Diving down out of the sun he asks a question.

I have found it really depends on WHO is asking the questions. If it some HR person (I will be nice) They generally read off the questions because they do not have a clue what you do for a living. If it is a mechanic or person who was an mechanic you will be asked questions relevant to the position your applying for. Generally these people do not have the questions written down and can tell BS from Truth.

I took a Test for Electrician for the City of Phoenix and the last page was a question about transformers and a page of parallel lines. Looked at the question knew they were talking about taps but had no clue what to do with the lines. Wrote a paragraph about how stupid this page was. Flunked the test, got the job when the manager of the group read my comment. Thankfully he got to see the tests. HR had one answer and if yours was different YOU ARE ALWAYS WRONG. Took a test for the IBEW and got an 80%, passing. I fought with them over 4 questions and finally got them to agree the test answers were wrong on all 4 questions. Had to get my code book from my truck to prove it to them

Hopefully they will not ask you " what do you do with an aluminum ladder" Yep got asked that one applying for a electrician job for the State of Arizona.

 

"what do you do with an aluminum ladder"

Reminds me of a music joke asking, "What is perfect pitch".

In this case, the answer would be, "Throwing an aluminum ladder in a dumpster without hitting the sides". 😁

 

One question used here was,
“What color is the green ground screw?”

 

My last interview I was asked "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?". I said, "That is a tough question. I'm not putting anyone in an awkward corner, but I'll either be here working as an operator for you, using my trade as needed, or I'll have sold my house and have moved on. You have made it clear that there is not room here for me as an electrician.". I got the job and haven't looked back.

 

In one interview I was asked "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?".

Same thing I was asked My reply was "in your position", caught the electrical manager flatfooted.

 

A question that P&G used to use is: Describe a situation where you participated in the success of a team, and describe your contribution.
If I were interviewing someone for the position of technician I'd want to know their skill set, whether it's electrical/mechanical/etc, so be prepared for that level of questioning.
Good luck.

 

I have interviewed people for over 35 years.

I have asked them to Draw a 3 wire circuit, now add in a hand off auto switch.
I have handed them a set of prints and asked to describe the operation as best you can.
I have asked them to write a basic program if it was for a PLC job.
I have asked what are these symbols, giving them a list of the most common print symbols.

The best answer you can give is truth if you don't know. " I am not sure but I could research it and find out, I would rather know than just guess when it comes to Electric."

 

Setting up a 4-20ma pressure sensor 0-100 psi. what is the ma reading at 50 psi. (if your acting cocky we will say analog instead of 4-20ma)

How would you reverse a 3 phase motor.... Its a loaded question. Someone with experience will see where this is going and get in front of the question. Someone with limited experience will talk them themselves in circle's.

A operator asks you to change the speed on a powerflex vfd to 90 hertz how would you go about doing this.... another loaded question.

And my favorite. If you make a mistake what will you do to correct the mistake.

 

Setting up a 4-20ma pressure sensor 0-100 psi. what is the ma reading at 50 psi. (if your acting cocky we will say analog instead of 4-20ma)

When I got this job they asked me the the same type of question only level and 75% full what would be the reading. They just barely got the question out and I said 16 without even thinking about it. Just happened that I answered someone's question on here the day before and used that as my example.

 

When interviewing electronics techs I have a set of stock questions:

1. Identify some common print symbols: transistor, diode, capacitor, inductor, FET, transformer, lamp.
2. Draw a NPN and PNP transistors.
3. Draw a 2-input NAND gate and truth table.
4. (I provide a simple oscilloscope screen picture) Determine peak-to-peak voltage, period, and frequency.
5. How do you reverse a 3-phase motor?
6. (I provide a simple op amp circuit schematic) Identify the input and outputs. Determine the gain.
and some other stuff like that...

 

I would start with the basics and poke around until I can gauge what you know.

What's ohm's law?
What is resistance?
How do you calculate parallel DC resistances?
What is conductance?
What's the power law formulas?
Does electricity flow through the middle of the wire?
What's an anode? Cathode?
What's a forward biased diode?
Does current flow through a capacitor?
How does a capacitor store electrical energy?
What is the formula for calculating series capacitors?
What is electrical elastance?
What's a line reactor?
What's a PLC?
What's a PAC?
Why would you choose to use structured text over ladder logic when creating a program for some processes?
Why is a PLC different from a microcontroller?
Why is the square root of 3 important in three phase calculations?
What is RMS?

I stop when I have a gauge of what they know. They don't have to know most of that but they do need to be motivated, show up on time, be eager to learn, and enjoy the work. Passion makes up for compentance / genius. I'll take a passionate kid with average grades over an arrogant, gifted individual.

Be honest about what you don't know and ask questions.

 

Q: What is a Wiggy.
A: I don’t know that term, let me see one and I’ll tell you what it is.

Q: How would you use it to find a bad fuse under load.
A: I just told them how to test using a meter.

I was asked that many years ago.
I knew what a Solenoid Voltage Tester was, but hadn’t heard it called a Wiggy.

 

Will I be tested on anything more advanced then let's say the control circuits shown in the Ugly's Book? What kinds of interview questions will I be asked, I don't want to oversell myself but yet go in there completely clueless.

Most job interviews aren’t overtly technical. It’s pretty obvious during an interview what you know. Besides the idea is to determine your skills, personality, and character.