Interview help?

[pfelectronicstechnician]

Ok guys I have my first technician interview next week. I'm not even fully graduated yet but I have an interview. The job is for Traffic light technician, any advice at all for a first technician interview? Any advice in general would be great, any advice for this type of specific job would be incredible. Thank you for any help.

 

[dr pepper]

Swot up on ground loop vehicle sensors, microwave radar motion sensors (temp lights).
Triac and thyristor switches.
A little on networking.
And maybe a little background on microprocessors and microcontrollers.

 

[cowboybob]

Don't try to come across as an expert: you're not and they know it.

Can't hurt to research what traffic light controllers that are being used.

Let them ask the questions and keep your answers short and on point.

Don't hesitate to admit to what you don't know but emphasize your desire to apply what you do know.

The job sounds entry level so your whole-hearted desire to do a good job for them will matter.

 

[pfelectronicstechnician]

You guys are awesome, thank you very much. I appreciate all the advice. I am DEFINITELY not an expert as you said. Frankly I was surprised when I was invited to interview. I have a friend that works there, its a state Gov. job but I think his influence stops there. I think the interview has to be a good one, not getting in because of my friend. Anyway I hope to get it, it would really help my overall career in Electronics/Electronics maintenance/electrical maintenance. It would look awesome to other employers, not saying I would leave but if I did this on my resume would look great. So again thanks for the help, I truly appreciate it.

 

[simonbramble]

I will often give a job to a person with knowledge who is keen to learn more and shows aptitude, rather than someone who comes in and thinks he knows it all. You have to be able to get on with the person you work with, so personality has a lot to do with it. Also, prepare some questions that you think they might ask you - this will do wonders for your nerves. Half the battle with job interviews is overcoming your nerves. This comes from a fear of the unknown. If you prepare some questions beforehand, you are already going into a 'known' situation. Good luck!

 

[ericgibbs]

My advice would be is to answer the interviewers questions in a short a way as possible way, stick to the point and don't babble on.!

He will also most likely ask you, do you have any questions about the company or the position you are applying for.?, pre-think out, two or three questions.

As the job you are interviewing for is a junior position you will be working within a team, ask about the team members and the training facilities within the company.

A couple of other points, turn up a little early at reception, look smart and show you are really keen to get the job.

Take a copy of your CV and any documentation that will help, let the interviewer know that you have all the documentation, but wait until he asks to see the parts he is interested in seeing.

Good Luck.
E.

 

[Gayan Soyza]

https://www.eevblog.com/2009/05/05/eevblog-7-engineering-job-interview-tips-galore/

https://www.eevblog.com/2009/08/26/eevblog-27-more-engineering-job-interview-tips/

 

[pfelectronicstechnician]

You guys are just awesome, thank you for all the help. I will appreciate any and all.

 

[UTMonkey]

Spot on !

Don't try to come across as an expert: you're not and they know it.

Can't hurt to research what traffic light controllers that are being used.

Let them ask the questions and keep your answers short and on point.

Don't hesitate to admit to what you don't know but emphasize your desire to apply what you do know.

The job sounds entry level so your whole-hearted desire to do a good job for them will matter.

 

[gary350]

I have a friend that programs the city traffic lights. They do studies on traffic flow with counters, after they learn how much traffic is on each street they come up with a plan for timing the lights for smooth traffic flow. The rule of thumb is traffic has to be 15 to 1 ratio or less for a light to be put at that intersection. My friend writes the PLC programs then test runs the programs to see how they work. Then he goes out to the intersection and installs the program to the PLC located there. I don't know what PLC they use anymore. When I worked in Industry I use to programs several different brands of PLC. I started out 18 years ago with the Allen Bradley SLC 150. After that it was the AB SLC 400. I can also program GE and a few others. If you learn PLC programming you are set for a wide range of good jobs.

Traffic light technology use to seem boring before I learned what it was all about but after hanging out with my friend it is a challanging job and can be a lot of fun your not in the office all the time. It is a challange to get smooth traffic flow and sometimes it requires a little bit of trial and error to get it right. We have one intersection in town that is the worst one in the whole STATE of TN he programmed that over and over for 3 years to finally get it right. Some of getting it right required adding 2 left turn lanes and 1 right turn lane for both east/west bound traffic. Now the light is timed 45 seconds for each lane, each lane goes 1 at a time, south, then west, then east, then north. Broad and Memorial intersection.

Broad and main street is timed 15 seconds for main and 3 minutes for Broad st.

The intersection at Highland and Greenland dr is timed so greenland never gets a red light all the time until there are 3 cars parked at the red light.

It is an interesting job. I don't always agreed with every thing they do. I avoid the Highland Greenland intersection if I am parked there and no one else comes and parks behind me the light will not change. Several times after waiting 10 minutes for a green light I have either run the red light or made a right turn on red then drive around the block so I can go to the left. Now I turn left 2 blocks before I get to that intersection.

Some traffic lights are set with a timer that over rides the program for morning and evening rush hour traffic. The time changes the program for a few hours then it returns to normal.

At midnight some traffic lights go into a holding pattern so traffic in the busy lane gets a green light all the time. The light will not change unless a car pulls up in the other traffic lane.

See if you can learn what PLC they use for the traffic lights before you go to the job interview. If your class has one of those PLCs learn how to program it. If you call the local industrial supply company that sells PLCs you can get a programming book for any PLC you like. You can buy used PLCs on ebay if you need one to learn on.

 

[DerStrom8]

Don't try to come across as an expert: you're not and they know it.

Can't hurt to research what traffic light controllers that are being used.

Let them ask the questions and keep your answers short and on point.

Don't hesitate to admit to what you don't know but emphasize your desire to apply what you do know.

The job sounds entry level so your whole-hearted desire to do a good job for them will matter.

I agree with this 100%, but I'd also like to add on that you should make it obvious that you are willing and eager to learn. A positive attitude regarding your future is always a good idea.

They'll also probably ask you "What can you do for the company". I recommend thinking out your answers beforehand, like Eric suggested regarding any questions you might have.

Oh, and some side advice--supposedly the first thing interviewers take notice of is how your dressed. Make sure you're dressed well, but don't overdo it. Also (I've only heard this--I'm not sure how true it is) make sure the color of your shoes and belt match. For some reason, black shoes and a brown belt clash and make the whole getup "look bad"

But my main point is to show your eagerness to learn and to help the company

 

[Mr RB]

It's a specialist field so they absolutely will train you on the specifics of that equipment. So you don't need any knowlege of that equipment.

As employers they will need you to drive out to the field and do inspections or fixes on the equipment. They will be very interested in your reliability and maturity and work ethic, ie can you be trusted to work alone or to go out and do the job right.

Along with showing you are eager to work I would put extra effort into looking sensible, mature, reliable, honest etc and any references that show you can be trusted to work alone or trusted to drive out and do a job.

If they have a choice between a young guy that looks trustable and another that looks like he's going to do burnouts in the company van... Well.

 

[gary350]

Yes.....the interviewers like to ask questions that put you on the spot, "What can you do for the company, Why do you want to work for us, Why should we hire you, What do you know about your company, What can you offer us, Have you interviewed with other companies, Have you had any job offers, the list goes on and on. Do a search for questions interviewers like to ask.

Some interviewers are nice folks and some are jerks from hell. Be prepared for the unexpected.

When I was in college the professors told us to go to 50 to 70 job interviews where you do NOT want to work. Go to interviews where you have NO interest in working, practice makes perfect, if you make a mistake, big deal, so what, you learn from your mistakes. You need to be able to walk into a job interview so you feel relaxed and prepared for anything.

I had an interviewer show me a 1/4" set screw, he insisted it was a diode. He wanted me to tell him what type diode it is. He asked me several times, what type diode is this?

Many interviews I was shown a circuit drawing and asked questions about the circuit. What is that electronic part? What does that part do? Where is the driver circuit? Where is the power supply? What is the circuit voltage?

Often there is no correct answer, they what to see your reaction.

Some interviews are done by a group of several people taking turns asking you questions. They want to test your personality as well as job skill, education, common sense, work experience, spur of the moment answers, and other things.

Think ahead, you don't want to be 15 minutes into the interview and need to use the restroom. Take some cough drops or mints. Never chew gum.

Be prepared for some casual questions, what do you do for fun, do you go to church, do you smoke, do you fish, do you hunt, do you work on your own car. Some interviews start off with casual questions to get you relaxed before they start with job related questions.

Sports seems to always come up. This was always a bad question for me. I grew up with no TV so I never learned about sports and never had an interests in sports. The interviews were always shocked if I told them I don't like sports and left it at that. But if I explained we never had a TV growing up they were fine with that answer.

Sometimes they offer you coffee, soft drinks, water, ice tea, etc. Do like others do if the interviewer has a drink then you have one too.

 

[pfelectronicstechnician]

Thanks guy so much for the replys. Mr. Rb I think you are correct in that I don't think it will be terribly technical in nature the interview. My friend said most likely not to expect a lot of technical questions. He said though they will as "are you willing to work overtime" and my answer would always be YES, of course. Overtime mean money my friend. I do not turn down money.
gary350 you are right, this interview is a panel interview or group interview. Those first few questions kinda stump me every time. Like this one "why do you want to work for us". It seems easy but its tricky. My answer would be "because its a great company with lots of room for me to grow in". Good or not? The "why should we hire you question", I would say "because I'm a hard working, caring employee that is always willing to work and go the extra mile" "I care about my work because its a reflection of me and my company". Now did I go to far, did I say too much? I never know with a question like that. Also this is a Government job, is it ok to say "company" in my answer or it doesn't really matte?
Again guys thank you for the help, please keep em' coming.

 

[panic mode]

I had to interview several people over years.

the work was/is industrial automation (design, PLCs, robots, motion control, vision, safety, PC programming, networking etc.). yes there is a lot to learn and this takes time. most candidates are inexperienced and looking for a chance to get in and learn on the job - and that is fine. little bit of guidance and working with someone else on few projects takes you far. before interview many are unaware of existence of something called 'electrical code', have never dealt with industrial robot, safety circuits, networking or even worked with plc. things that I value are dependability, ability and willingness to learn and common sense. i focus on key things but also ask whatever may be on a resume - if someone puts something there, they must want me to read (and ask) about it.

i don't care about what candidate brings with him in a suitcase (piles of drawings, electronic files etc), i need to know what is in their heads - so i give them little job-related problems, usually quite simple and practice oriented (troubleshooting circuit, fixing piece of code, sizing something etc.). few freak out right away, expecting that because they have some piece of paper to present and assure their educational background, they are entitled to a job without any question.

no-nonsence questions include just calculating power, voltage drop, interfacing (PNP/NPN), troubleshooting (use of multimeter) and evaluating code sample. rest are questions about things in his/her resume. i don't bother with "would you like to work with us" etc. - i know why you are here.

two amazing but true cases:

one candidate with experience of 20+ years of designing circuits and troubleshooting at PCBs level. although he had no other relevant experience he wanted the job (and we could use some help). turns out the only things we could talk about is his alleged work experience and to my surprise even that didn't go well. according to his claims and resume he used hundreds of components but mostly worked with some 20-30 very common ICs that he listed there. his problem:
- he didn't expect that i would know any of them (ICs)
- he didn't know any of them (he claimed that CMOS 4000 was family of operational amplifiers and comparators, 555 was voltage regulator and TDA2030 was TTL chip, not ONE of his answers was correct)
- he didn't pass the no-nonsense part (couldn't solve voltage drop and sizing series resistor in a DC circuit; couldn't use any of our meters to measure DC voltage or continuity claiming that all of them were strange: two Flukes, one GreenLee DM210, one el-cheapo MasterCraft and the old analog Simpson 260).

If this was someone fresh from school, I would still expect him to solve and troubleshoot circuit but wouldn't bother asking about ICs even if they were on his resume. but when someone tells this has been his bread for many years and then comes with this BS, that just doesn't cut it...
an hour later my boss comes in and goes straight to my desk: "why didn't you keep the guy, he worked for two good companies...".
me "i don't think they'd want him, but if YOU hire him, i'll have no objections..."
he wasn't hired.

one other guy worked for competitor for several years then got laid off so came to us looking for job. he claimed that the only thing he was ever asked to do was plc programming and therefore he could not recognize any sensors, disconnects, transformers etc, couldn't troubleshoot or use multimeter etc. (sigh).
ok mr. programmer, you asked for it:
"...what is bit?"
" 8 byte!"
" and what is byte"
" 64 words"
" two words: good bye!"