Rules and Guidelines
Want to participate in the discussions? Please read our Community Rules and Guidelines. Need some help? Visit Support and Answers.

  • State Not Answered
  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 5 replies
  • Subscribers 17 subscribers
  • Views 469 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
You may also be interested in
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Engineering job requiring a lot of 'hands-on.'

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
Hello all. I applied for a "Manufacturing Engineer" position with a company producing composite cloth. The job requires a degree. I am an IEng with a CGLI Full Tech. Cert. and experience. I have had a phone interview. The man interviewing me said they would provide me with a full set of tools and that I would spend a lot of time taking things apart. I asked about drafting and was told I could choose the software package. A friend runs a machine shop and does a lot of work for them. He told me I would be doing about 95% 'on the bench' and 5% drafting. The job description covers the full spectrum of tasks an 'engineer' would expect but it seems more of a 'fitter' type position. The previous bloke apparently had a degree but could not manage a pencil sketch and would often bring a component and ask to 'make this hole a bit bigger.'

Of the list of responsibilities I was asked to choose the three I would like most and three I would like least, which caught me off guard.


Has anyone on the forum come across this sort of set up?

I may have to chalk it up to interview experience!


Cheers
Parents
  • 0
    Hi Anthony,


    I see our posts crossed! Re the question about "passion", that's a very common question (although in the UK usually asked in the form "what attracted you to engineering?"). All you can do is be honest and positive - the only wrong answers are lies (if you say you love building things with your hands when actually you love coding then you're going to be very unpopular when you're inevitably found out) and negative answers ("I couldn't get a job doing anything else" is a wrong answer!).


    Re the three least liked responsibilities, that's a tough question, but perfectly reasonable. It's an extension of the very common "do you have any weak points?" question. Again, before an interview you do need to have considered your weaknesses, including areas of work you don't enjoy doing, and be prepared to be honest about them AND how you manage this so that it is not a problem for an employer - this is the clever bit. It will be up to the employer to decide if your particular three "low points" are a problem for them, if they really are (and they are really low) then it's not the right job for you anyway. 


    In your example I can imagine an excellent response would be  "I'm not an expert on machining, but I know the owner of xxx machine shop, who I understand already do work for you, and I'm confident that by using my knowledge of engineering together with his knowledge of machining I could ensure all the types of problems that you're discussing will get solved." Note the way that's phrased: "I have an area of weakness (or less interest) - but I will manage that problem for you."


    Cheers,


    Andy
Reply
  • 0
    Hi Anthony,


    I see our posts crossed! Re the question about "passion", that's a very common question (although in the UK usually asked in the form "what attracted you to engineering?"). All you can do is be honest and positive - the only wrong answers are lies (if you say you love building things with your hands when actually you love coding then you're going to be very unpopular when you're inevitably found out) and negative answers ("I couldn't get a job doing anything else" is a wrong answer!).


    Re the three least liked responsibilities, that's a tough question, but perfectly reasonable. It's an extension of the very common "do you have any weak points?" question. Again, before an interview you do need to have considered your weaknesses, including areas of work you don't enjoy doing, and be prepared to be honest about them AND how you manage this so that it is not a problem for an employer - this is the clever bit. It will be up to the employer to decide if your particular three "low points" are a problem for them, if they really are (and they are really low) then it's not the right job for you anyway. 


    In your example I can imagine an excellent response would be  "I'm not an expert on machining, but I know the owner of xxx machine shop, who I understand already do work for you, and I'm confident that by using my knowledge of engineering together with his knowledge of machining I could ensure all the types of problems that you're discussing will get solved." Note the way that's phrased: "I have an area of weakness (or less interest) - but I will manage that problem for you."


    Cheers,


    Andy
Children
No Data

Community Rules & Guidelines