting opinions?
What do you consider your greatest accomplishment professionally? Personally?
What quality best defines who you are?
If given the opportunity, what one thing would you change from your past?


Jeff Mirisola, CSWP, Certified DriveWorks AE

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

 

[EngJW]

Most important of all: "what year did you graduate high school?"

 

[TheTick]

"Beauty pageant" questions might make the interviewer feel like he is doing his job, but I think they rarely reveal anything meaningful. i.e. "What's your biggest fault?"

Along with technical knowledge, I would focus on problem solving and team skills. I like candidates that have enough base knowledge to readily adapt to new situations and equipment.

I know engineers tend to be introverts, but I think that it is not acceptable for a candidate to force an interviewer to drag information out of him.

 

[Unotec]

TheTick,
It was asked about a phone interview. I would hardly hire (or try to get hired) over the phone without going face to face. Might do a little screening, but that's that.
Wouldn't you leave the meaningful questions to a face to face interview?

<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying ” Damn that was fun!” - Unknown>>

 

[MadMango]

The phone interview is a culling process, right?. You won't get any value out of it if you don't ask meaningful questions at the start.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of these Forums?

 

[Unotec]

MadMango, I stand corrected. It all depends on what's meaningful for you.
For a process engineer in my field, it would be important to have a personable guy/gal. That's a challenge when it comes to engineers though.
But yes, it is a way to screen, all depends on what you're looking for what you'd be asking here.

<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying ” Damn that was fun!” - Unknown>>

 

[proetools]

I always ask engineers in an interview "What resources do they use online that helps in their job?"

What software have you used for Process ID software have you used ... explored? Pro/PROCESS and I RSD can both be used to aid Process engineers. "How might you use those tools in your job?"

Bart Brejcha Chicago
DESIGN-ENGINE|EDUCATION

http://www.proetools.com

surfacing and Pro/CABLE training

 

[MiketheEngineer]

What was your worst job and why?? How did you resolve that problem??

 

[KENAT]

EngJW, are you even allowed to ask that?

KENAT,

Have you reminded yourself of faq731-376 recently, or taken a look at

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[cedarbluffranch]

No, asking what year they graduated high school would be opening the company up for a age-discrimination lawsuit.

Asking how many years of experience they have in engineering would not, although I find that's almost a sure-fire giveaway on the persons age.

 

[TheTick]

unotec, your reply makes nearly no sense. I said nothing about hiring over the phone.

 

[Unotec]

TheTick, my wife says the same to me all the time.
I'm sorry, must have gotten lost in translation:
controlnovice asked: "Giving a phone interview (being the interviewer) to a prospective...."
What I tried to say is that, if I am going to hire through an interview, I would not do it on a phone one. I would use the phone to pre-screen the candidate with some relevant questions aiming towards the type of person I need and then, in a face to face, ask the more relevant ones.
Hope this makes more sense

<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying ” Damn that was fun!” - Unknown>>

 

[KENAT]

unotec, From what I've seen that's pretty much the 'definition' of phone interview, so most of us probably figured it went without saying.

I'm not saying no ones ever been hired over the phone but usually it's just to see if it's worth the effort of having a real face to face interview, from what I've seen.

What questions to ask are going to vary.

For instance, if doing a phone interview for a lead drafter/checker I'd ask some basic questions about drawing standards, but not give them a GD&T test.

KENAT,

Have you reminded yourself of faq731-376 recently, or taken a look at

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[ctopher]

Stupid interview questions:

http://www.businessweek.com/careers/content/sep2005/ca20050921_1099_ca009.htm

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion

 

[TheTick]

Q: "What's your biggest fault?"

A: "My biggest fault used to be that I would unnecessarily reveal weaknesses, giving away advantage when I could scarcely afford to lose it. I've fixed that."

 

[moltenmetal]

You're looking for "experienced" people-

We have no problem finding folks who will "get along", so we dispense with the touchy-feely stuff until after we know they've got the technical chops. Sure, you're also testing for the basics, like ability to communicate etc. while you're asking the technical questions.

We find lots of folks who lie on their resumes and never expect us to validate the depth and breadth of the experience they say they have. It's those that we're trying to weed out- the quicker the better. Don't get me wrong- padding the resume is a time-honoured tradition- but if they say they've "worked with P&IDs", I want to know if that meant that they've developed P&IDs from scratch on a daily basis, or that they've seen a P&ID- once, on someone else's desk!

I'd ask a few technical questions that can be answered over the phone. The good candidates will not only answer them, they'll perk up when you get past the touchy-feely personnel bullsh*t and get into testing their knowledge of what they do for a living. The really good candidates won't guess at what they don't know- they'll reason from what they DO know and tell you exactly where they'd look to find the asnwers to the questions they can't answer off the top of their heads.

I'll also ask them what sort of work environment they're used to: a compartmentalized one, where they specialize in their job description and have lots of subject-matter experts to depend on for answers to the tougher questions, or one where they've been acting as a jack of all trades (master of none). That's a basic fit question for a workplace.

Which questions should you ask? Depends what sort of work your firm does! You know better than I would. If you're looking for 5-10 years experience, that's what you're testing for- is the experience they claim available, and relevant? If the experience is NOT relevant, do they have access to the underlying fundamentals necessary for you to have a hope of teaching them what they need to know, or is it buried under 5-10 years of dust and rust and disuse?

Totally different strategy for fresh grads, or other job descriptions.