Preparing for second interview (intel/NI) (EE)

[Lord Banshee]

I was just wondering if anyone here have suggestions on things to refreash up on for my second interview with intel and National Instruments. For the first interview i did some reading on digital logic stuff and it helped as the questions asked where stuff i did in my first digital logic class and i would have definitely not answer some of them or took a lot longer to answer them if i had not looked over a couple of things.

I'm assuming the technical questions being asked at the second interview (On-Site) are going to much harder so just wondering if anyone has any advice?

Oh yeah the job positions applying for:
intel: Logic and Validation (Entry level logic step into intel's world, is my best guess)
NI: R&D ( digital hardware/software design)

Thanks

 

[BrownTown]

*has an interview in 1 hour*

wait, were supposed to study for these things? aww cr@p...

 

[Lord Banshee]

lol not necessarily, but it helped for the first interview

I hope you did well

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
*has an interview in 1 hour*

wait, were supposed to study for these things? aww cr@p...

Updated needed...

 

[SubCarrier]

As far as NI, I would probably make sure you know their products. They have a wide range of product. From software I would make sure you know what Labview, and LabWindows CVI is. Maybe even try out their trial version. Hardware wise, I would make sure I know something about embedded processes, gpib, vxi, vme, etc.

Good Luck.....

 

[f95toli]

If you go to an interview with NI you can probably impress them if you know a thing or two about basic measurement techniques; i.e. noise, four-point measurements, shielding etc.
Also, knowing a thing or two about analog electronics even if you are meant to work on the digital parts of their products might also helps. Although most new products from NI are infamous for being very noisy (they are virtually useless for sensitive measurements unless you add a LOT of filtering and/or optical insulation) so I guess they don't care that much.

 

[BrownTown]

Originally posted by: TuxDave

Originally posted by: BrownTown
*has an interview in 1 hour*

wait, were supposed to study for these things? aww cr@p...

Updated needed...

I think it went well, it was just a first interview and they didn't ask any technical questions so no studying was required, second interviews will be announced on Friday. The company involved is Southern Company btw.

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: BrownTown

Originally posted by: TuxDave

Originally posted by: BrownTown
*has an interview in 1 hour*

wait, were supposed to study for these things? aww cr@p...

Updated needed...

I think it went well, it was just a first interview and they didn't ask any technical questions so no studying was required, second interviews will be announced on Friday. The company involved is Southern Company btw.

No technical questions??? Bah. The first round interview I had with Intel was a 1hr phone interview with 45minutes of technical questions. The other first round interview that I had with RAMBUS was 1hr in-person interview with ~45minutes of technical questions. Bah

 

[Lord Banshee]

Originally posted by: BrownTown

Originally posted by: TuxDave

Originally posted by: BrownTown
*has an interview in 1 hour*

wait, were supposed to study for these things? aww cr@p...

Updated needed...

I think it went well, it was just a first interview and they didn't ask any technical questions so no studying was required, second interviews will be announced on Friday. The company involved is Southern Company btw.

lol, wow no tech questions.. My interviews was 30min tech questions, but they were on the easier side.

Now NI was hour with 45min tech questions and they were on the harder side.

Yes i need to read more about NI and LabView (never used it), but i have almost a month to do so. I have a flight next week for intel though... I think i might just go over my Comp Arch labs and wish for the best.

f95toli,
I am not too worried about analog questions (if any) as all my classes this semester are analog but it has been 4 months since my last digital class, but yeah good idea though, might look up some transistor and noise stuff.

Thanks

 

[BrownTown]

It might have to do with the type of business each company does, its not like you learn substation design in college, certinally not my college, we only have 1 power course. The job I am applying to requires 18 months of night classes concurrent with the work you are doing before you can work on your own. So basically they are looking for people willing to LEARN their business more so than maybe other companies who might expect you to be productive off the bat. I just got the silly questions like "explain a time where you led a project", "what are your strengths/weaknesses", "how is customer satisfaction important for you" etc...

TBH I would actually WELCOME more technical questions because I feel I have a very good grasp of the electrical engineering concepts I have learned, but my GPA doesn't really reflect that, so I think technical questions would allow me to prove that I did learn the material even if my GPA is not so stellar. That having been said, based on what ya'll are saying I will definitely be studying up on some stuff for the next round of interviews if I make it that far. Also I thinks its bery important to study the company well, I could tell the interviewer was impressed by my knowledge of his companies structure, and I think this indicates to perspective employers that you actually WANT to work for the company and aren't jsut sending out 100 resumes to random companies you have never even heard of before.

PS: if anyone of ya'll have applied or currently work at southern company I would appreciate any insights you have into the selection process.

 

[Lord Banshee]

Yeah i agree and hate how some companies use the GPA factor as of resume picking.

And about the tech questions at interviews, i had four (1st) interviews a couple weeks ago and two had tech questions and the other two were behavior questions like you received BrownTown. I think it just depends on what type of company it is.

So you are a power guy? or is souther company not a power company, it just sounds like one.

 

[BrownTown]

Southern Company is the second biggest power company in the country silly .

 

[Lord Banshee]

lol, yes silly me

 

[wwswimming]

And about the tech questions at interviews, i had four (1st) interviews a couple weeks ago and two had tech questions and the other two were behavior questions like you received BrownTown.

what kind of behavior questions ?

my first job out of college, i was going through the lobby to get
to the machine shop (i was working in R&D). there was a woman
sitting in the lobby waiting. she was real friendly. we talked for
about 5 minutes. then i asked her for her phone #. then she told
me she was interviewing for the VP Human Resources position.

i don't remember what i said.

those kinds of behavior questions ?

as far as the interview, can you ever go wrong talking about the
importance of grounding & EMI isolation, not just how inadequate
grounding or some EMI caused a problem, but how you fixed it -
cheaply, elegantly, under-budget, and way ahead of schedule.

 

[bullbert]

Assuming you all are talking about interviewing for first jobs out of college, and you have already passed the GPA cut, and the does-he-have-a-pulse first interview, expect a combination of interview types (technical and personal), depending on how many shorter 30-60 minute interviews you have through the visit.

ALL conversations are part of the interview, even with the guy who might only ferry you around to each of the other interview stops. You never want to appear to be an arse. You really need to learn on how to quickly "read" people, as they will only recommend you if they like you, whether or not you can walk on water. However some of the "snob" companies/labs really expect you to have a snob attitude, albeit a well-tempered snob attitude. Most companies will be using the "shot gun approach" for college hires, where they hire a couple dozen people (maybe over 1 term, maybe over 2 years) who appear able to both think and work well with others, hoping over time to grow 2 or 3 in real leaders, train 6 or 7 in worthy followers, and washing out at least half. So you don't have to prove you are the best, just that you are technically capable and personally likable, and you should get caught in their net.

Someone mentioned EEs with power emphasis. Different story. They still verify you have a pulse and are not an arse, but the first round competition (near-grads who say power is actually what turns them on and have taken several semesters of power/distribution/generator/motor electives) is so sparse, they grab whoever doesn't piss them off.


SYNOPSYS (spelling intentional or SYNOPSIS for you unworthy types

* do not worry too much about the technical questions. If you do not know, say you do not know, but ask what they were expecting for an answer.

* do not worry TOO LITTLE about the personal interactions. If they like you, they will overlook many technical stumbles. You have to show that you can "play well with others"

 

[BrownTown]

Just FWIW I had another interview today, this one with the largest engineering firm in the US and I guess it was more a knowledge based test, although more about experience. They asked a bunch of question about if i had ever used schematics and one line diagrams, several CAD programs, bills of material, etc.. Also asked if I knew how a power plant worked and stuff like that.

Got the second interview, so I am going there next week, so yall think I need to study a bunch of power stuff? See the thing is that my college doesn't actually even have power courses, so all I know about power is from my internship. But since I don't have the GPA to do VLSI design like is all I learned in college.

 

[Lord Banshee]

Congrats BrownTown,

I would say just review the stuff you know, you probably learned a lot but can you remember everything? If you have any books on Power or find pdf versions on EDAboard.com you should review the stuff you learned so when they ask you questions about it in the interview it will come to you faster. If there is something you don't know let them know that and maybe tell them you are willing to work though it to see if your can figure it out.

My advice is from how my 2nd interview at Intel went (last week). BTW it went really good they called me on Friday to make a job offer but i wasn't home so I'll have to call them on Monday. But anyway, they were going to ask me some programming questions ( hard core C++ and OPP) questions but i told them straight I only took one C++ class in college and all my programming experience is basically from trying different stuff on my own. So they maybe ask some quick little OPP questions (single answer ones) and that was all, then moved on to some stuff i did know. It was basically setup so i had four different 1 hour interviews with people from different sections of the department (Digital Home Group) and then lunch in the middle with two other guys, which i considered this to be the behavior part as i see it a test to see if you can communicate and be a fit for the intel group. 3/4 interviewers wanted to know digital logic/design questions and about my previous work experience and the 1/4 guy ask much more on computer architecture questions. Overall i thought it was going to be a lot worse.

I have my NI interview next week so i have to say the intel Interview was probably the best review i am going to get from digital stuff lol. I am just going to print out all kinds of info about NI so i can have questions to ask, should be ok.

Good luck BrownTown

-Chris

 

[BrownTown]

Yes, I am sorta gonna have to do what you did concerning C++ and only having one class since I only had one power class and what I know is from internship experience and general interest. It kinda sux, I REALLY want this job and tbh I know that I am intelligent and experienced enough to do it, but I'm gonna have a hard time PROVING it based solely on my resume since I don't have lots of power classes or a good GPA. Like I said before, I want them to ask me as many technical questions as possible so I can actually show my knowledge as opposed to being boned by my GPA.

Also FWIW since alot of people might find this interesting the job is to work on the construction of the first new* nuclear unit it over a decade.

* = Technically its an "old" design and was never finished, but anyways construction starts in 2008 and finished in 2013, 2.5 Billion dollar project. I would be looking at electrical schematics for the nuclear reactor and making sure they were built correctly (under the supervision of an experienced engineer of course). Kinda weird, by dad has a masters in nuclear engineering and worked as a nuclear engineer at the utility construction this plant for the last 30 years and he isn't allowed on-site at a nuclear reactor unsupervised and if I got the job I would be . Also good I don't take any drugs or stuff like that because the psych tests and background checks for nuclear plant work is absurd.

 

[Lord Banshee]

Well if you get the job and you start to work on the "New" nuclear plant, I am glad you don't take drugs too