Interview Questions

1. HT - >1000V - High tension , LT- < 1000V Low tension.

2. I cant get you wht you mean in second question.. I think you can have 500V Air circuit breaker.. for rating, you should do the fault level calc..

3. 2T?

4. No idea

5. normally 4.6 m should be there as ground clearance for 132kV line.. as per Indian electricity rules

6. that involves a lot like checking meter readings, oil levels, temp reading of trafo and goes on....

I beg to differ on your answer (1). You seem to know the IE Rules, as you have quoted them in your answer (5). Rule 2 (av) of IE Rules, says that:

Low Volatge is "not exceeding 250V"

Medium Voltage is "not exceeding 650V"

High Voltage is "not exceeding 33000V"

and

Extra High Voltage is "exceeding 33000V".

A3) British Standard 7671.

A4) it depends upon the lumens per watt of the lamp, its orientation, the shape of its reflector, the shape of the space it has to illuminate and the required lighting levels in that space.

If you could not answer those questions off the top of your head, and couldn't at least give an explanation of how you would go about finding the answers to the questions, then you are probably not qualified for that position.

I don't know about anyone else here, but I for one could not answer most of those questions off the top of my head. Most of them beg additional questions in order to be thorough.

But I would be able to state how I would get the answers. Maybe that was what the interviewer was trying to get at.

To whit:

1) What is the differance between HT Supply and LT Supply .

A) Probably answerable, but it depends on where you are. Here in the US the question is meaningless. We have Low Voltage, Medium Voltage, High Voltage, Ultra-High Voltage etc. etc.

2) For 160KVA DG SET, what the Main Incomer , Rating & How?

A) What voltage and phase are we referring to? There is a big difference between a 160kVA 400V 3 phase DG and a 160kVA 240V 1 phase DG.

3) Which Rating of wire guage is suitable for 2T AC , Why?

A) Again, what voltage? How far from the source to the AC unit?

4) How much area can cover the 40W Tube Light ? How?

A) How high is it from the work surface? What is the task and lumen level required?

5) What is the distance have to maintain between 132KV Line and G+1 Building ?

A) Code dependent, so it would depend on where the power line was.

6) What we have to observe/check regularly in the substation & Why?

A) What size sub station, voltage etc?

You should tell the knuckle head who asked those questions he would never get hired because he could not answer those questions either. There is not enough information given. The problem is that he is ignorant of what is necessary to provide an answer.

Based on the questions being asked by the employer I doubt he was not hired because he only got a certain number of questions right during the interview, but this sort of interviewing technique of asking these sort of questions as a basis of gauging applicant suitability is highly flawed and ever so slightly lazy.

That is why we have actual qualifications from universities and work experience on our CVs to help determine applicant suitability in the real world, not answering a bunch of questions that are not taught but learned through job experiences in specific engineering fields.

Engineering is about being given the tools to solve the problems you do not yet know the answers to, not just simply memorising facts and figures (especially if you are yet to gain work experience).

You should tell the knuckle head who asked those questions he would never get hired because he could not answer those questions either.

Yes that would have got him the job. What also works well is an applicant fresh out of University with NO experience whatsoever applying for a job and telling the company managers during the interview they are doing it wrong and telling them the changes he will make. He did not get the job, true story.

Some of these questions are subjective (#4), others are unlikely to be answerable unless you have actual industry experience and an understanding of local electrical standards and regulations (#5, #6), the others likely require that you specialised in industrial power generation and transmission (or similar) in your engineering degree (or similar) as I don't believe they are generally covered in standard engineering courses.

What are your qualifications, as I would not be surprised you (or most other applicants) couldn't answer these questions in an interview if you only did a 2 year certificate in engineering or degree in engineering specialising in anything other than industrial power generation and transmission, and had no work experience in the power transmission and distribution industry?

What position at the (power transmission and distribution?) job were you being interviewed for?

I don't know now... the more I think about it, the more I like it. Allow me to explain;

If the applicant provides extemporaneous answers to unanswerable questions posed with incomplete data, he exposes himself (herself) as a poseur, a phony wannabe engineer.

If on the other hand the applicant responds by saying "Not enough information, but lets get to the rest of the application to find out", then they are showing good critical thinking skills.

If they just shrug their shoulders and walk away mad at themselves for not knowing or worse yet mad at you for asking impossible questions, they show immaturity, indicating they were undesirable anyway, or at least worthy of only an entry level position. This may have been a more senior position, that process may have succeeded...