Exam to hire the special automation guys…

Hy, we need to make a practical exam to accept fresh engineers in our company. We are looking for special people who are details-oriented and live the automation world deeply. These people are rare and finding them requires clever questions and tricks…
Has anyone done this before?
Thanks guys

hahahaha damn if only your company was based in T.O I'd offer my services to you I'm sorta keeping my eyes and ears open for a fresh position if you know what i mean

Don't get tricky.

I would look for questions on this forum that are related to what you do and see how the problem was solved here and compare notes with the people you are interviewing.

I would ask about school projects and how they were solved. This works if the projects are sophisticated enough. The same goes for any related hobby projects. People like to talk about what they have done.

The goal is to find if they have 'the knack'. I wouldn't expect a student that just graduated to know that much about real engineering.

Kataeb - one example of what you can use is a question i was asked when i was interviewed for the job i have now. i was pretty green at the time being just 1.5 yrs out of school so it was for a junior position (ive since grown into a more intermed role)

I was asked "we want you to design a coffee mug, whats the first question you would ask?"

i said "how do you plan to use the mug? how do you plan to hold the mug? will you want to be able to put it in your cars cup holders"?

i was told after the fact that i was the only person who answered that correctly - everyone else's first question was to ask for dim of the proposed mug, where as my answer showed that i was thinking more as a designer, from the prospective of "whats it supposed to do, hows it supposed to be used by the operator?"

I would say avoid the typical HR type of questions and go right for specifics, as posted earlier. It's easy to BS through an interview if you know the position they are looking to fill and do any kind of research on typical interview questions.

I say show me the money or skills in this case.

We have slc,micrologix,plc 2,plc 5,controogix,compactlogix,ad 205,305,405 and siemens s5,s7, and omron trainers with pushbuttons lights ,valves,ac drives and hmi's.

We ask what equipment they have programmed if they say any of these then we let them show us some example circuits.

We have them program about 10 different circuits and sometimes this takes 2 days to complete some only one day which is a good indicator.

They start out simple like a on/off motor start circuit to changinf multiple valuse in the plc through the hmi.

It is real funny to see the looks on some faces when they tell you "oh i program plc 5 all the time with my eyes closed" and they spend 2 hrs trying to get online via df1 how hard is that?

As others posted earlier their are many people that know enough lingo to bs their way into a position but making them do it and show you that it works seperates the men from the boys and the bs from the real deal IMHO.

the knack, eh...?

well i think my coffe mug question is a good indicator of that. It shows you who thinks from an overall design prospective - vs someone whos just wanting to be told exactly what to do

I concur with Pete.

Peter Nachtwey said:

I would look for questions on this forum that are related to what you do and see how the problem was solved here and compare notes with the people you are interviewing.

I would ask about school projects and how they were solved. This works if the projects are sophisticated enough. The same goes for any related hobby projects. People like to talk about what they have done.

The goal is to find if they have 'the knack'. I wouldn't expect a student that just graduated to know that much about real engineering.

Click to expand...

Kataeb said:

Hy, we need to make a practical exam to accept fresh engineers in our company. We are looking for special people who are details-oriented and live the automation world deeply. These people are rare and finding them requires clever questions and tricks…
Has anyone done this before?
Thanks guys

Click to expand...

Well for a written test, I think that it depends on what the applicants role as an Engineer will be. Are they going to be responsible for field work, or just sitting behind a desk doing design? Will they be making a thousand of the same machines, or one off custom equipment? New machines, or retro fitting new features into old equipment..... I think that you need to be more specific, before we can answer the question (this is a broad and demanding field). But you could ask troubleshooting questions if they are going to do field work, or design type questions like the coffee mug, to see how they think about a project. If they are fresh engineers, then this may not work though. The test I took when I was recruited from Bethlehem Steel; only about 2% would pass. And then they had an extensive 4 month training program afterwords to teach us the skills needed.

I would design questions, to show that the applicant can think beyond their training, and then don't forget, that they will need mentoring afterwords. The test can prove they are capable of learning what they need to.

-MUR

rdrast said:

Yes, the Knack

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That was great thank you for that!

Kataeb said:

Hy, we need to make a practical exam to accept fresh engineers in our company. We are looking for special people who are details-oriented and live the automation world deeply. These people are rare and finding them requires clever questions and tricks…
Has anyone done this before?
Thanks guys

Click to expand...

To find out if they're SMART, give 'em an IQ test.

To find out if they're QUALIFIED, test their actual abilities.

To find out if they're "SPECIAL", ask 'em what's the "coolest" thing they ever "built", even if it's with LEGOS.

http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsBLN4eP2Y8There'll be a detectable sparkle in their eyes when they tell you about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsBLN4eP2Y8


Stationmaster

give them a top hat and see if theycan pull out a rabbit......... i get asked to do that on a regular basis

I went to an interview once and they did some logic puzzle questions to see if u could think in a logical way, then took me to a machine that had been deliberatly crippled and gave me drawings and a meter and asked me to find the fault. They said it was 'outside of the plc'

Be sure to build in a decent trial period, so you can fire a person if they shine in the inerview but are dull in reality