Trainee Engineer Interview Preparation Guide

Without getting into specifics, tell me how you overcame some of the challenges you faced while working on that project.

Engineers juggle multiple projects. Keeping projects on time and on budget is critical. Your interviewer wants to know that you have good organization skills so that when it gets busy, you’ll be able to manage the work

I think communication is essential to avoid mistakes, and can even help to spot them. During a recent project, I was having trouble understanding the feasibility of a technical drawing I’d been sent to work on. And because email chains can often get messy and confusing, I set up a face-to-face meeting with the team to talk it through. Not only did we manage to get on the same page, we also ended up catching a mistake, potentially saving hundreds of hours of the team’s time.

Here, the employer is determining your level of commitment. If your career is unplanned, they may consider your commitment to long-term positions less stable. Start with your earliest memory of interest in your chosen career, describe how you got from there to where you are today, have you taken part in any research? Any notable events?

Be relaxed and explain that you are looking for a company and role with the right fit, and that you are quite choosy when it comes to finding the ‘right job’. You may then need to answer what you believe the ‘right job’ entails.

Choose three or four characteristics and expand on why you think they’re important. You could also describe how a previous manager of yours displayed these qualities to good effect and how you learned from that example.

If you have group project experience, highlight it now. Focus on your role on a team and how you know how to be a team player. If there are classes with specific knowledge that directly prepared you for this role, you’re in luck, that’s another easy answer to this question.

You probably didn’t make a snap decision to major in your major. You likely chose it because you found it interesting, challenging, or thought it would lead to a promising career. The only key to answering this question is knowing why you chose your major and communicating that reasoning clearly. Be honest, even if your reasoning doesn’t seem interesting. It’s better to be honest to yourself and the employer up front than attempt to tell them what you think they want to hear.

Your answer should include: the way you listened to what the client had to say, confirmed an understanding of their concerns and subsequently took responsibility to resolve the situation by offering a solution, without going into too much detail about the specific complaint.

This is a good opportunity to discuss your methods and approaches to leadership and management. It’s also a good chance to provide an example of a time you really excelled when leading a team.

Discuss which methods you have used to inspire engagement amongst your workers, such as benefits, team spirit and a level of recognition for good work. It’s good to express an understanding of how people work best, and how these methods of encouragement often vary with different personality types.