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Worst job interview answers 25

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Bernoulli31

Bernoulli31

Mechanical
Jan 13, 2016
51
Just wanted to share this..
We recently had a young grad in our office to interview for an entry level mechanical engineer position.

Q: What type of systems would you like to work on / are you interested in?
A: HVAC! I want to design HVAC systems. I have a passion for it and want to do pursue my career in HVAC.
Q: What does HVAC stand for?
A: Heating, Ventilation,.. and.. err.. hmmm... I forgot!

I design aqueducts in a parallel universe.
 
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swertel, I get up at 5A and have no problems being 10 minutes more rested than you. :)

I've enjoyed more than a few nasty interviews. One ended with a job offer, which I declined. I don't like being pushed in an interview just so someone learns I really am a professional.

I've talked with some HR friends about stuff like this and heavy handed interviews rarely accomplish what the heavy hands want. It can give them very false readings. Most talented HR people don't use heavy handed tactics to interview because of the false results.

You also never know who has something to prove or an axe to grind. These things usually come out in interviews, sometimes they make no attempts to hide them, and it's best to walk away, quietly. Life is too short to fix management's problems on an engineer's salary. :)

Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC
NSPE-CO, Central Chapter
Dinner program:
 
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bridgebuster, thanks for both giggles. Hopefully I take the good from my parents and not too much of the bad. I realize time and life's realities harden folks, but when I hit senior citizen status hopefully I wont joke about social security paying for my hobbies or any other such crap as I often hear from the "its my money" crowd.

I believe the bit about job growth and bones is a veiled reference to US manufacturing. From the peak in 1979 employing ~12% of Americans we're now down to ~6%. Others can point to a wide variety of causes but IMHO it all stems from taking the industry for granted in most every manner possible, sucking out as much value as possible and leaving little for the future. We developed a greedy Walmart mentality through the 80s-early 2000s - pay little and expect a lot. I've heard many arguments against US manufacturing since I was a kid in the 80s, IME boomers are pretty against US manufacturing as a whole. Good = third world labor = cheaper prices = less pollution = "not in my neighborhood" = higher corporate profits = higher dividends = rising stock values = higher retirement account balances. Nevermind supporting your neighbors' jobs, they should've gone to college. In many like my hometown, manufacturing was the fallback for the poor, the less able, and those whose plans failed otherwise. Now its gone in many areas and the only fallback left is either Walmart or BK. The value sucked out of manufacturing didn't go to make the 1% richer, it paid for most folks' selfishness and demand for cheap. Its much like social security today, how many of today's seniors do you know not collecting? Last I knew we had more than 1000 millionaires collecting. JME, but many of the "greatest" generation I knew never collected including my grandfather, he worked til he died at 77.
 
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"Good = third world labor = cheaper prices = less pollution = "not in my neighborhood" = higher corporate profits = higher dividends = rising stock values = higher retirement account balances."

The problem in this chain of thought is that consumers do not control off-shoring, profits do. Walmart, if you recall, used to advertise "Made in the USA," until their price cutting strategy to put other retailers out of business crimped profits and forced them off-shore to maintain profits.

"value sucked out of manufacturing didn't go to make the 1% richer"

And yet, today, the top 3 Forbes billionaires are richer than the bottom 50% of the US COMBINED. The entire Forbes 400 have more wealth than the bottom 64% of the US COMBINED. So, the bottom 50% might have been lured by lower prices, but do not kid yourself into thinking that the top 1% didn't profit.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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get up at 4:50? At 4:50 I've already been on the bus for 40 minutes. [auto] Yes, I know I'm stupid.[banghead]

@CWB1 - I'm glad I could give you a laugh. Sure, life hardens some people and some of us learn to put life into perspective and take it in stride. Back in the 70's, I took a management course (back then studying management was the big fad); the professor said within 20 years we'll go from being a manufacturing economy to a service economy. He was right. Who was running the world, sure wasn't baby-boomers? A lot of the older boomers were still detoxing from all the drugs they did in the 60's. Look, when George Westinghouse invented train brakes a lot of railroad people lost their jobs (unfortunately, before he invented brakes, a lot of railroad people lost their jobs the hard way.) Keep it in perspective.
 
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"get up at 4:50? At 4:50 I've already been on the bus for 40 minutes"

Hah, my son does have a long bus ride (~1 hr in the morning), but it's a company bus, and he doesn't get on it until about 9-ish. [banghead]

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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SWMBO gets us both up in the 3:50-4:00 range... I'm at work before 5 :-/

Dan - Owner
URL]
 
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I believe the bit about job growth and bones is a veiled reference to US manufacturing. From the peak in 1979 employing ~12% of Americans we're now down to ~6%. Others can point to a wide variety of causes but IMHO it all stems from taking the industry for granted in most every manner possible, sucking out as much value as possible and leaving little for the future.
Click to expand...

It (the loss in manufacturing employment) might also have something to do with advances in automation/technology. After all, production hasn't fallen off. (I remember reading somewhere that the United States manufactures as much (in inflation adjusted dollars) than ever.) We just do it with a lot less people.

To blame that on any particular generation is silly. It would be like me blaming my grandparent's generation for the fact we no longer pick cotton by hand or dig ditches with shovels. Nothing stays the same.
 
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Too much importance is put on interviews. A good interviewer doesn't always equal a good engineer and vice versa. I've seen several cases of a less qualified candidate get a position because they "interviewed good".

All I know is P/A and Mc/I
 
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4:30 and 9:00 +/- 30 minutes for bed time.
But 5 to 5.5 hours a night is just nuts.
[yawn]
 
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Yeah, I don't know how many more years I can keep up the whole 6-7 hours of sleep thing. That said I often sleep in heavily on weekends to "catch up".

Somewhat more on topic, I wonder if it's more of a younger generational thing to stay up into the wee hours and sleep in? I actually postulate it is much more a younger generation preference due to our pervasive use of bright digital screens at night. I know that I pass right out if I read a book but can stay way up into the AM if I'm playing some video games or reading eng-tips.... kinda like what I'm doing right now!

Whether this less sleep actually makes me more or less productive is definitely up for debate. Probably less I would guess, as I'm a zombie until the first cup of coffee is finished.

Professional Engineer (ME, NH, MA) Structural Engineer (IL)
American Concrete Industries
 
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Wow, I post a link to a boomer-bashing video, and I come back a day later to see a whole bunch of geezers moaning about how knackered they are. Retire already!

Uh oh, didn't mean to offend. [wink] In these days of extraordinary political correctness, I think it will become more and more common to bash on groups with higher status, like boomers. So get used to it.

Anyway, let me please bring this back on topic: Looks like somebody in the media needs Eng-Tips.

STF
 
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If I could, I'd get up between 7 and 8, then go to bed much closer to midnight. I work MUCH better later in the day, assuming I am allowed to sleep in on the days following up to it. But my wife gets up early, which means IIIII get up early.

Dan - Owner
URL]
 
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Quality sleep is so important to having a good life. Wish I got more of it. Have been intentionally going to bed earlier lately to improve my life. Any time I get to sleep by 10pm or sooner is a big win for me.
 
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