by: Tracy Kinken

Whether you are the interviewee or the interviewer it is important that you are prepared for the big event. In addition to testing technical skills, many interview questions try to determine a person's motivation and purpose, project management skills, personality and cultural fit and problem solving ability. Here are a few examples of interview questions and the reasons behind them.

Question: How do you envision the development of your engineering career over the next few years?
Background: The interviewer wants to know if the candidate has thought through possible career options in engineering and about skills or new experiences that he or she would like to acquire in the next few years based on past or current positions. They also want to see if the candidate has taken the time to flesh out what he or she really wants to accomplish as an engineer, be it in research, design, or some specialized field. The interviewer needs to know if their company can provide the opportunities to satisfy the candidate's career aspirations.

Question: Tell me about a situation where it was difficult to remain objective.
Background: This question is asked in order to find out if the candidate takes work situations personally; that is, will the candidate become offended if his or her ideas or concepts do not become reality? The interviewer is trying to see if the candidate can distinguish his or her feelings about how a project should proceed from what is actually best for the company.

Question: How do you organize and plan for major projects?
Background: Hiring managers are looking for the candidate to tell them how he or she handled major projects. How did he or she organize and plan them? The hiring manager is trying to evaluate whether the candidate can do things on the fly or if he or she needs a rigid, structured environment. Some people think and plan on the fly; others need structure and a step-by-step methodology for planning out a project. They are trying to determine if the candidate's method of accomplishing a task fits with the department/company and as a boss if they are comfortable with the method.

Question: What would your last supervisor say about your initiative?
Background: The hiring manager is looking for the candidate to describe situations in which he or she eagerly jumped in and rolled up his or her sleeves to get into a project or other assignment. This question attempts to determine how willing the candidate is to be first in line to contribute.

Question: How did the realities differ from your expectations in your previous job?
Background: The question probes the candidate's assessment of his or her skills in terms of their last job and events that actually took place on a day-to- day basis. When describing the daily/weekly tasks the interviewer is checking to see if the tasks matched what they anticipated before taking the job and whether the candidate is realistic in terms of what actually took place on the job.

Question: What type of people do you work with most effectively?
Background: The interviewer wants the candidate to describe the kinds of people, including co-workers and bosses that they like to work with on a daily basis. They are looking to see it the candidate's answers reflect the company's attitude and approach to managing people (structured or hands-off approach).

Question: Tell me about the most interesting project you successfully completed.
Background: This question tests depth of engineering knowledge and experience with various engineering projects. Specific projects should be discussed, including new skills or insights that were acquired as a result of working on that project. Based on past projects interviewers are also interested in finding out what new projects the candidate wants to tackle.

Question: Have you had any experience supervising other engineers?
Background: The question tries to determine how the candidate relates to other engineers who report to him or her, and what techniques they use to motivate other engineers. Interviewers also want to investigate whether the candidate has experienced any problems or situations in which they had trouble managing a group of engineers. And, if so, under what circumstances.