Construction interview questions and how to answer...?
Possible interview question 1: ’Tell us about yourself’.This is the most likely first question of any interview. It invites you to share something about your background and is supposed to ease you into the interview. Focus on your academic and work background and why you want to work for the employer.
Possible interview question 5: 'What do you know about the job role and career path?’Questions assessing your knowledge of what the job role in that company entails and how your career path would pan out are designed to find out how committed you are to the career you’ve chosen and whether you have a realistic understanding of what the day job is like. Follow-up questions might include ‘What do you think you will be doing day to day?’, the classic ‘Where do you think you’ll be in five years?’ and ‘What do you think you will find most challenging in the role?’.
‘In a technical interview, we want to know whether you can apply the theory from your degree course in the real world,’ says Jon Sexton, part of the graduate recruitment team, UKMEA, at Arup. ‘We may ask you to come up with a solution to a problem and then ask you what would happen if we changed the design in a particular way.’
Top tips on preparing for a technical assessment
Possible interview question 1: ’Tell us about yourself’.This is the most likely first question of any interview. It invites you to share something about your background and is supposed to ease you into the interview. Focus on your academic and work background and why you want to work for the employer.
- Know your CV: remember the dates of your work placements and be ready to talk about the tasks you did and skills you picked up.
- Practise your pitch in front of a volunteer to ensure you sound natural and confident – you should be able to ad lib to fit the occasion.
- Don’t just choose examples from your degree – pick ones from different areas of your life. ‘It does make candidates stand out if they can call on examples from other areas of their lives, such as internships, part-time jobs or extracurricular activities,’ Neemita Mepani, graduate resourcing partner at AMEC, reflects.
- Try to use different examples from those that you used in your application form or covering letter.
- Don’t be afraid to ask them questions to clarify what they’re asking before answering.
- Take the time to think. If you’re nervous about pausing for too long, take a drink of water – a useful delaying tactic.
- In your answer you could call upon times when you faced similar situations in your past, if appropriate – not only from any construction-related work experience you have but also from any group work at university, involvement in student societies or part-time work.
Possible interview question 5: 'What do you know about the job role and career path?’Questions assessing your knowledge of what the job role in that company entails and how your career path would pan out are designed to find out how committed you are to the career you’ve chosen and whether you have a realistic understanding of what the day job is like. Follow-up questions might include ‘What do you think you will be doing day to day?’, the classic ‘Where do you think you’ll be in five years?’ and ‘What do you think you will find most challenging in the role?’.
- Your answer should partly be based on what you know about the company – whether it a contractor or consultant and the type of projects they work on, for example.
- You should also bear in mind the typical career path of people in your role, such as a professional qualification, and relate it back to the training and development in that company.
- Your answer should partly be based around your skills (such as teamwork), and your enthusiasm for the industry, the job and the company.
- If you have studied a technical degree, consider what you can offer in terms of your technical knowledge: during your degree you should have been exposed to the latest thinking in terms of sustainability and methodology. While you should not make out you know it all, your knowledge should add some value to the team.
- how the employer tackles issues such as sustainability
- landmark projects
- what the interviewer enjoys most about their job
‘In a technical interview, we want to know whether you can apply the theory from your degree course in the real world,’ says Jon Sexton, part of the graduate recruitment team, UKMEA, at Arup. ‘We may ask you to come up with a solution to a problem and then ask you what would happen if we changed the design in a particular way.’
Top tips on preparing for a technical assessment
- Practise sketching diagrams and brush up on your numeracy.
- Read through your coursework and be prepared to talk about your project work and dissertation.
- Ask a friend to give you feedback on the clarity of your explanations of technical solutions.
- Research the company’s specialist areas of work.