Technical Interview Questions
If you’re an engineer and going in for an interview, be warned that they may ask you some technical questions to assess your knowledge and skill. Let’s talk about how you can prepare for and approach these types of questions. While my examples in this post will be related to structural engineering (because this is my own background), these tips can still be applied to other technical fields.
Ask Your Peers: If you want examples of technical questions that you might be asked, the best way is to ask your peers for example questions they received. The chances are slim that you’ll be asked the exact same questions as your peers, but it can be a nice way to get a ballpark idea of the types of questions that might be asked. What questions did I get asked? Great question. The questions I got asked are sprinkled in with the tips below. So, if you really want to know, I guess you have to keep reading to find out...
Talk It Out: Similar to showing your work in school, talking it out is the only way to get partial credit on these technical interview questions. Try to bring up any key concepts while you discuss the answer to demonstrate your knowledge base. For example, let’s say that you’re asked about a pier you designed. You discuss your design criteria, assumptions, references used, programs used, and maybe even constructability. Then to test your knowledge of concepts a little further, let’s say they ask you which piles would see the greatest lateral load. You could explain that the mudline slopes down from one end to the other. The piles with greater unbraced lengths above the mudline are more flexible. On the flip side, the piles with shorter unbraced lengths above the mudline are stiffer. If we think of the piles as essentially springs in parallel, then the the stiffer piles would see a greater share of the lateral loads. The idea is to show your work by working through the problem and discussion the greater concepts.
If You Have No Clue: So you have no clue what the answer is. Honestly, most of the time, this is totally chill. Seeing as the P.E. exam is open book, I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone who thinks engineers should know everything off the top of their head. But don’t give up on answering the question too easily. Instead, use it as an opportunity to show how you’d approach a problem on the job. Maybe the interviewer asks you to draw the reinforcement in a T-wall. Well, if you said, “I think it would look something like this, but I’m not certain. I do know that I could find the answer in ACI-318.” Or if you don’t know the reference, you could say, “I don’t know the answer to this question. But if I were given this problem on the job, I would take 5 to 10 minutes to google ‘concrete reinforcement building code’ in order to find the appropriate references. Once I found a lead to go on, I would ask a coworker for a quick sanity check before I proceeded with my approach. If I were not able to find an appropriate reference or get feedback from a coworker within a reasonable timeframe, I would approach my supervisor for additional guidance.” The idea is that you may not know the answer to every question, but you’re trying to prove to the interviewer that you’re competent and self-reliant enough to be able to perform the job in real life.
Know Your Basics: You can bulls*** your way out of most questions, but there are some questions you should immediately know the answer to. These are questions that are so basic that if you don’t know the answer straight away, no amount of talking through will convince the interviewer that you’re fit for the job. For example, if you’re a structural engineer and you can’t tell me that the maximum bending moment of a simply supported beam with uniform live load is w*l^2/8… “That’s a dealbreaker ladies!” If you’re qualified for the job you're going for, this really should not keep you up at night. But if you’re really worried about it, use tip #1 and ask your peers for what they would consider a dealbreaker-type question.
Good luck to those of you going out for interview! Note that it does get easier. Not just because practice makes perfect. But because the older and more experienced you get, the less likely you’ll be asked technical questions during your interview.