Barrel Washer Interview Preparation Guide

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Unlike the question above which involves more problem solving, this question can reveal a good deal about your personality. Do you find water plus shelter immediately? Do you call for help? Do you look for survivors? If your reaction is to go off on your own immediately, it can show that you’re more of a lone wolf, whereas if your reaction is to look for help right away, it may suggest you’re unafraid to ask for help.

Candidates should talk about a real weakness they've been working on improving. For instance, they're not good at public speaking, but they've been taking a course to help them improve. Or maybe they feel that they're easily distracted when working online, but have installed software that helps them stay on task. Answers like these show a desire for improvement, self awareness and discipline.

The candidate has clear reasons for wanting the job that show enthusiasm for the work and the position, and knowledge about the company and job.

To become maintenance and repair worker you must know

☛ Basic calculation
☛ Safety practices and handling tools
☛ Basic plumbing repair skills
☛ Basic knowledge of electrical wiring
☛ Ability to decipher written or oral instructions
☛ Physical agility
☛ Able to lift and move heavy objects

While doing gas welding worker should

☛ Should wear proper protective before doing gas welding
☛ Valve protection caps should be in a secured place
☛ When cutting is done, they should be secured on a pallet or springboard
☛ Cylinder should be transported in a vertical situation
☛ For lifting cylinders, valve protection caps shall not be used for lifting from one vertical position to another
☛ Oxygen and fittings shall be kept away from oil or grease
☛ Any faulty or defective equipment should be reported to the supervisor

☛ Inspect the structures and identify the cause of the problem
☛ Fix the broken parts and giving final finishing touch to repair and construct repairs
☛ Sound knowledge of using hand and power tools like wrenches, hammers and screwdrivers
☛ Repair and maintain system that control the temperature
☛ Monitor the work orders and repair jobs accordingly
☛ Read catalogs, blueprints and manuals
☛ Check prices with suppliers
☛ Estimate costs of a job
☛ Do almost all types of maintenance work

The most important thing is that anyone applying for any position should be well experienced in the field that he/she is applying for.

The interviewer knows that nobody knows how many windows are in Seattle. However, the reason why these kinds of questions get asked is to see how you think on your feet. Do you become flustered? Do you try to answer in a practical way? If you get one of these questions, relax. Take a moment. And try to answer in a logical way.
It doesn’t matter if you’re way off. What matters is that you remained calm, and answered pragmatically.
For instance, estimate how many windows are in Seattle by guessing the population of Seattle. From that infer the number of households and vehicles. And then guess the price of how much it would cost for one window—maybe $10 per window. The rest is simple math. Again, it’s not your answer that matters. It’s how you come about it.

One that shows they've done research on the company, and are truly excited about specific things they can do at the job. This not only shows enthusiasm for the work and basic preparation skills, gives you clues about the cultural fit.

Brainteaser questions have become popular for interviews in recent years, as word has gotten out that top tech companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft and IBM have used this type of question at one time or another.

Companies like Google aren't using these questions so much any more, but many companies, are, and it may be good to prepare for them. The key to these isn't so much getting the exact answer, as it is showing how you would come up with an answer.

Here's a sample of 12 of the best and most difficult.

1. How many street lights are there in New York City?

2. How many gas stations are there in the United States?

3. How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?

4. How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?

5. Why are manhole covers round?

6. How many times a day does a clock's hands overlap?

7. How would you test a calculator?

8. Describe the internet to someone who just woke up from a 30-year coma.

9. How much does the Starbucks in Times Square bring in, in annual revenue?

10. You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and thrown into a blender. Your mass is reduced so that your density is the same as usual. The blades start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?

11. What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow? ;)

12. How many golf balls are there in Florida?

Sometimes people want a job a little too bad - and they may fudge their credentials and experience a bit.

If you've run into this problem, are worried about it, or have credentials and experience that are absolutely essential, you may need to ask a few verification questions.

If you are a candidate, you should review your resume and make sure you know all the key points, and that nothing has been misconstrued.


1. What grades did you get in college?

2. What were your responsibilities when you worked in job x?

3. How many people were on your team at your last job?

4. What will your previous manager/supervisor say when I ask where you needed to improve?

5. What was your beginning and ending salary at job x?

6. What were your beginning and ending titles at job x?

7. Are you eligible for rehire at job x?

8. What tools are necessary for performing job x?

9. Describe to me how you would perform [x typical job task].

10. What was the focus of your thesis?

11. When did you leave company x?

Some jobs require employees to work under stress, and some interviewers just like to see how applicants handle stressful questions.

There are many questions designed for putting the interviewee into an awkward situation, or throwing them off, to see how they do under stress. Here are some samples.

1. How do you feel this interview is going?

2. How would you handle undeserved criticism from a superior?

3. How many other jobs are you applying for?

4. What would you do if you saw a colleague stealing supplies or equipment?

5. What did you do when you had a boss you didn’t get along with?

6. What would you do if a colleague took credit for your idea, and got a promotion?

7. Was the stress of your previous job too much for you?

8. What would you do if a colleague admitted to lying on their resume to get the job?

9. What would you do if a customer verbally insulted you in front of co-workers?

10. What would you change about the design of a baseball hat?

11. Why were you fired from your previous job?

12. How successful do you think you've been so far?

Behavioral interviews where popularized by industrial psychologists in the 1970s, and have been used at big companies like AT&T. The idea behind them is that past responses to situations are the best predictor of how candidates will respond in the future.


1. Tell me about a time you faced a conflict while working as part of a team.

2. Talk about a goal you set for yourself. What did you do to make sure you met the goal?

3. Give an example of a time when you had to work with someone with a very different personality from yours.

4. Talk about an instance where you wish you’d handled a situation differently with a team member.

5. What’s the most difficult problem you have had to solve?

6. Give an example of how you handled a situation where you needed information from a colleague who wasn’t responsive.

7. Talk about a time when you had problems building a relationship with a key team member. What did you do?

8. Tell me about an instance when it was important to make a great impression on a client. What did you do?

9. Tell me about a situation where you had to work with a difficult client.

10. Tell me about a situation where you disappointed a client, and how you tried to fix it.

11. Talk about a time when you had to strategize to meet all your obligations.

12. Talk about a time when you failed at something. How did you react?

13. Talk about a time you took on a leadership role.

14. Tell me about a long-term project you oversaw. How did you keep it focused and on schedule?

15. Talk about a time when you were under a lot of stress. What caused it, and how did you manage?

16. Do you prefer to work alone or with others?

17. Tell me about a time when you were overwhelmed by the amount of work on your agenda. How did you handle it?

For most jobs, communication skills are important. It's hard to work as a team if people aren't communicating well.

At some jobs, like customer service or sales, communication skills are an absolute essential.

These questions are meant to help gauge a candidate's ability to communicate.

1. How do you prefer to build rapport with others?

2. How would you go about simplifying a complex issue in order to explain it to a client or colleague?

3. How would you go about persuading someone to see things your way at work?

4. How would you go about explaining a complex idea/problem to a client who was already frustrated?

5. What would you do if you there was a breakdown in communication at work?

6. Talk about a successful presentation you gave and why you think it did well.

7. How would you explain a complicated technical problem to a colleague with less technical understanding?

8. Do you prefer written or verbal communication?

9. Describe a time when you had to be careful talking about sensitive information. How did you do it?

10. What would you do if you misunderstood an important communication on the job?

11. Talk about a time when you made a point that you knew your colleagues would be resistant to.

12. Is it more important to be a good listener or a good communicator?

13. Tell me about a time you had to relay bad news to a client or colleague.

14. Rate your communication skills on a scale of 1 to 10. Give examples of experiences that demonstrate the rating is accurate.

15. How have you handled working under someone you felt was not good at communicating?

EQ is the ability to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, to recognize other people's emotions and your own, and to discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately.

EQ is considered essential to help teams function well. Here are some of the top questions for help you get an idea of how candidates perceive their emotions and those of others.

1. If you started a company today, what would its top values be?

2. Who inspires you? Why?

3. How could you create more balance in your life?

4. What makes you angry?

5. How do you have fun?

6. How good are you at asking for help?

7. How did you deal with a bad day?

8. What's something you're really proud of? Why?

9. Tell me about a time when your mood altered your performance (positively or negatively).

10. Has there ever been a time when you felt you needed to change your behavior at work? How did you do it?

11. Did you create friendships that lasted while working at a previous job?

Situational interviews are similar to behavioral interview questions - but they are focused on the future, and ask hypothetical questions, whereas behavioral interview questions look at the past.

The advantage is that employers can put all candidates in the same hypothetical situations, and compare their answers.


1. What would you do if you made a strong recommendation in a meeting, but your colleagues decided against it?

2. How you would handle it if your team resisted a new idea or policy you introduced?

3. How would you handle it if the priorities for a project you were working on were suddenly changed?

4. What would you do if the work of an employee you managed didn't meet expectations?

5. What would you do if an important task was not up to standard, but the deadline to complete it had passed?

6. What steps would you take to make an important decision on the job?

7. How would you handle a colleague you were unable to form a positive relationship with?

8. What would you do if you disagreed with the way a manager wanted you to handle a problem?

9. What would you do if you were assigned to work with a difficult client?

10. What would you do if you worked hard on a solution to a problem, and your solution was criticized by your team?

11. How would you handle working closely with a colleague who was very different from you?

12. You're working on a key project that you can't complete, because you're waiting on work from a colleague. What do you do?

13. You realize that an early mistake in a project is going to put you behind deadline. What do you do?

To become general maintenance worker the individual should learn some basic skills in high school or technical classes, community college or postsecondary trade of vocational schools. Student aspire to become maintenance worker can also observe and learn maintenance skill.

Tools used by road maintenance worker are

☛ Swiss hammer
☛ Drills
☛ Jackhammers
☛ Road-rollers
☛ Epoxy guns
☛ Chain drags
☛ Pressure washers
☛ Sand blasters, Saws, etc.

While doing welding, workers should follow the rules like

☛ Respirator or welders mask: Use mask or respirators as per your projects, match the filter to the types of metals and coatings used
☛ Ventilation: Welding area should have proper ventilation; improper ventilation can cause “plume poisoning.”
☛ Clean and tidy area: Make sure the area you working is clean and check for any leaks
☛ Storage: Flammable substance should be kept in a proper storage locker
☛ Eye protection: Eye protection can protect against injuries due to debris and the effects of the ultraviolet light
☛ Fire protection: The sparks from welding can set fire, proper fire extinguisher should be kept in reach of the welding area
☛ Protective clothing: Body parts like hands and legs should be a cover with protective and clothes which can bear heat and spark emitted from the welding

I was basically asked if I could work in a fast-paced work environment and if I could do stuff like picking up heavy bus tubs etc.

Carpentry maintenance worker does many things like

☛ Assist in measuring, marking and arranging materials according to blue-print
☛ Cuts and shapes materials such as wood, fiberglass and drywall manually as well as with power tools
☛ Assists with the repairing and constructing miscellaneous items of the wooden structure
☛ Assisting with replacing of floors, wall sidings, doors, etc.
☛ Installation of partitions, doors and walls
☛ Assisting with the erection of scaffolding
☛ Inspect wooden structure and build forms for pouring concrete

It was mostly pretty slow throughout the work days because fewer customers paid visit during the week days. It was fast-paced during the weekends though.

Psychological risk arises from

☛ Excessive workloads
☛ Psychological harassment by third party
☛ Conflicting demand and lack of communication
☛ Lack of role clarity
☛ Lacking decision-making skill
☛ Poorly managed organization
☛ Working in overtime

The most likeable part was, with absolute certainty, the discounts that the employees got courtesy of working there. For instance we got discounted meals or even free meals. We also got discounts on the things that we bought in the gift shop, which was a part of the Cracker Barrel.

The precaution measures taken at the working site is

☛ Overhead and side clearances are adequate to permit the safe operation of the lift truck
☛ Aisles, floors and passageways should be kept clear and free of hazards
☛ To avoid the accumulation of vapours from the refueling and operation of its lift trucks, workplace should be adequately ventilated