<p>I am a senior who has one semester left of a civil engineering degree and have gotten several interviews. What I would like to know is what would be good answers to some of these interview questions. </p>
<p>Why did you choose civil engineering?</p>
<p>Why did you attend **** University?</p>
<p>What clubs/projects did you participate in?</p>
<p>Now the first two I have a general response, but I would just like to hear something that an employer would exactly like to hear. For the 3rd question I worry about because I was a slacker and didn't participate in any clubs, but I do have a good internship and a pretty solid GPA. If you have any interview questions that you would like to add I would be happy to hear them. Thanks</p>
<p>The only reason you should be worried in an interview is if you didn’t prepare an answer ahead of time. Whatever your faults are, you should be able to cover them up with a cleverly prepared answer which is both truthful and effective.</p>
<p>I don’t really think anyone’s ever asked me the first two questions, and I don’t recall ever being asked the third. The kinds of questions you should be concerned about are more along the lines of: “Why do you want to work here?” Or, “What kind of work do you want to do?”</p>
<p>Remember that the point of the interview is to learn what kind of person you are and whether or not you’ll be a good fit for the job. A lot of students on this forum mistakenly believe that the way to get a job is by amassing a bunch of merit badges (double majors, minors, extra-curriculars), but once you get to the face-to-face interview, those things simply become fodder for conversation.</p>
<p>I’ll just leave you with a few words of advice. First, be confident, but also be humble. As a new grad, no one expects you to know everything – and no one really wants to work with a new grad who thinks that he does. Express a desire to learn – I think intellectual curiosity is important in all engineers. Finally, if the interview includes a technical portion, don’t forget that the point of the technical questions is to learn about you (how you think, how you tackle problems). If you have immediate answers for all of the interviewer’s technical questions, the interviewer actually learns very little about you (other than the fact that you are well prepared) and may get annoyed. So my advice is that if you do know the answer, just keep talking. Tell them about how you learned the concept in school. Give them something.</p>
<p>what is a good way of knowing of how to be detailed yet concise: for example, how do i not keep rambling on an answer to an interviewer’s question? what are the cues to wrap it up, or lead discussion to a more suitable topic?</p>
<p>Chicago2 - Don’t sweat it. A good interviewer will guide the interview, so you don’t have to worry about “being detailed yet concise” and not “rambling”. A bad interviewer won’t guide you - but since they don’t know what they are doing - it’s stilll not your problem.</p>