Interview Questions

I have always felt, and in my short time, I have interviewed a lot, that the actual question is unimportant. The response is what is important, and not whether the person knows the material or not. Pay can probably be commensurate with experience, and you'll know how experienced they are without beating serious questions out of them. My approach as an applicant has always been #1, never let them see you sweat, and #2, look and act professional, #3, act as though you can survive in any environment, (working in a group, alone etc.) When I first graduated from Tech school, I was offered all 7 of the jobs I interviewed for, even though I had little experience. Since then, I've only applied for 2 out of dozens of positions in which I was not made an offer. As I said, regardless of the question, read the person's body language, listen to their speech for uh, ahh ummms and the like. Finally, the big no no to listen for is phrases such as (stuff like that. Example, "I used to use PLC's to troubleshoot lines being down and stuff like that." If someone can't be specific, they are trying to buffalo someone else. That's my humble opinion, and it's served me well in my time in this industry.
 
Only with respect to programming in automation (nothing to do with electrical code and practices)...

Ask him to draw an "orthogonal cube".

If he does so, then ask him if he knows what a "hyper-cube" is. If so, ask him to draw it.

If he can draw it... then there's a damned good chance that he has a good understanding of timing relationships. A "hyper-cube" IS a time-based event. And, of course, Time-based events and Timing Relationships are, after all, the basics of automation programming.

If he can do so, then that is a CLEAR-POSITIVE... however, if he can't... then that is not necessarily a Clear Negative.

Do you get the difference?
 
Terry Woods said:
Only with respect to programming in automation (nothing to do with electrical code and practices)...

Ask him to draw an "orthogonal cube".

If he does so, then ask him if he knows what a "hyper-cube" is. If so, ask him to draw it.

If he can draw it... then there's a damned good chance that he has a good understanding of timing relationships. A "hyper-cube" IS a time-based event. And, of course, Time-based events and Timing Relationships are, after all, the basics of automation programming.

If he can do so, then that is a CLEAR-POSITIVE... however, if he can't... then that is not necessarily a Clear Negative.

Do you get the difference?

Terry....they are looking for a sparky...not an engineer or a programmer..hell if they can do both then thats great..but to ask a sparky what a hyper cube is is just plain wrong...
 
I have an associates degree in Industrial Technology, have been programming PLC's for almost 10 years, and am currently 60 credits into an EE degree, and I've never even heard of a hyper cube. Could you elaborate just a bit Terry, when time is permitting of course.

Russ
 
russrmartin said:
I have an associates degree in Industrial Technology, have been programming PLC's for almost 10 years, and am currently 60 credits into an EE degree, and I've never even heard of a hyper cube. Could you elaborate just a bit Terry, when time is permitting of course.
Russ
I've also never heard of a hyper cube and I graduate in 3 months with my EE degree.:confused: Maybe I've taken the wrong classes.
 
The best way to test someone is with real-world examples.

Give him a problem analysis, with clear-cut programming goals. Tell him he has one hour to write the program.

Go in 10 minutes later, and give him changes, and tell him he has 50 minutes left.

Go back 5 minutes later, and borrow his computer to do some spreadsheets and check your email. Give him back the computer after another five minutes, telling him he has only 40 minutes left.

Give him more changes, that negate the changes that you gave him 10 minutes earlier. Remind him of the 35 minutes remaining.

Tell him he should be writing it in ladder logic (unless he's writing it in ladder logic, in which case you tell him to do it in Statement List).

Tell him he has less than on half hour remaining.

Look over his shoulder, and suggest changes that don't help and may even hurt his approach. 20 minutes left.

When the time elapses, go into the program and put your name in as the author, instead of his, unless it doesn't work, in which case you yell at him for bad work.

If he doesn't produce a weapon, hire him.
 
The best way to test someone is with real-world examples.

Give him a problem analysis, with clear-cut programming goals. Tell him he has one hour to write the program.

Go in 10 minutes later, and give him changes, and tell him he has 50 minutes left.

Go back 5 minutes later, and borrow his computer to do some spreadsheets and check your email. Give him back the computer after another five minutes, telling him he has only 40 minutes left.

Give him more changes, that negate the changes that you gave him 10 minutes earlier. Remind him of the 35 minutes remaining.

Tell him he should be writing it in ladder logic (unless he's writing it in ladder logic, in which case you tell him to do it in Statement List).

Tell him he has less than on half hour remaining.

Look over his shoulder, and suggest changes that don't help and may even hurt his approach. 20 minutes left.

When the time elapses, go into the program and put your name in as the author, instead of his, unless it doesn't work, in which case you yell at him for bad work.

If he doesn't produce a weapon, hire him.

mmmmmmmmmm sounds like one of my old clients...
 
Ask them to draw you a stop start circuit and a reversing motor circuit. Ask them what 2B in hex is and what 1101 in binary is if they can anwser 75% of this you should think about putting them to work.
 
Provide Start up Sequence Narrative of a Plant. Ask him to program a small Portion of that sequence and tell him to explain it to you.
 

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