To build on Graham and Kathryn's excellent answers, don't imagine the interviewers as university lecturers giving exam questions.

The interviewers are experienced engineers trying to confirm if you are working with the level of understanding and professional approach that you have claimed on your application. Often they will expect you to know more about a particular technical area then they do! What they are trying to do is two things:

One is to ensure that you do really understand the areas you claim to do in your application - after all, you might not have been telling the truth, or at least exaggerating your role in your application. So if you said in your application and your presentation "I managed this part of the project", be prepared to be asked "what did you actually do?" Because you could have taken detailed technical decisions, or you could have made sure the project kept to time and budget, or you could (as I once had from a job interview applicant) just driven the equipment from one place to another!

The other is to explore any areas of your application which the panels thought was weak on paper. Sometimes candidates do not give all the information they could have done. So this is a good opportunity for them to find out if your application was weak because you actually don't have that experience, or whether you do but had just not put it down clearly. So as Graham and Kathryn have said, do make sure you can demonstrate your competence in any of the areas A-E, you may be asked about any of them.

So don't revise technical answers - either you are already using them in your work and you know them, or you aren't and you don't. The interviewers will spot immediately if you've tried to learn facts just to pass the interview. Just be honest about what you know and what you don't know. And If they ask something technical you don't know the answer to be prepared to think about either a) why you don't need to know it for your work or b) how are planning to find it out.

But do revise the requirements for competences A-E so you know what to say if you are asked to explain how you meet any of them (expanding on what is already in your application).

Most candidates I speak to after their interviews say they enjoyed it!

Good luck,

Andy

To build on Graham and Kathryn's excellent answers, don't imagine the interviewers as university lecturers giving exam questions.

The interviewers are experienced engineers trying to confirm if you are working with the level of understanding and professional approach that you have claimed on your application. Often they will expect you to know more about a particular technical area then they do! What they are trying to do is two things:

One is to ensure that you do really understand the areas you claim to do in your application - after all, you might not have been telling the truth, or at least exaggerating your role in your application. So if you said in your application and your presentation "I managed this part of the project", be prepared to be asked "what did you actually do?" Because you could have taken detailed technical decisions, or you could have made sure the project kept to time and budget, or you could (as I once had from a job interview applicant) just driven the equipment from one place to another!

The other is to explore any areas of your application which the panels thought was weak on paper. Sometimes candidates do not give all the information they could have done. So this is a good opportunity for them to find out if your application was weak because you actually don't have that experience, or whether you do but had just not put it down clearly. So as Graham and Kathryn have said, do make sure you can demonstrate your competence in any of the areas A-E, you may be asked about any of them.

So don't revise technical answers - either you are already using them in your work and you know them, or you aren't and you don't. The interviewers will spot immediately if you've tried to learn facts just to pass the interview. Just be honest about what you know and what you don't know. And If they ask something technical you don't know the answer to be prepared to think about either a) why you don't need to know it for your work or b) how are planning to find it out.

But do revise the requirements for competences A-E so you know what to say if you are asked to explain how you meet any of them (expanding on what is already in your application).

Most candidates I speak to after their interviews say they enjoyed it!

Good luck,

Andy

Thanks a lot. It's really helpful.