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Posted Nov 16, 2012 2012-11-16 14:12 PST
Accepted Offer – Interviewed in Nov 2012 – Reviewed Nov 16, 2012
Interview Details –
First a bit to my person: I'm finishing my master's thesis in mechanical engineering and was looking for a job with the goal to have one before I finish my master in order to go with a clear head into holidays.
Sent a speculative application for a job that had to do with control systems engineering and was if possible in r&d. One week later I got contacted by Abb and asked me if I would be interested in the job. They sent me a job description per mail and I accepted to go to an interview. Asked beforehand what the dress code was, and a suit with no tie was advised. Interview was pretty friendly. Checked beforehand who the human resources contact is. Turns out, Abb always has some specialist for a specific department in human resources...in my case the guy was an electrical engineering recruiting specialist. Must say this is impressive and you do notice the difference. First part of the interview was with him for about one hour. He touched all the typical topics but with rather nice and very original questions pretty specific to my cv. The guy was smart and knew how to profile me with my cv . Anyway, in my opinion at this stage, if there is no bs in your cv and you're just sincere and show yourself from your good side you don't have to worry about anything, it will just flow. Don't expect the typical: tell me 3 weaknesses about yourself; but rather know them and prepare to link them to your cv.
Second part of the interview was with my future boss, a senior engineer and the boss from the twin department. Future boss led the interview 90% of the time. Questions were mostly about my experience and also told me a lot about the job. He did try once, when he ran out of questions to ask me, what I did bad at my job. I told him I had a pretty messy desk and tend to be too curious about the problems my colleagues are solving. They were happy with it...and I was being honest.
Interview Question – Had to do a 1min pitch for a personal project. The project is pretty technical and the HR guy asked me to explain/sell it to him in under 1min in simple terms. That threw me in cold water and looking back I would have done it differently. Think this was more about reaction and structure, than content. Also think he asked me this, because I said that in 3-5 years I would like to be in project management. Answer Question
Negotiation Details – Since I'm fresh out of my master I didn't have much room to negotiate. I knew what I was getting. Besides ABB here in Switzerland offer some of the best working conditions, at least on paper. The job would have to be really bad to make it suck overall and I really don't think that is going to happen.
Other Details - I applied online and the process took 2 weeks.
Overall Positive Experience
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