<p>What questions should I expect from entry-level engineering position interview?</p>
<p>Are they actually going to ask me very technical questions we learned from dynamics, thermo, heat transfer, fluid, what-not?</p>
<p>I performed fairly well in each of these classes... but i have no idea if i can answer questions if they ask me on the spot w/o any txtbooks...</p>
<p>all of my tests were open books anyway... and we had to take cumulative exam only during the end of the year</p>
<p>shooooot.... im really worried because i have interviews with very <em>prestigious</em> companies but dunno how to prepare for them if they are going to ask me any technical questions....</p>
<p>I know for internships and coops they don't ask you about anything technical that you learned in your classes. They will just ask the 'typical' interview questions (e.g. What is your biggest weakness?, Name a time when you were a leader, etc.) Besides, most of the people interviewing you will be the HR type, and they know nothing about the concepts you learned in your engineering classes.</p>
<p>It really depends on the size of the company. I used to work for a 50 person office and two project managers and one project interviewed me, not an HR person. For entry-level position applicants, they ask a few technical questions as well to get an idea of their background.</p>
<p>Some companies DO ask technical questions. I heard of some structural engineering firm giving interviewees short quizzes during the actual interview.</p>
<p>I've also heard of plenty of companies just asking the typical questions. It really varies from company to company and there's no rule of thumb on what to expect.</p>
<p>ken, what type of technical questions do they ask?</p>
<p>I mean, on what subjects would they normally ask? (among thermo, fluids, mechanics, etc)</p>
<p>4 years of cumulative knowledge just seems so overwhelming... especially w/o books this time... it seems harder than preparing for a cumulative final exam....</p>
<p>They usually asked questions specific to the field that they work in. Structural engineering firms asked structural analysis questions. Traffic engineering firms asked traffic engineering questions. It also depends on what the position is; one of the companies was looking for a part-time CAD monkey so they asked CAD questions.</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry too much about it. They usually just want to know that you know the fundamentals because in practice, you'll have references for all the obscure things.</p>
<p>When I interviewed with General Dynamics as a sophomore, I didn't have any technical questions, rather broad questions. I'm an EE and the guy asked me basic CS questions, such as "What is polymorphism?" "Define Object-Oriented-Programming"</p>
<p>The other guys (juniors/seniors) told me the had some technical questions. One of the guy was getting into the digital signals processing group - they said the engineers KILLED him with questions. </p>
<p>It depends on your level. If it's a good company, they'll most likely interview you and prescreen you, to make sure you understand the fundamentals.</p>
<p>Also, I agree with the post above. They interview you for the project/position you'll be undertaking. If you're going to be working as a circuit designer, I doubt they'd ask you something about efficiencies of algorithms when developing software. Get it? You'd better know the basics, such as voltage divider, current divider, op-amps, high/low pass filters, etc for the circuit designer job.</p>
<p>They will not ask technical questions for entry level / internship. If they do, it will be really easy and you can answer it. The answer doesn't matter, the way you come to an answer does matter. They want to see how you think and solve problems, not how well you memorize stuff from class. They may ask funny questions like "how many gas station are there in your area?".</p>
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They will not ask technical questions for entry level / internship.
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I wouldn't say that's a hard fact, as others and I have seen otherwise, but I think most won't ask technical memorization questions. When they do ask technical questions, they're probably more interested in the process in solving the problem. When you're hiring an engineer, I think it's a good idea to test basic concepts, but perhaps put an interesting spin on the question to make it hard. As an interviewer, you'll see the thought process of the interviewee.</p>
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They may ask funny questions like "how many gas station are there in your area?".
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A while back, I read "How Would You Move Mount Fuji" by William Poundstone, which is about these type of interviews. It's more or less a collection of questions like these and the idea behind these type of interviews. Most of them have no right answer or they don't expect you know the right answer, such as "If you could remove any of the 50 states, which one would you remove and why?" The book's pretty interesting and I highly recommend it for anybody with some free time on their hands.</p>
<p>In an interview I just had, the lady spent a ton of time just talking about the company and projects, and then asked me if I had questions (I had brought a list and she was impressed). No real questions for me though...and definitely not anything technical. She did ask what textbooks I used for the courses that related to the job though.</p>
<p>I was asked to sketch out a circuit in one interview. I think they used this question as a crude screening mechanism.</p>
<p>A fellow I worked with asked interviewees to provide the meaning of a whole list of acronyms. Another fellow computed interviewee sub-grade point averages for certain classes. The department had been taken over by a bunch of bleeps, hired by the chief bleep. Rather than judge character or important knowledge, they asked STUPID questions. You can tell a lot about a company during an interview.</p>
<p>well most of the small companies use their employees (as engineers) to interview people. These are not trained as interviewers, they are just regular engineers.</p>