Questions to Ask an Engineer
Questions for a student, a career changer or anyone interviewing a working engineer at a career day, in an informational interview or for a school project, whatever the discipline: mechanical, electrical, civil, chemical or software. They follow the order a good conversation takes: the work itself, how the person got into it, the hard problems, the career, and the advice they would give. Each has a note on what a telling answer sounds like, what to ask next, or what to check for yourself.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
The work
What kind of engineer are you, and what do you make or keep running?
Why ask it
A title says little: two mechanical engineers can spend their days on things as far apart as a hospital's ventilation and a bicycle gearbox. A good answer ends in an object or a system you could point at. If it stays abstract, ask what you would see if you stood behind their desk.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Why ask it
If the reply comes out like a job description, ask what they did yesterday instead. A real day has particular things in it: a meeting, an hour on a model or a drawing, a call with a supplier, something that broke. Note how much of it was spent alone and how much with other people, since that mix is what you would be signing up for.
What are you working on right now, as far as you are allowed to say?
Why ask it
The last clause matters. Defense, medical and client work often cannot be discussed, and offering the way out keeps things friendly. Whatever they can share, ask what stage it is at, because the first sketch and the last month before delivery are very different jobs.
What part of the job do you look forward to, and what part do you put off?
Why ask it
The part they put off is usually something specific, such as cost reports or chasing approvals, and you would inherit it along with the good part. Hold both halves up against yourself before you move on.
How much of your time is design and calculation, and how much is meetings, paperwork and email?
Why ask it
The split surprises people who picked the field for the math. Get a rough share, and notice whether they resent the second half or count it as the job. If documentation fills most of the week, ask who reads it: often a regulator, a client or the next engineer.
Do you work at a desk, on a site, in a lab or on a plant floor, and how is the time split?
Why ask it
This sorts the disciplines faster than their names do. One civil engineer may be in boots half the week while a chip designer never leaves a screen. If you already know you would hate one of those settings, this answer narrows your list more than any other.
Do you work mostly on your own or as part of a team, and who is on it?
Why ask it
Have them count the people and name the roles: four in one room is a different job from forty spread over three offices. Then find out which piece is theirs alone. If you picture engineering as solitary work, this is the answer to test that picture against.
Who do you work with most closely who is not an engineer?
Why ask it
Technicians, machinists, architects, plant operators, sales staff, inspectors: the answer shows who has to be persuaded before anything gets built. An engineer who talks about those people with respect usually gets better information from them, which is a habit to copy.
What tools or software do you use every day, and which did you learn on the job?
Why ask it
Write the names down, because job postings in that field will ask for them. The second half shows what school did not cover. If they say a spreadsheet does most of the work, believe them.
How much math do you really use, and what kind?
Why ask it
The answer varies a great deal by role, so do not let one engineer settle it for you. Some will say software does the heavy calculation and their part is judging whether the result is believable, while others still reach for algebra or statistics most days. Get the last time they worked something out by hand.
How long does a project take from the first idea to the finished thing?
Why ask it
A software feature might ship in weeks, while a bridge or an aircraft part can take years. Some people need to see results often and some are content with one big one, so be honest about which you are. Then ask how many projects they have seen through from start to finish.
Who checks your work before it is built or released?
Why ask it
Engineering runs on review: a second engineer, a formal check, a test, an outside inspector. Named steps are what a careful workplace sounds like. If the answer is 'nobody, really', ask how they catch their own mistakes.
Could you explain what you do the way you would to a ten-year-old?
Why ask it
Good at a career day or for a school write-up, since you get a quote anyone can follow. An engineer who manages it in two sentences usually knows the work inside out. If it comes out in jargon, ask what the thing is for and who would notice if it stopped working.
The path
Why did you become an engineer?
Why ask it
Expect a childhood story about taking things apart, a teacher, a parent in the trade, or simply being good at math and physics. No one of these is a better reason than the others. The useful follow-up is whether the reason that got them in is the reason they stay.
How did you choose your discipline over the others?
Why ask it
Plenty of engineers picked a branch young and with little to go on, and will say so. Have them describe what they thought the field was then and what it turned out to be. If they would choose differently now, the reason is worth more than the choice.
What did you study, and where does your degree show up in the work now?
Why ask it
Some will name one course they still lean on, such as statics or circuits, and several they have not touched since. That tells you which classes to take seriously. Routes without a traditional degree exist in some fields and places, so ask how common they are where this person works.
How hard was engineering school, and what got you through it?
Why ask it
People tend to remember one course that nearly sank them, and its name is more use to you than a general 'it was tough'. The second half is the part to keep: a study group, office hours, a lighter term, a tutor. If they sailed through, ask what the classmates who struggled or switched out had in common.
Which class or project in school was closest to the real job?
Why ask it
Often it is a team design project, a lab or a competition team, not a lecture. If you are choosing electives or clubs, this is a direct pointer. Find out what made it realistic: a budget, a deadline, or teammates who did not pull their weight.
Did you do internships or co-ops, and how did you get the first one?
Why ask it
The first placement is the hard one, and the story behind it is often a career fair, a professor or a relative. Ask what they did there day to day. A plain answer such as 'I updated drawings all summer' is useful, because early roles are often like that.
How did you get your first engineering job?
Why ask it
The route matters more than the employer, since routes can be repeated: an internship that became an offer, a campus recruiter, a contact from a project team. Follow with what they think got them picked, and how much their grades came into it.
What was the biggest surprise in your first year of work?
Why ask it
A surprise is something school did not prepare them for, which makes it a preview of your own first year. People often mention how slowly things move, how much of the job is writing, or how much depends on other departments.
Do you hold a professional license or certification, and does your work require one?
Why ask it
Who may use the title, sign drawings or approve a design differs by country, state and discipline, and so do the exams and experience involved. Do not take one person's route as the rule. Ask how it works where they practice, and who you should check with where you plan to work.
What did getting licensed involve for you, step by step?
Why ask it
Only for someone who said yes to the question before. Have them give the order of the steps and how long each one took, then ask which they would start earlier. Requirements may have changed since they qualified, so confirm the current ones with the licensing body for your area.
Have you gone back for a master's degree or other training, and was it worth the time?
Why ask it
What a further degree is worth depends on the field and the employer, and some employers help pay for it. Ask what it changed: the work they were given, the pay, or nothing much. An engineer who decided against it has an equally useful answer.
Hard problems
What is the hardest problem you have worked on?
Why ask it
Give them time, because the good ones take a minute to set up. Let them explain the technical part even if you lose the thread, then ask what made it hard: the physics, the deadline, the budget or the people. It is not always the physics.
How do you approach a problem you have never seen before?
Why ask it
You are after a method you can borrow: write down what is known, find someone who has done something similar, make a rough estimate, test the smallest version. 'I just figure it out' means they have not put it into words yet, so ask what they did in the first hour of the last one.
What limits your designs most: cost, time, safety rules, weight, or something else?
Why ask it
Most engineering jobs have one constraint that shapes the rest, and naming it explains the work better than a list of projects. Ask for the last time it ruled out a design they preferred, and what got built instead. How they talk about that loss shows whether the job would suit an idealist.
How do you know when a design is safe enough?
Why ask it
Expect to hear about codes, standards, safety margins, testing and a second person's review. Which of those apply depends on the industry and the place, so ask which ones they work to. A thoughtful engineer will admit that judgment comes into it and say how they check their own.
Have you ever had to say no, or stop something, because you thought it was not safe or not right?
Why ask it
This is the ethics question, so put it gently and take whatever level of detail they offer without pressing for names. A good answer covers who they told and what happened next. If it has never come up, ask who they would go to if it did.
Can you tell me about a design that did not work, and how you found out?
Why ask it
Engineers who answer this easily tend to work somewhere that examines failure in the open. A good account has a test, a measurement or a complaint that exposed the fault, and a change made afterwards. If every project went fine, try asking about a prototype.
What do you do when a calculation, a computer model and a physical test disagree?
Why ask it
A strong question for a school project, because the answer shows how engineers reason. Many will trust the physical test and then go looking for why the model was off. A story about a faulty sensor or a unit mix-up gives you the best quote of the interview.
What is a mistake that taught you something you still use?
Why ask it
Smaller and safer than asking for their worst failure, so the story tends to be more candid. The lesson usually comes out as a habit: check the units, visit the site, read the whole specification, talk to the person who will build it. Write the habit down.
What have you worked on that you can point to and say 'I did that'?
Why ask it
Pride shows what someone values. Some will name a structure or a product out in the world, some a problem nobody else could crack, some a person they trained. Notice which kind it is, and whether that kind of reward would be enough for you.
The career
What does career growth look like for an engineer where you work?
Why ask it
Some employers have a technical ladder, and others expect strong engineers to move into management. Ask which way this person went and what they gave up for it. Their company's ladder may not exist anywhere else, so ask the same of the next engineer you meet.
Do you still do hands-on technical work, or do you mostly manage people and projects now?
Why ask it
Promotion often means less time on the engineering itself, and people feel differently about that. If they miss the technical work, ask when the shift happened and whether they could have turned it down. You will know what to watch for ten years in.
What skills besides the technical ones matter most in your job?
Why ask it
Writing and explaining come up a lot, along with estimating and handling clients. A stock answer becomes something you can act on if you ask for one time a non-technical skill saved a project.
What are the hours like, and are there crunch periods?
Why ask it
Hours depend on the employer, the industry and the stage of a project, so treat the answer as one data point. Ask what the worst month looked like and how often it comes around. Site, plant and on-call work can mean nights or travel, and it is fair to ask about that directly.
What have you had to learn in the last couple of years to keep up?
Why ask it
A recent, named thing tells you how fast the field moves: a new edition of a code, a simulation package, a programming language, a manufacturing method. Find out how they learned it and whether the employer gave them time or money to do it. Some licenses and certifications come with continuing-education requirements that differ by place, so ask whether theirs does.
How has your field changed since you started, and what do you think is coming?
Why ask it
Start with the change they have lived through, which is firmer ground than prediction: new software, new materials, new rules, more automation. Then ask which of their skills aged badly. Anything about the future is one person's opinion, and a second engineer may see it differently.
Is there demand for engineers in your specialty, and where are the jobs?
Why ask it
They can speak to what they see: how hard it is to hire, who is recruiting, which towns or industries the work clusters in. They cannot speak for the whole market, and it shifts. Check anything you plan around against current job listings for your area.
What can someone starting out in your field expect to earn?
Why ask it
Pay is a fair topic when you ask about the field and not about them, and you should leave them room to decline. Figures vary by region, industry and year. Treat any number as a starting point and compare it with published salary data for where you live.
Have you changed industries or specialties, and how hard was the move?
Why ask it
One for career changers. Analysis, project sense and drafting tools often travel, while knowledge of a particular industry has to be rebuilt. Ask what they had to relearn and whether the move cost them a step in title or pay.
If you were not in this specialty, which kind of engineering would you choose?
Why ask it
A light question that brings real information, because engineers see the neighboring disciplines up close and know which ones they envy. Ask why. The reason is often about pace or seeing the finished result, not the subject.
Advice
What advice would you give someone who is thinking about engineering?
Why ask it
The expected closer, and the first answer tends to be general: work hard, stay curious. Follow with 'what would you tell your own kid or niece?' and it usually gets more candid, including who should think twice.
What should I be doing now, at my stage, to get ready?
Why ask it
Say what your stage is first: high school, first year of a degree, ten years into another career. The advice for each is different. A specific answer such as 'join the robotics team' or 'learn one CAD package' is one you can start on this month.
What do you look for in a new graduate you hire or work alongside?
Why ask it
If they have interviewed candidates, ask what the last good one did. Projects built outside class, and being able to explain them, are the kind of thing people mention. If they have never hired, ask what the best new person on their team did in the first month.
What kind of person tends to be unhappy in this work?
Why ask it
Easier to answer honestly than 'who is it right for'. You will hear traits, such as needing quick results or disliking detail. Check them against yourself without flinching, because it is cheaper to find out now.
Knowing what you know now, would you choose engineering again?
Why ask it
Save it for near the end, when they have warmed up. A quick yes is common, and the telling part is the 'but' that follows. If they hesitate, ask what they would do instead, and do not argue with it.
Is there a project I could build or a place I could visit that would show me what the work is like?
Why ask it
This gets you something to do once the conversation is over. A site visit, an open house or a build-it-yourself project teaches more than a reading list. If they offer to show you around, say yes on the spot and settle a date.
Is there anyone else you think I should talk to?
Why ask it
The standard last question of an informational interview, and it works: one engineer knows others in different disciplines and at different stages. Ask whether you may use their name when you write, and send your thanks within a day or two.
What should I have asked you that I did not?
Why ask it
It hands them the floor, and what comes out is often the thing they most wanted to say. For a school project this is frequently the best material. Leave a silence after you ask, because people need a moment.
How to interview an engineer about their work
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you talk
Career day, coffee or school project
At a career day you may get five minutes with a line behind you, so bring three questions: one from The work, one from The path and one from Advice. An informational interview usually runs twenty to thirty minutes, which is room for eight to ten. A school project needs quotes, so plan fewer questions and more follow-ups, and ask at the start whether you may take notes or record.
Look up the discipline first
Read a short description of the person's branch of engineering and their employer's own site before you meet. Time spent having a civil engineer explain what civil engineering is cannot be spent on what only they can tell you. Opening with 'I read that your firm does water treatment plants, which part is yours?' gets you further in the first minute.
Say what stage you are at
An engineer answers a fifteen-year-old, a second-year student and a career changer with a mortgage differently, and should. Open with one sentence about where you are and what you are trying to decide. It also lets them skip what does not apply, such as the licensing questions if you are years away from them.
Put the deciding question early
Somewhere on the list is the question whose answer could put you off the field or settle you on it: the math, the hours, the years of school. Ask it in the first ten minutes, while there is time to follow it up. Pay, and whether they would choose engineering again, land better near the end, once you have been talking for a while.
During the conversation
Start with the work, then go back to the beginning
The groups on this page run in the order that tends to work: what they do now, how they got there, the hard problems, the career, and advice last. Advice means more once you have heard the job described, and it comes out more specific from someone who has just spent twenty minutes describing their own work.
Get the story behind the rule
Engineers are trained to state the general case, so a question about failure or safety tends to come back as a rule. The rule is true and you could have guessed it. What you cannot guess is the test rig that gave a reading nobody believed, or the drawing that went out with the wrong tolerance, so under Hard problems keep asking which project, what was measured and what they changed.
Let them get technical, then ask for the plain version
Do not stop an engineer who is deep in an explanation: the enthusiasm is information too. When they finish, say what you understood in your own words and let them correct you. For a school project, the corrected version is the one to quote.
Respect what they cannot share
Client names, unreleased products, defense work and anything touching an accident or a dispute may be off limits, and the engineer is not being evasive by saying so. Move to a general version of the question, such as what kind of problem it was, and carry on.
End on time
Say how long you asked for and stop there unless they offer more. Keep the final two minutes for the last two questions on the list, who else to talk to and what you should have asked, because those are the ones that lead somewhere after you leave.
Making sense of what you hear
One engineer is one job
Two people with the same degree can have working lives with almost nothing in common, depending on the industry, the size of the employer and where they are. Before you decide the field is or is not for you, try to talk to two or three engineers, ideally in different disciplines or at different career stages, and ask each of them a few of the same questions.
Check anything about licenses, requirements and pay
What an engineer tells you about licensing, degree requirements or salaries is true of their place and their year. Rules differ between countries and states and change over time. Before you plan around any of it, look at the licensing body for your area, the admission pages of the schools you are considering, and current job listings.
Notice where they speed up and where they sigh
What someone talks about quickly and at length is what the job gives them. What they mention with a shrug is its cost. Set both against your own temperament: a person who lights up over a week spent chasing one fault is describing a kind of patience you either have or would need to build.
Separate the field from the employer
Long hours, slow approvals or a lack of mentoring may belong to one company and not to engineering. When something worries you, ask whether it was the same at their previous job. If they have only had one, mark it as a question for the next person.
Afterwards
Write it up the same day
Notes taken in the moment are fragments, and the detail that made a story useful is gone by the end of the week. That evening, write out the three things that surprised you and the one thing you would now do differently.
Send a specific thank-you
Within a day or two, send a short note that names one thing they said and what you did or plan to do with it. If they offered a site visit, an introduction or a look at your resume, this is where you take them up on it, with dates you could manage.
For a school project, confirm what you may print
Check the spelling of their name, their job title and how they want their employer described. Read back any direct quote you plan to use. Some employers want to approve what staff say in public, so ask whether they need to clear it with anyone before you hand the project in.