Robotics Interview Tips

Robotics Job Interview Preparation Tips

Robotics technology draws on many different science and engineering disciplines. The interview tips given below will help you prepare for and face a robotics job interview.

• Research
  Research is the first and often under appreciated part of an interview preparation process. The research phase has three goals.
  First, you have to find out about the job. This may include but is not limited to the job specification, future prospects, work environment, hours etc. This will help you decide if the job is the one you were looking for and if you have all the required qualifications and skills.
  Secondly you should have some basic knowledge of the company, such as its mission statement, major products and projects, clients, competitors, role in the market, recent mention in news if any, work culture and environment etc. This will give you a general idea of how to conduct yourself in the interview and help you answer questions like why do you wish to work for this company.
  Finally you should find out as much as you can about the interview itself such as timing, who is conducting the interview, is it going to be a single interview or a round of interviews, types of questions expected etc.
• Revise Resume
  Don't just take a printout of your generic resume. Take some time to revise and redesign your resume in order to emphasize the points relevant to the job in questions. Also make sure that you have some things other than those listed on your resume to say about yourself regarding your fitness for the job. You should also be very familiar with your resume and be able and prepared to answer questions about any points mentioned in it.
• Basic Concepts and Practices
  The specifics of your robotics job interview preparation will vary based on the company, job and your own experience. You should remember the basic concepts, theories and practices related to the robotics; especially those which are more concerned with the job you are applying for. This is especially important if you are a fresher and even if you have experience there is no substitute of conceptual knowledge. Implementation methods may vary depending on the company but the underlying concepts remain more or less the same.
• Latest Development
  You should be a ware of the latest developments in the field of robotics, especially if the company you are applying for job in has some role in developing them, even if they are not exactly related to your own specialty. Ignorance of such developments would indicate a lack of interest and enthusiasm and would create a bad impression
• Prepare For Questions
  You should prepare for expected questions both personal and technical. Interview questions related to robotics are not as easy to find as those of some other disciplines but you can gather a fair enough collection if you try. Also robotics draws from a variety of other disciplines such as CAD / CAM, electronic, mechanical and computer engineering, artificial intelligence, logical mathematics, physics, math etc. You should prepare the questions on subjects that are relevant to your job and specialty. It's a bad idea to rely on generic, readymade answers. Prepare your own answers and cite examples from personal experiences whenever possible.
  Not using readymade answers is even more important in case of personal questions. You can study the generic answers to get an idea about how to answer the questions but prepare your own personalized answers for the actual interview. The only reason you'll get selected after giving the generic answers to questions like 'where do you see yourself in 5 years from now' would be either you technical knowledge is exceptional or other candidates did worse than you.
• Prepare Questions
  In most job interview you would be asked if you have any questions to ask. Never say no. Although it's much preferable to be spontaneous and ask the question that comes to your mind during interview it's a good idea to have some question already prepared just in case you can't think of any at the time. Make sure that they represent your own concerns and are not too generic. Also ask them in a non rehearsed and spontaneous manner.
• Terminology
  Make sure you know the correct full forms of the acronyms as well as acronyms of the common terms and / or concepts related to the robotics industry.
• Prepare Notes
  You would never have enough time to study every thing you need for the interview and you may have to face multiple interviews before landing a job. Always make short notes of the topics you'll like to remember or which are relevant to the interview. This will help you do a quick revision as well as make the preparations for future interview much easier. Do not make the notes so short that you can't understand them some month or year from the time that you made them.

The points above are concerned with the preparation for a robotics job interview. The actual job interview would be more or less same as most other job interview. You should review tips about how to present yourself during a personal interview but if you have prepared properly for the interview the rest should be relatively easy.