Advent Design interview questions

Discuss some of the projects that you worked on? Describe some robotic systems that you worked on? How would you control a PLC program (the flow of the program)? I said I would probably use a step counter to know where in the process everything is. They called this an index or something. Do you know what an SQI instruction is? No, I don't. That is good because we don't use them. (These types of questions are a clue to the fact that you will be doing aftermarket engineer/setup of some other companies software). Do not expect a decent amount of pay or respect. Talked about some servo applications. Talked about programming. You can tell when people have no idea what you are talking about which is unfortunate because everyone thinks they are a genius for figuring out some aftermarket software with maybe 10 useful instructions. Not like there is any respect for the fact that you wrote database software since high school and made visual interfaces with C++ and most every known programming language in the world. After the interview (a day or two later) they wanted some samples from other jobs. They started the usual PLC stupid questions: What about from scratch... Can you program from scratch? They want to see a step index for every part of the program like machine starts to move and it is step 10. Machine moves forward is step 20 and machine rotates part is step 30. If you have to insert a step you can make a step 25. This is BASIC type stuff here. Just very difficult to meet their request for a program after the interview. You either believe someone or you don't. Successful engineers are getting paid. Some of them are wearing many hats because their current company is being sold and they are too busy for games. Some refuse to hand over samples of work that are not theirs to hand over legally. Just be ready for Advent to not believe you and set aside the idea that you may need a lot of extra time to jump through their hoops. Don't expect any respect here though as they seem to want to commoditize you as an engineer and probably underpay you. This is judging by the ridiculousness of the questions. I also asked to return in the early morning to show (in the limited scope of fair use) some work. I wanted to go early and not be late to my existing job and of course they schedule something later and outside the window that I asked so I can go to my existing job late. Thanks. My recommendation is to get out of engineering. Here are some other stupid PLC questions I have seen: What colors are such and such a thermocouple? Why 4-20mA? How would you measure current? (They want you to say you have to break the circuit to insert the meter in series with the circuit to measure current.) What parameter (P, I, or D) needs to be adjusted on this PID if the curve looks like such and such? What is wrong with this part of the schematic? What is this symbol (know the standard symbologies for pressure switch and temperature switch and etc). Why does this program not work? (It wasn't calling the subroutine.) If you know the answers to stupid PLC questions (these are all true interview questions) then just forget about getting the job becauses people are used to mediocrity. That is what the world is made of mediocrity. Sometimes you gotta take their underpaying jobs to try and get what you need in life. Maybe they will give a personality test with stupid questions like: Do you get angry? Are you happy? Do you ever get angry? And then after the test they can tell you that you are a narcissistic psychopathic serial killer based on 10 stupid questions. All so they can avoid paying you a fair wage for real experience. Unfortunately, going more technical doesn't pay more either. FPGAs or power system design tops out at about the same. You are lucky to be at 6 figures in engineering formally. Maybe FPGA is the new hot thing but it is already being commoditized. Expect 12 people in Pakistan to replace you (true story) or 4 project managers to tell you how complicated the project is and set a deadline you had no say in (also true story). I just want my tax money back for such bogusness, but Lockheed is for stupid engineers that don't care cause they have a line directly to my wallet through Uncle Sam. TL/DR: Expect to be commoditized and threatened with long hours to move some aftermarket robot arm. Maybe you can write home to your grandma about the robot arm but it don't impress real engineers. The interview process was haphazard and did not respect my time at another job. I don't mind requests but I also have to respect the law. I cannot divulge you customers (Lockheed and Northrup) designs to a future employer so I really can't give material in the email to you. Thus I had to write some new generic program from scratch but that wasn't good enough. Sometimes, you have to read between the lines and accept the blessing in the situation.