Common Questions in Engineering Job Interviews
Put together by Marcy Crandle and the Schulich School of Engineering Career Centre October 2019.
1. Tell me about yourself.
2. What is your biggest weakness? Employer wants to see honesty, self awareness and strategies to
deal with, but students often use clichés here and try to pass off a strength as a weakness, or use
an example that’s a big red flag.
3. Tell me about a time you came up with an innovative solution to a problem. Many students
struggle to come up for an example for this, take for granted how often they apply their problem-
solving skills, and feel like they have to come up with a huge, life-changing example for this
4. Describe a situation or project where you made a mistake. This one sometimes scares students so
we talk about how everyone makes mistakes, and what’s important is owning them, learning from
them, etc.
5. Describe a time you helped a team succeed. OR Tell me about a time you worked on a project
and you did something to improve the quality of your team's work. Students are usually very
vague here about what their role was specifically; say “we” but hesitant to say “I”…
6. Give me an example of a time you disagreed/had a conflict with someone while working on a
project. OR What would you do if the work of a subordinate or team member was not up to
expectations? Often when describing the action they took and results, students will say something
like, “and we talked about it and it was all good,” but don’t actually describe what that looked like
7. What would you do if you were unable to meet a deadline for a project in the
workplace? Students sometimes get stuck on this one so I ask them to think about things like:
Would you communicate this to your supervisor? Would you ask your teammates for help? How
would you prioritize what needs to be done? Would you stay late to complete it on time? Would
you ask for an extension? What strategies would you use to prevent this from happening if
possible?, etc.
8. How do you lead? OR How would you describe your leadership skills? OR Tell me about a time
when you have demonstrated your leadership skills. Especially if the student doesn’t see
themselves as a leader (particularly the more introverted, non-traditional leaders), may have
difficulty answering
9. Where do you see yourself five years from now? What are your future goals? If the student
doesn’t know, which is totally normal, are there certain skills they want to develop? What do they
want to learn and experience in the next five years that will help them get more clarity around their
careers? How would they like people to describe them?, etc.
10. How do you / Describe a time you have had to handle multiple priorities. Often get vague answers
here, students struggle to describe their process
NOTE: In general when it comes to behavioral questions, not enough attention is paid to Actions
and Results (research the "STAR" method if you are interested to learn more about this).
STAR Method
Situation: Describe the situation that you were in or the
task that you needed to accomplish.
Task: What goal were you working toward?
Action: Describe the actions you took to address the
situation with an appropriate amount of detail and keep
the focus on YOU.
Result: Describe the outcome of your actions and don’t
be shy about taking credit for your behaviour.
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Situation: Describe the situation that you were in or the task that you needed to
accomplish. You must describe a specific event or situation, not a generalized description of
what you have done in the past. Be sure to give enough detail for the interviewer to
understand. This situation can be from a previous job, from a volunteer experience, or any
relevant event.
Task: What goal were you working toward?
Action: Describe the actions you took to address the situation with an appropriate amount
of detail and keep the focus on YOU. What specific steps did you take and what was your
particular contribution? Be careful that you don’t describe what the team or group did
when talking about a project, but what you actually did. Use the word “I,” not “we” when
describing actions.
Result: Describe the outcome of your actions and don’t be shy about taking credit for your
behavior. What happened? How did the event end? What did you accomplish? What did
you learn? Make sure your answer contains multiple positive results.
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