3 Interview Techniques for Evaluating Engineering Candidates

This blog will cover three effective interview techniques that can help you evaluate an engineering candidate’s technical skills, as well as their personality and soft skills.

Hiring engineering talent can be challenging, especially if you are not a trained engineer. How you evaluate their skills depends on the position you’re hiring for, the types of projects they’ll be working on, and your company culture. With so many different types of engineers, you need different interview techniques to evaluate them properly.

This blog will cover three effective interview techniques that can help you evaluate an engineering candidate’s technical skills, as well as their personality and soft skills.

1. Focus on Content

Before interviewing candidates, you must decide exactly what core skills you are looking for. Look at the purpose of the engineering role and what technical or practical expertise is needed. Consider bringing in one of your senior engineers to consult about exactly what skills you’re looking for. You could also ask your whole engineering team what questions they would like to be asked to test a candidate’s aptitude for the position.

2. Be Consistent

Once you establish what you are looking for, be consistent with each candidate interview. Ask every candidate the same questions; this will allow you to effectively compare candidates and more accurately determine who fits the role.

Consistency in your interview questions helps you avoid being biased toward candidates. Prime talent may not shine on paper. Resumes, specifically educational credits and past work experience, can be impressive. However, just because a candidate looks good on paper does not mean they will be a good fit for your company and the role in question. Asking consistent questions allows you to compare candidates on a level playing field.

3. Be Creative

When it comes to evaluating engineering talent, be creative with your questions. The goal is to evaluate how a candidate will handle a problem or provide a strategy to help them succeed in the role you seek to fill. Your engineering team can be very helpful in formulating questions that determine technical skills and assess the candidate’s soft skills in handling situations.

Conclusion

Preparing an effective engineering interview takes time, patience, and focus. By focusing on the hard and soft skills needed for the role and enlisting your engineering team to help you vet prospective candidates, you can develop practical questions and techniques to interview engineering candidates and find the right fit for the job.

Let us help you hire top engineering talent! Contact ABBTECH today!

Engaging and Unexpected Questions to Ask Your Interviewer

You want your job interview to be a success. This requires you to plan ahead for your interview. You want engaging and unexpected questions to ask your interviewer at the end of your interview.

Ultimately, there are several engaging and unexpected questions to ask that can help you stand out in a job interview. These include:

1.  Why Are You Considering Me for This Role?

In all likelihood, a job interviewer will ask you why you applied for a job with their company. Meanwhile, you can turn the tables on your interviewer by asking him or her why you’re being considered for a role. This gives you insights into why a company chooses to interview you for a position. It can help you understand what the company wants to find in its ideal candidate, too.

2. What Does Success Look Like in This Job?

By asking this question, you can show a job interviewer you’re looking forward to hitting the ground running at their company. The question lets you learn how a company defines success for the role you want to land. In addition, you can find out how the business will set up its new hire to succeed in the position.

3. Where Are You Currently in the Hiring Process?

It can be beneficial to find out when a company wants to finish its hiring process. This allows you to determine if the business’ hiring process aligns with your timeline. If it does, you may be able to boost your chances of securing a role with this company.

4. Why Did You Decide to Join the Company?

You can ask a job interviewer what prompted him or her to accept a role at a company. The interviewer can then explain the thought process behind why he or she joined the business. Asking this question can help you understand how someone else approached an opportunity to join the company.

5. Have Other People Failed in This Position (and If So, Why)?

No one wants to fail in a job. Yet, there is a reason why a role is open in the first place. You can ask a job interviewer if other people have failed in a role. This can help you understand the challenges associated with a job. If you feel ready to tackle these challenges, you may want to continue to pursue this opportunity.

The Bottom Line on Asking Engaging and Unexpected Questions in a Job Interview

How you perform in a job interview can have far-flung effects on a business’ decision to hire you. If you ask engaging and unexpected questions during an interview, you can distinguish yourself from other job candidates. You can also make a positive impression that helps you move closer to securing your dream job. At ABBTECH, our professional recruiters can help you get ready for IT job interviews. Plus, we can put you in contact with businesses in search of IT talent at your convenience. Explore our IT job board today!