Questions to ask while interviewing a potential employee

[khaggard]

I and my company are currently starting to interview for a Part Time Cad Drafter to help us out. I have never been the Interviewer, always the Interviewee.

Can anybody help me out in thinking up some questions to ask this person that we will be interviewing.

Question specifically pertaining to CAD. Not the General, tell me about yourself questions.

Thank you.

Kevin Haggard
CAD Manager

[Wanderer]

I and my company are currently starting to interview for a Part Time Cad Drafter to help us out. I have never been the Interviewer, always the Interviewee.

Can anybody help me out in thinking up some questions to ask this person that we will be interviewing.

Question specifically pertaining to CAD. Not the General, tell me about yourself questions.

Thank you.

Kevin Haggard
CAD Manager
I don't remember the questions my boss asked me (I was very nervous, first 'real' job interview), but, I do remember that he called another engineer in who made me take a 'test'. Just some general cad competency. Set up a quick drawing, attach an x-ref.

This was after one semester in college (and 3 years in hs), but, I was told later that the other 4 people who'd had my position before me (and all had degrees from tech schools as well as previous experience) had done poorly on that test, while I did fairly well. (but, they hired them anyway?)

anyway, just a thought.

[tbedrich]

When I interviewed for a job at a civil engerineering company, they had me draw a detail of a section thru paving of something like that. I ended up getting the job because it only took me 20 min 8) to finish and other people took 3 to 6 hours :screwy: . Maybe you can get some simpe detail for the people to draw? :smile:

[Maverick91]

Once I had a temp working on our office doing some work in Microstation (yuk!). He was part of a subcontractor so there was no interview, but I was asked to get a feel for his level of expertise. I printed out a cross-section diagram with a few dimensions and asked him to recreate it in Microstation (yuk!). One ‘trick’ I put on the drawing was a reference to a W-shape beam. I was pleased when he caught it and asked for a steel manual.

[mjfarrell]

Ken,

I might suggest that you ask questions about
differences between overlay and attached xref files.
Discuss the effects of having a layer Off over Frozen.
Ask them to discuss the effects of changing the inked area limits
of a plotter.

While the simple tests as mentioned above may prove to have
some value let me share my experience with them.
At many points in my career I have been asked to take such tests.
Most if not all were way too easy, in the process of completing them
I was frequently asked to explain what I thought were basic
procedures to the tester (cad manager).

I guess my point is make sure the test is relative to the level of
competency that you seek in the position.

[steven.a.chestnut]

When I used to interview people I'd ask them if they brought any samples of their work.
Some would have samples, some would not. Of those who did not, some would apologize for not bringing anything and some would not understand why I asked by saying "all CAD drawings look alike". The ones who thought all CAD drawings looked alike did not get hired. Just because someone knows how to draw a line in CAD doesn't mean they are a good drafter. You can be either neat or sloppy with a pencil or a computer. I was looking for people who cared about the quality of their work. I could always teach them any commands or shortcuts they needed but you can't teach attitude.
My $.02

Steve