Best Tips for an Engineering Interview – Get Hired
Engineering is a great career path, but landing your dream job takes patience, perseverance, and hard work. One of the final hurdles you have to clear is the interview process. To make this easier, we’ve compiled 10 of our favorite engineering interview tips below.
Engineering Interview Tips
- Research the Company. At the absolute minimum, you should be spending some time looking through your potential employer’s website to understand what it is they do.
- Practice Your Answers. Some interview questions are designed to catch you off guard, but others are fairly standard – “why do you want this job” and “tell me about yourself” are two great examples of the latter.
- Prepare Project Info. You are almost certainly going to be asked to talk about a previous engineering project. It’s a good idea to practice with a particular example in mind.
- Be Honest and Positive. Your engineering interview is about more than just evaluating your technical skills. Companies want to know if you’re a culture fit too. Negativity and dishonesty are major red flags.
- Dress to Impress. A suit is not always required for, but it is still important that your clothes and appearance are clean and presentable. It’s better to be overdressed than underdressed.
- Display Confidence. If the interviewer suspects that you lack confidence then why would he or she be confident in hiring you? Try to focus on aspects of the position you know you would be good in.
- Communicate Clearly. This is one of the most important engineering interview tips, as verbal communication is often the deciding factor between two technically competent, similarly skilled engineers.
- Establish Rapport with the Interviewer. Forming a personal connection with the person on the other side of the table can optimize your chances of getting hired, but be wary of oversharing.
- Remain Calm. At the end of the day, most engineering interviews are just two or three people sitting in a conference room having a discussion. Worst case? You don’t get hired and you schedule another interview with another company.
- End on a Positive Note. Ending on a positive note disproportionately informs how the interviewer views you as a candidate and can increase the likelihood that you get hired.
That’s our list. Some of these engineering interview tips are exclusive to engineers, while others can be applied to other fields. Have anything to add? Let us know in the comments.
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