Anybody got tips on the interview ... what Is the passing rate and how to pass it thanks
There will be 3 interviewers with the chief interviewer sitting at the middle.
The interviewer are usually experienced PE and academician.
The passing rate is undisclosed but my take is it is high at probably >50%.
To me, the interview is to assess your personality, confidence, decision making, problem solving, site experience and some technical skills. They may throw you any question from the submitted PE report, past projects that you've listed in the track record, or even any situation that they want to assess you at.
Some of the question that I've encountered are:
"Since you have experience in XXXX project, what if the scenario today is XXXXX, what will you do?"
"Since you have proposed this method of remedial / construction, what if it do not work as expected, and the wall moved 200mm?"
"Please elaborate the framework / work flow of your remedial work to ensure that it can really solve the problem"
"Your proposal of construction / remedial is costly, how do you justify this to the owner? Isn't XXX (Method B) a better proposal, why don't you use it?"
"Your proposal will NOT solve the issue! You have never considered XXXX, XXXX, XXXX. How can you propose something like this?! You sure this will not jeopardize public safety?"
"Do you know how difficult it is for your proposal to be executed on site? Have you actually went down to site and see how they do the work How u are going to ensure the quality of work on site?
It is not uncommon that one of the interviewer to be extremely aggressive and will question each and every answer that you've given. The engineering instinct are best tested under stressed situation.
My final word is you need to brush out your decision making and judgmental skill. For every decision / word that you've spoken, you must have your judgement. Usually there is no right / wrong decision, it is the amount of information / knowledge that you have in hand that is affecting your judgement and decision.
All the best.
