Phone Interview

BlackEdelweiss

I have a phone interview with an engineering firm down under on monday night for a graduate position. It is my first interview, I had an initial interview with the recruitment guy but this is my first with an actual engineer.
What kind of points should I emphasize, I have no experience apart from an unrelated stint with McNamarra construction before they went bust. Should I go over things I have done on my course or should I read up about current trends. I am sure the answer is both but I just dont know what kind of questions to expect.

CatFromHue

Have your C.V. and any job description out in front of you at the time.

I'd go over your C.V. and know it really well yourself. For example if you have a section where you listed any projects you've done (Final Year Project possibly) then have read over the project so if you're asked any questions on it you'd be able to answer. I'd be surprised if you weren't asked anything about your FYP. Even if not you can use it for other questions e.g. have you ever designed anything and had it made? or have you ever started and completed a design project?

I wouldn't discount your McNamarra experience either. If I were interviewing someone (I never have by the way) I'd definitely ask them about any industrial experience they have. It's certainly no harm to spend a few mins thinking back over what you did there and writing out a few bullet points about it.

It's certainly no harm in having a look into current trends but I wouldn't spend too long at it they'll know you won't have too much knowledge in this area. If in the job description it says they need you do stress calculations for example it would be a good idea to look over some basic question yourself.

And of course tell everyone in the house you're doing a phone interview so there won't be any Metalica blaring in the background :pac:

breadmonkey

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

I have a phone interview with an engineering firm down under on monday night for a graduate position. It is my first interview, I had an initial interview with the recruitment guy but this is my first with an actual engineer.
What kind of points should I emphasize, I have no experience apart from an unrelated stint with McNamarra construction before they went bust. Should I go over things I have done on my course or should I read up about current trends. I am sure the answer is both but I just dont know what kind of questions to expect.

The key here is to put some time into anticipating what questions they will ask and formulate sensible answers that demonstrate your suitability for the role.

Here are a few common ones from my own experience to get you going:

1. Tell us a bit about yourself.
Guaranteed first question. I used to say how I studied X degree at X university, developed an interest in <whatever related to this job spec> throughout the course which was reflected in my subject choices etc. and now here I am wanting to work for you wonderful people.

2. What interests you about <the work you will be doing>?
This is a bit too specific to formulate a generic answer

3. Why do you want to work for us?
Your interesting projects plus the opportunities for career development etc. etc. You must show here that you have done a lot of research on this company specifically.

4. What are your strengths?
My strong technical abilites as demonstrated by X as well as an ability to effectively communicate and work in a team as demonstrated by Y....etc. etc.

...you get the idea. Spend a few minutes Googling and you'll find plenty of questions to work your way through. Formulate your answers to highlight your good qualities with reference to specific examples. They will definitely ask how you're feeling about moving to Oz etc. so prepare something about that.

I find it's a good idea to actually write the answers down and to also say them out loud. This way you can be confident that you can form an eloquent resposne rather than a muddled bunch of ideas that you never fully ironed out into a coherent answer!

You say the interview is with an engineer - are you absolutely sure about this? It will have a huge impact on the type of questions you may be asked.

How did you go about contacting this recruiter by the way? I'm thinking of making the move myself next year and was under the impression that recruiters wouldn't be interested unless I was in the country.

BlackEdelweiss

Thanks for those replies, they are just what I am looking for. I will make good use of your advice.
The guy I had the first interview with was from the companies recruitment dept, fairly high up from what I can see. He did the initial interview and asked a lot of the questions like why this company etc but it was all very informal at the same time. He got back to me a few days later and asked would I be free to talk to two of the senior engineers next week, I checked their linkedin profiles and they seem to be the department heads.

I just got the guys email address on the internet and sent him an email with a copy of my C.V. and cover letter. I have sent out about 120 such emails so I was bound to get a positive reply from one of them.

JRant

Try and prepare yourself for a couple of technical questions as well. Do a bit of research on the type of work they do and try to anticipate a couple of basic tech questions you may be asked. If they are a power company, some power factor question may come up. If they are a comms company know how to calculate bandwidth or other such questions. They are usually not that difficult as they sometimes want to just see how you react under a little bit of pressure to a relatively simple question. Although I recently had one question put to me during an interview for a work placement position to solve a fourier series on a whiteboard in front of the panel :eek:

breadmonkey

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

Thanks for those replies, they are just what I am looking for. I will make good use of your advice.
The guy I had the first interview with was from the companies recruitment dept, fairly high up from what I can see. He did the initial interview and asked a lot of the questions like why this company etc but it was all very informal at the same time. He got back to me a few days later and asked would I be free to talk to two of the senior engineers next week, I checked their linkedin profiles and they seem to be the department heads.

I just got the guys email address on the internet and sent him an email with a copy of my C.V. and cover letter. I have sent out about 120 such emails so I was bound to get a positive reply from one of them.

What specifically is the job?

BlackEdelweiss

Fire safety engineer.

the_syco

REMEMBER;
They cannot see you nodding your head to things, so use verbal cues such as yes, ah-hah, etc.

This is very important, as otherwise when they're talking to you, they'll just hear silence from you, whilst at the other end of the phone you're nodding your head :pac:

BlackEdelweiss

I was doing a bit of that the first time, it feels a bit put on but it is better than dead silence coming from my end and them wondering if I have got cut off or something.

Harps

Any update on how the interview went? I've been applying for fire safety jobs in the UK, no luck so far but assuming I'd have to do a phone interview it'd be useful to have an idea of the sort of questions to expect

BlackEdelweiss

The phone interviews went well, they are flying me to London on Tuesday to meet the office boss. I havent been offered the job officially but more of less, they discussed salary, relocation costs etc.
They seem to be short of fire engineers in NZ.

Harps

Congratulations on the job, a bit too big a step for me at the moment but good to know there's a shortage out there somewhere as I've found next to no fire engineering jobs here that don't require experience

If you don't mind me asking, were you asked any technical questions about fire safety standards, regulations, any maths questions etc.? I've never done a phone interview so a bit clueless as to what to expect

BlackEdelweiss

No technical questions asked at all, they were going to line up a 3rd phone interview that was going to be a technical interview but then they asked me to come to London instead which I am sickened they did as it is costing me a fortune on trains and buses etc, they said they would pay for the flights but they never mentioned getting to and from the airport and around London. A quick chat on the phone would have suited me down to the ground.

BlackEdelweiss

The London interview went well but they want me to do one last technical interview with the main fire engineer in Christchurch. This was meant to be done before London but dident for some reason. I'm still not sure what to expect from a technical interview but I seem to have passed all the personality checks so far so I am hoping this goes well.

tigerballs

good luck

BlackEdelweiss

I got the job anyway. Thanks to everybody for all the interview tips, a few of them came in handy.

CatFromHue

Fair play and best of luck. I presume it was Christchurch job you took??

BlackEdelweiss

That interview process was for the Christchurch job but I havent officially accepted either job yet. The small company were all for it last week and the boss wrote me an email telling me what I would be doing within the company etc but I havent heard from them since I replied to her 7 days ago. I'm not sure what the story with them is now. Its all a bit strange. I dont want to accept one job without finding out exactly what both are offering so I am giving them until tomorrow to reply and then I will just accept the Chch job if I havent heard anything back.

BlackEdelweiss

Ive been another job in a smaller company in a small town now and was going to accept this job. It just dosent have the dangerous earthquake threat associated with Christchurch. It wouldent bother me but if I have the choice to bring my kids to an active earthquake zone or a nice peaceful town where the jobs, salaries etc are all the same I dont see it as much of a choice.

My problem now is that the boss from the small company went on holidays the day she sent me my offer and contract and is away until 2nd August, I already have the contract from the big company but I am slightly reluctant to reject it until I have talked further with the other boss. I have no questions or worries about the other job I want to accept but I would just like to have discussed it and made it more final before rejecting the other one. I got the other contract this day last week and feel if I am not going to take it I should let them know as soon as possible so they can get things moving with their next person.

The big company dont know about the small company so they are probably wondering what the hold up is now, they have been very good to me so far and I dont want to mess them about. SHould I just email them and tell them I am taking the other job or should I tell them about the other offer and ask for a few days more to think about things?

CatFromHue

The earthquake situation is a tricky one and if you have kids i can understand your concerns. Bare in mind that NZ is a fairly active place in general:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7215025/Deep-7-0-earthquake-felt-widely
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7239443/5-7-earthquake-near-Turangi

BlackEdelweiss

I know nowhere in NZ is completely safe from earthquakes but Christchurch life is so affected on a day to day basis that it is hard to ignore, especially when I can work in a similar job in a place that is relatively unaffected as yet by any natural disasters. It is not so much what the future could bring as what is happening at the minute.