<p>Okay so you like those things. Do you think that helps you relate to the interviewer? Do you not have any other interests? On questions like that your number one goal should be to be relatable if possible, and if not, try to make sure you explain yourself in such a way that doesn’t make you seem completely antisocial.</p>
<p>On the outside of school question, just like boneh3ad said, they are trying to get to know you. They do not want to hire a number (3.93 GPA), but the person behind it. My typical answer is I like going to the gym to workout, huge college football fan, hanging out with friends and I like skimboarding. Shows them I have a life outside of school which is what they want, they don’t want some overly over thought answer.</p>
<p>Google common interview questions, there are tons online. Most entry level interview questions branch from the same main things like teamwork, personality, technical skils etc. </p>
<p>People have a hard time coming up with answers on the spot, it’s OK to take a while to think about a question. It’s better then rushing into one and spewing out nonsense. </p>
<p>Not to hijack the thread, but there are “wrong” answers to the outside school life question. I have found certain recruiters at desirable companies are really put off if you tell them something along the lines of </p>
<p>“I spend my free time outside of school with my career oriented wife and young child when I’m not busy fixing up the house I own.”</p>
<p>The interviewer will think all those things mean it won’t be easy for you to relocate on a whim and you likely won’t want to work overtime, whether or not these are true.</p>
<p>Instead give the recruiter the impression that you socialize well with others, are healthy, and are a lifelong learner. For example, aside from taking off the wedding band during interviews(if applicable), tell them you enjoy going out to do xyz specific activities with your friends, such as happy hour, hiking/fishing/camping, hitting up the latest blockbuster movie, etc. Also indicate you are an avid reader, anything from pop culture (game of thrones) to technical journals (if you’re applying to a more research/tech oriented business).</p>
<p>Exxon recruiter asked me what is my least favorite classes? I answered Thermodynamics because the prof. was not helpful and there are too much theoretical material in that course. I did not realized how stupid I am to say that until my friend told me today. I guess because I took all of my irrelevant courses at community college and I only take my major courses at the university so the first answer comes up to my mind is one of my major courses that I took at university. I totally forgot about arts, history, and social class.
That is an example that I don’t know what I suppose to answer the question.</p>
<p>You don’t want to come off sounding one-dimensional. It’s cliche for an engineer to say they didn’t like art/history/sociology, etc. Also you don’t want to bash professors, that’s an indication you could bash your boss if they don’t meet your standards.</p>
<p>Instead, emphasize a class where you felt held back or unchallenged. Then follow up with, “so I took a tougher/higher level class” to show you took concrete action to challenge yourself instead of just whining.</p>
<p>^
Very helpful advise. I thank you so much for that. Also do you have any advise for me to get the interview appointment when I talk to the recruiters? I talked to several recruiters and no one called me back to offer me the interviews. My typical introduction is like " Hi! my name is … I am a senior chemical engineering at UT, I am looking for co-op or internship opportunities. I am ready to do them in January. I am interesting in process control and reactor. Do you have anything to offer me?"</p>
<p>Do you think that Engineering Expo in Spring will offer more opportunities since most students look for intern in the summer?</p>
<p>I always had the most success with, “Hi, my name is ____ and I was interested in your ______ programs.”</p>
<p>Contrary to the advice of quite a lot of “experts” on the topic, it pays to be direct.</p>
<p>Indeed be direct. I got some very honest and informative answers from recruiters at the fall job fair when I opened with “Hi, are you hiring aerospace engineers?” Note that none of those interactions led to an interview; because most companies weren’t hiring aerospace majors :-p</p>
<p>You sound like a good candidate, and we want to help you. But truly the best relevant advise will come from your campus resources. Start spending some time researching options in person at the the career center, even if there are web options available.</p>
<p>One more time…BE HONEST.</p>
<p>^
I was being honest when I answered those questions.
When I said " I made up stuff", I meant that I tried to relate my answer to the question awkwardly in a way that it sounds like I made up stuff. Because I want to make my answer sounds more interesting.
But thank you for your advise. </p>
<p>Resumes, on the other hand, need to be the kind of document that don’t outright lie, but that give the recruiter exactly what they want to see. You can and should explain any strange circumstances during the interview, after you’ve passed the initial screening process (i.e. after they didn’t already throw away your resume for some small potentially questionable detail).</p>
<p>To reinforce what @NeoDymium said about resumes, if you’re ever at a job fair or info session and the recruiter is taking resumes/CV’s, pay attention to what they underline/circle on your resume (approximate by relative position if you can’t see exactly). </p>
<p>Case in point, programming languages used to be an afterthought toward the bottom on my resume. After noticing that was one section that kept getting circled, I moved it to the 3rd line from the top, right after gpa and 3 different programming classes. Just yesterday the recruiter from los alamos national labs immediately circled my gpa, then languages, then underlined two of the programming courses. </p>
<p>She skimmed (maybe 5 seconds) the rest but didn’t mark anything else including a prior engineering internship related to the work she does or any projects that flesh out application of programming languages; I don’t think she even made it all the way down to leadership/awards before looking up and telling me “everything looks great” and that I should email her after I apply to make sure I get to appropriate hiring manager.</p>
<p>Got a quick tangent question on resumes… would you suggest listing Matlab? </p>
<p>I notice DS omitted it on his resume. He’s short on space and will probably say, “No - all engineering students know Matlab” (much like he refused to include MS/Excel on his internship resumes… saying it was a base skill, like typing 30 years ago… I reluctantly agreed with his logic.) </p>
<p>I list it if only to increase keyword count. Same with excel.</p>
<p>Speaking from the perspective of an engineering manager, I would say to include Matlab but not Excel. I like to see Matlab on a resume.</p>
<p>Thanks for feedback on Matlab. Even if he can’t fit on the long skills list on resume, I think he should add it to LinkedIn.</p>
<p>I definitely agree on excluding Excel from senior Engineering resume. (I think it did help DD for Econ job). The reason I had suggested it for DS’s internship resumes (especially early year) was because I didn’t DS to look less qualified than other appilcants who did include it. </p>
<p>Now back to the OP’s issue… any new leads?</p>
<p>I have not heard anything from other companies.
However, I have another questions for you guys.
How important is it to have a good grammatical/writing skills in engineering? The reason I am asking is I have just received the feedback from my prof. about my lab report. In the feedback, he said that the grammatical issues make is impossible to read the content properly. It hurts my feeling, even though I know that I am not good at writing and it is even harder with English being my second language.
Do you have any suggestions to improve my writing skill and my English? What courses should I take to improve my communication skill?
One thing I realize is that my writing style is different from my classmates. When I write a project report, I like to talk about everything relating to the subject (sometime non important information) instead of going directly to the subject like my classmates do. So sometime I lost track and I forget what I am writing about. And I use “it” a lot assuming that the readers know what “it” I am referring to. I neglect the details of equipment and scientific nomenclature. For example, I would write " bacterial cell" instead of " E. coli cell". And sometime I have poor wording choice , such as “organism” instead of “bacteria”. My professor commented that E. coli is not an organism like a giraffe 
</p>
<p>It is extremely important to have good grammatical writing and editing skills in most jobs. My husband is an electrical engineer and a large part of his job is writing and reviewing specifications for the customer-(usually the government contractor). If your English skills are weak, then that could be a large part of your problem. The programs have to be able to run correctly on the computer with the “fixes” incorporated in the supporting documents. As a second language speaker, it wont be a quick fix. You should practice writing prompts for different essay types. Good writing supports the topic. If you ramble, you lose your reader. </p>
<p>Grammar is very important - I tend to ignore people completely if their mechanical skills in writing are not near-perfect.</p>
<p>How to improve: well, you could take some English composition classes; doing a lot of writing, especially when you get feedback for it, is very useful. If you are somewhat proficient with English but need a few pointers, I recommend you pick up a copy of “The Elements of Style” - probably available in any book store, and costs the price of shipping if you buy it online.
<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/The-Elements-Style-Fourth-Edition/dp/020530902X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8”>http://www.amazon.com/The-Elements-Style-Fourth-Edition/dp/020530902X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8</a></p>
<p>100 short pages (it’s a tiny book), a very quick read, and it makes you a much better writer. But you have to be good enough at writing to benefit from it, i.e. know the basics.</p>