URS Graduate Civil Engineer Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed Nov 2011 (took 4+ weeks)

Interaction started with on campus recruiting. They were conducting interviews for multiple positions, with lots of different majors.

They had an info session the day before the interview where they covered a lot of the basics about the company, I guess to eliminate some of the basic questions we might have during the interview so they had more time to learn about us.

The interview the next day was pretty typical on-campus-interview stuff. Strictly behavioral, typical questions about class projects, prior work experience, group work, etc. The recruiter said he'd get back to me regarding whether or not I'd receive a second round interview within two weeks.

The recruiter emailed me after a week letting me know I'd gotten a second round interview where I'd do an office visit. We set up a date for three weeks later.

The second round interview consisted of seven 1:1 interviews with a variety of people within the company. Since I was applying for a general Civil position, I met individually with three department heads for different divisions within the office (Hydraulics/Hydrology, Water Infrastructure, and Transportation).

I also met with a couple of engineers that had been in industry for 10-12 years, and a couple of engineers who'd been there for 3-4 years. Each interview was basically the same, which made it easier throughout the day since they would often ask similar questions.

There was also a technical/semi-technical presentation portion in which all of the people that had/would interview me throughout the day watched as I gave a presentation for a project I'd worked on in one of my senior level classes. There was a 30 minute time slot for presentation/Q&A. It wasn't bad. Nobody really grilled me on anything.

After lunch with a couple of the most recent hires, I finished up the 1:1 interviews before meeting with HR at the end of the day to discuss insurance/benefits.

A couple of weeks later one of the department heads called me and told me that they'd be extending an offer. He asked for a start date and salary expectations.

Seven 1:1 interviews, lunch, and a presentation seemed really overwhelming when I got the itinerary for the interview a couple of weeks before, but honestly it really wasn't bad. After two interviews I'd basically heard every question that anyone else ended up asking me, and once that anxiety was gone it was like having normal conversations with people.

And my uncle pointed out to me afterwards that if a company is going to invest the time and resources into such a thorough second round interview, you're probably already in pretty good shape.

I think the second round interview style used is great because it gave me a chance to interact with people at a variety of stages in their career and gave me more of a chance to see the types of people I'd be working with. When choosing between offers that I received, I ultimately chose URS because I felt like I knew more about what I was getting myself into than another company in which I'd just interviewed with one department head.