Question Overview: Frustration is a normal part of any job, but it's important to know how your candidate will handle it. This question helps you gauge their ability to work with others and their ability to resolve issues.
Sample Answer: I was frustrated with my team because we were trying to create a new product that was going to be a big seller. We had been working on it for months and we were still not close to a final design. I had a meeting with my boss and he told me that we needed to start over from scratch. I was frustrated because I felt like we had already done so much work, but he was right. We had been working on the wrong design for months and we were nowhere near where we needed to be.
Question Overview: This question is a great way to gauge how well your candidate understands their own strengths and weaknesses. It's also a good way to see if they have a realistic view of the job market.
Sample Answer: I'm not the most experienced mechanical engineer you'll find, but I'm willing to work hard and learn from my mistakes. I'm also really good at communicating with other teams and figuring out how to make their ideas work with my designs.
Question Overview: This question is a great way to gauge how well your candidate can communicate their skills and experience. It's also a good way to see if they have any gaps in their resume.
Sample Answer: I've worked on a lot of different projects in my career. I've worked on a team that designed a new kind of car engine, and I've worked on a team that redesigned the engine for an existing car. I've also worked on a team that designed an engine for a plane.
Question Overview: This question helps you gauge how well your candidate will fit in with your company's culture. It also helps you understand what they are passionate about outside of engineering.
Sample Answer: I love history. I think it's fascinating to see how people lived in the past and how they were able to create things that we still use today. I also like reading about the different cultures and how they interacted with each other.
Question Overview: This is a great opportunity for your candidate to show you their personality. It's important that your candidate is a good fit for your company's culture.
Sample Answer: I'm originally from New York, but I moved here to go to school. I love the city, but I'm looking forward to moving out to the suburbs when I have kids. I like to run and read in my spare time.
Question Overview: This question is a great way to see how your candidate thinks on their feet. It's a good idea to ask this question at the end of your interview, because it will give you a chance to see how they handle the pressure of the final question.
Sample Answer: I think I'm the best candidate for this position because I have a lot of experience in this field. I've been working in mechanical engineering for over five years, and I've been able to work on a lot of different projects. I've learned a lot about what makes a good design and what doesn't, and I'm excited to bring that knowledge to your company.
Question Overview: This question is a great way to see how your candidate thinks about their work. It's easy to get caught up in the details of a project, but it's important to remember that the end goal is to produce something that is useful and accurate.
Sample Answer: Commercial software is designed to be as accurate as possible, but it's not always perfect. I like to think my method is more accurate because I can take into account a lot more variables than a program can. However, I have to admit that sometimes I don't have all the information I need to make a decision, so I have to make an educated guess.
Question Overview: Mechanical engineers are tasked with creating a product that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing. This question helps you gauge how well your candidate understands the importance of design in their work.
Sample Answer: Heat transfer is most effectively done through a combination of methods. I think it's important to have a product that looks good, but you also need to make sure it functions well. I think the best way to do that is to make sure the product is designed in a way that allows heat to be transferred in multiple ways.
Question Overview: This question helps you understand how your candidate thinks about their education and what they learned. It can also reveal what they enjoyed learning about and what they didn't.
Sample Answer: My favorite subject in school was math. I loved the logic behind it and the way it could be applied to real life. I didn't like history, because I felt like it was just memorizing facts and dates.
Question Overview: This question is a great way to gauge how a candidate handles failure. It's important to know how they respond to failure because it will happen, and you want to know how they will handle it.
Sample Answer: I once designed a part that was supposed to be used in a car, but I didn't realize it was too heavy for the car's frame. I had to go back and redesign the part so it was lighter and more efficient.
Question Overview: This question is designed to gauge how well your candidate will work with others. You want to hire someone who can work with their team to find a solution that works for everyone.
Sample Answer: I like to sit down with the person and find out what's going on. I like to know if they're unhappy because of the workload or because of something else. If it's the workload, I can help them figure out a way to get it done. If it's something else, I can help them find someone who can help them.
Question Overview: This question helps you understand the candidate's motivations for becoming a mechanical engineer. It also gives you an opportunity to learn more about their background and interests.
Sample Answer: I've always loved building things. I remember taking apart my toys as a kid and trying to put them back together. I also liked figuring out how things worked, like my dad's old car. So, when I was in high school, I took some classes in mechanical engineering and realized it was the perfect fit for me.
Question Overview: This question is designed to assess how well a candidate understands the science behind their designs. It's important that your mechanical engineer be able to understand the science behind their designs.
Sample Answer: I would look at a stress-strain graph. This graph shows how much stress a material can take before it breaks. The stress is represented by the x-axis, and the strain is represented by the y-axis. The material will fail when the stress reaches a certain point.
Question Overview: This question is a great way to see how your candidate has thought about their experience and how it relates to the job. It also reveals whether or not they are self-aware about their skills and how they can contribute to your company.
Sample Answer: My experience in engineering has given me a lot of knowledge about how things work. I've learned a lot about the design process and how to make things better. I've also learned how to work with other people, which is important because I'll be working with other engineers in your company.
Question Overview: This question is a great way to gauge how well your candidate understands the importance of teamwork. It will also help you understand how well they can communicate their ideas to other teams.
Sample Answer: I've worked on a lot of different projects. Some of my favorite projects were ones where I got to work with other engineers. I really enjoy working with other people because it's a great way to learn new things. I've also worked on projects where I was the only engineer, and those are fun too because you get to be creative and make all the decisions.
Question Overview: This is a great question to ask if you are interviewing candidates who have a lot of options. It will help you understand why they are interested in your company and what they think makes it a good fit for them.
Sample Answer: I chose to work with you because I think your company is on the cutting edge of technology. I'm excited about the future of your company because you're always coming up with new ideas and ways to improve on things. I'm also excited about the future of my career with your company because I think you're going to be around for a long time, and I want to be a part of that growth.
Question Overview: This question is designed to assess how well a candidate can take on a leadership role. It's important to have an engineer who can lead the team and take on the responsibility of managing the project.
Sample Answer: I was working on a project with another engineer, and we were having trouble getting our designs to work together. We had been working on them separately for weeks, and we were both frustrated. I decided that I needed to step in and take charge of the situation. I sat down with my colleague and explained what we had done so far, and what we needed to do to make it work. We worked together for a few hours, and then we presented our solution to the rest of the team. Everyone was impressed, and we were able to move forward with our project.
Question Overview: Phase diagrams are used to determine the physical properties of a material at different temperatures. This is an important concept for mechanical engineers to understand because it helps them determine how to best use a material in a design.
Sample Answer: A phase diagram is a chart that shows the different phases of a material at different temperatures. For example, water has three phases: solid, liquid and gas. The phase diagram for water shows the temperatures and pressures at which these phases occur.
Question Overview: Disagreements are bound to happen when you have a team of people working together. This question is designed to see how a candidate handles those disagreements.
Sample Answer: I disagreed with my team about the best way to create a new design. I thought we should use a new material, but they wanted to stick with what we had been using. We talked about it for a while and I was able to convince them that the new material would be better.
Question Overview: This question assesses a candidate's ability to apply their knowledge of engineering to a real-world problem.
Sample Answer: The hoop stress is the stress that is applied to the hoop of a cylinder. It is calculated by multiplying the force applied to the cylinder by the distance between the force and the center of the cylinder. The formula for this is: