Engineering graduate job interview
Discussion
Well stop acting like you have a stick up your arse for a start and and stop presuming you actually know anything. You dont. You arent right and even if you are right you arent right.
Interviewers dont really care about what you think you know. They will expect and presume you to have a certain level of knowledge, if you didnt you wouldnt have your quals or be sat in the interview chair. I keep telling you, they want to see a clarity of mind as the "engineering skill" and they want to see what you are like as a person.
The single biggest piece of advice I can give you is...what you think you know is irrelevent. University teaches you your basic building blocks of knowledge, it teaches you nothing about engineering as a job though and thats fair enough its not there to do that. Your problem seems to be you are going in to interviews thinking or giving off the perception that you know how to do the job already. You dont. You can have that attitude once you have got 12months in.
Interviewers dont really care about what you think you know. They will expect and presume you to have a certain level of knowledge, if you didnt you wouldnt have your quals or be sat in the interview chair. I keep telling you, they want to see a clarity of mind as the "engineering skill" and they want to see what you are like as a person.
The single biggest piece of advice I can give you is...what you think you know is irrelevent. University teaches you your basic building blocks of knowledge, it teaches you nothing about engineering as a job though and thats fair enough its not there to do that. Your problem seems to be you are going in to interviews thinking or giving off the perception that you know how to do the job already. You dont. You can have that attitude once you have got 12months in.
completely agree with all the above. clarity of mind is hard to describe, but it reminds me of what i was told many moons ago when i was thinking of joining the RN. i was told that the interviewing officers at the AIB would be looking at two main things - how is this guy going to act in battle, and how will he act in the officer's mess.
it costs tens of thousands to recruit and train a graduate through their first couple of years. you are at interview because a piece of paper implies you have a certain level of knowledge which can be built upon. the interviewers are there to decide whether spending that time and effort is going to be worthwhile on the person sat opposite them.
don't get me wrong, some companies need the quiet techy type who can be locked in a lab for 2 weeks and fed crackers and water whilst they reinvent the thingamabob. however, most look at grads as the future leadership, and you need a completely different type of person for that.
i also recall our old head of engineering [prof wood for those ex. manc uni] who told us that those of us with average degrees but above average personalities were far more emplyable than those who studied above all else.
it costs tens of thousands to recruit and train a graduate through their first couple of years. you are at interview because a piece of paper implies you have a certain level of knowledge which can be built upon. the interviewers are there to decide whether spending that time and effort is going to be worthwhile on the person sat opposite them.
don't get me wrong, some companies need the quiet techy type who can be locked in a lab for 2 weeks and fed crackers and water whilst they reinvent the thingamabob. however, most look at grads as the future leadership, and you need a completely different type of person for that.
i also recall our old head of engineering [prof wood for those ex. manc uni] who told us that those of us with average degrees but above average personalities were far more emplyable than those who studied above all else.
Just managed to get my first engineering job in the nuclear field after graduating (Physics with Astrophysics degree)....was quite a scary interview as the people there were SOOOOOOO much more experienced then I was (which is a given really) but apparently it's good to say that I didn't really know how to do some of the stuff they asked me about (mechanical design software ect ect) as I got the job.
I didn't BS and anything I didn't know I admitted to but I made sure to put across that I was hungry to learn the skills needed to be the best I can be.
I didn't BS and anything I didn't know I admitted to but I made sure to put across that I was hungry to learn the skills needed to be the best I can be.
GroundEffect said:
Thank you for the constructive replies. I will work on it for my next interview.
Oh ffs. Will you stop talking like a plank? Talk human!!Nobody says the phrase "constructive replies" in conversation, its the sort of thing you write in reply to a customer! You dont "work on" things either. Thats what you say in formal talk...but you never actually mean it ffs.
Do you know how to act normal? You talk like a page of text from either a self help manual or a "How to..." manual.
DJRC said:
Oh ffs. Will you stop talking like a plank? Talk human!!
Nobody says the phrase "constructive replies" in conversation, its the sort of thing you write in reply to a customer! You dont "work on" things either. Thats what you say in formal talk...but you never actually mean it ffs.
Do you know how to act normal? You talk like a page of text from either a self help manual or a "How to..." manual.
Nobody says the phrase "constructive replies" in conversation, its the sort of thing you write in reply to a customer! You dont "work on" things either. Thats what you say in formal talk...but you never actually mean it ffs.
Do you know how to act normal? You talk like a page of text from either a self help manual or a "How to..." manual.
Seriously though, can this guy win? Everyone seems to be on his back despite useful responses.
We are trying to help him.
His problem is at interview those that interview him are seeing something they dont like. From his posts on here I can see what it is and I wouldnt hire him either...and I *am* an arrogant, irritating, annoying little git! I wrote the book on the pitfalls of being such.
His problem is at interview those that interview him are seeing something they dont like. From his posts on here I can see what it is and I wouldnt hire him either...and I *am* an arrogant, irritating, annoying little git! I wrote the book on the pitfalls of being such.
GroundEffect said:
We're discussing something damn important to me - my future, so forgive me if I type a bit more formally than normal (and I know I type way more formally than I talk - it's just habit after 20,000 technical reports).
This! Again!And no it isnt. Ive written a lot more than you and signed off a lot more.
You need to knock this attitude off. You havent done anything yet. I am trying my best to make you understand something here, but you arent listening and you need to. You are not an engineer, you are a graduate. You have a level of knowledge, but you know nothing about the job, yet you keep trying to insist in various ways that you do. You know, it took me 10yrs before I felt like I had earned the right to be actually "be" an engineer, even though Id technically been an engineer since I graduated.
Just drop yourself down a notch or 2 and it will make things a little easier for you. Ive done the interviews, got nowhere and worried when my next job would come. I know the feeling and the worry. I even know it staring Xmas in the face with mortgages to pay. So Im trying to help you here.
In a very short space of time things have turned around. I applied for a graduate job for a smaller company in Leicester last Friday, had a call from them on Monday morning (which actually woke me up...that was an original way to start an interview) which lasted 25 minutes as a basic prelim interview thing. Nice bunch of chaps. Then got a call back today asking to come down for an interview next Thursday with the Engineering Manager and International Engineering Manager from India. Fantastic.
The best of it is the place looks just right for me - they're all about folks looking to be project engineers and move up quickly. Also they have a wide array of industries they work in so I'll get to try my hand at loads of stuff.
Pretty happy!
The best of it is the place looks just right for me - they're all about folks looking to be project engineers and move up quickly. Also they have a wide array of industries they work in so I'll get to try my hand at loads of stuff.
Pretty happy!
GroundEffect said:
In a very short space of time things have turned around. I applied for a graduate job for a smaller company in Leicester last Friday, had a call from them on Monday morning (which actually woke me up...that was an original way to start an interview) which lasted 25 minutes as a basic prelim interview thing. Nice bunch of chaps. Then got a call back today asking to come down for an interview next Thursday with the Engineering Manager and International Engineering Manager from India. Fantastic.
The best of it is the place looks just right for me - they're all about folks looking to be project engineers and move up quickly. Also they have a wide array of industries they work in so I'll get to try my hand at loads of stuff.
Pretty happy!
Been reading this thread with interest.The best of it is the place looks just right for me - they're all about folks looking to be project engineers and move up quickly. Also they have a wide array of industries they work in so I'll get to try my hand at loads of stuff.
Pretty happy!
Sounds good, about the interview invite... I take it you're feeling pretty confident about this one, then, to be talking about working there already?
Remember, confidence is one thing, but it's a fine line 'twixt that and arrogance.
GroundEffect said:
In a very short space of time things have turned around. I applied for a graduate job for a smaller company in Leicester last Friday, had a call from them on Monday morning (which actually woke me up...that was an original way to start an interview) which lasted 25 minutes as a basic prelim interview thing. Nice bunch of chaps. Then got a call back today asking to come down for an interview next Thursday with the Engineering Manager and International Engineering Manager from India. Fantastic.
The best of it is the place looks just right for me - they're all about folks looking to be project engineers and move up quickly. Also they have a wide array of industries they work in so I'll get to try my hand at loads of stuff.
Pretty happy!
The best of it is the place looks just right for me - they're all about folks looking to be project engineers and move up quickly. Also they have a wide array of industries they work in so I'll get to try my hand at loads of stuff.
Pretty happy!
Excellent!Cheers,
FT.
Karyn said:
GroundEffect said:
In a very short space of time things have turned around. I applied for a graduate job for a smaller company in Leicester last Friday, had a call from them on Monday morning (which actually woke me up...that was an original way to start an interview) which lasted 25 minutes as a basic prelim interview thing. Nice bunch of chaps. Then got a call back today asking to come down for an interview next Thursday with the Engineering Manager and International Engineering Manager from India. Fantastic.
The best of it is the place looks just right for me - they're all about folks looking to be project engineers and move up quickly. Also they have a wide array of industries they work in so I'll get to try my hand at loads of stuff.
Pretty happy!
Been reading this thread with interest.The best of it is the place looks just right for me - they're all about folks looking to be project engineers and move up quickly. Also they have a wide array of industries they work in so I'll get to try my hand at loads of stuff.
Pretty happy!
Sounds good, about the interview invite... I take it you're feeling pretty confident about this one, then, to be talking about working there already?
Remember, confidence is one thing, but it's a fine line 'twixt that and arrogance.
It sounds promising, for sure. Glad it seems to be such a good fit for you, as well - that's an under-estimated part of job hunting; whether you'll integrate and operate well with the environment, people and processes there.
I just had vague "internet concern" for you that you might inadverently have an "This job is as good as mine" attitude for the interview, which is probably less humble than you'd want to aim for...
Hope it goes well for you... maybe read this thread through again just before you go in...
I just had vague "internet concern" for you that you might inadverently have an "This job is as good as mine" attitude for the interview, which is probably less humble than you'd want to aim for...
Hope it goes well for you... maybe read this thread through again just before you go in...
Yeah I'm consciously stopping myself from thinking I'm set. I know from past experience that I can cock things up. I've been running over in my head all day at my temp job what I could say to them given any specific questions. I got no sleep last night either because of it.
I really want this job
I really want this job
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