General Questions Flashcards
What were your best classes? Why?
- Calculus and complex functions were my best classes ~ I’ve always loved math. From a young age I would delve deeper into mathematics than my school could provide because I loved the challenge, and its objective nature. It was in the gratification that I felt after solving a problem.
- I also did very well in my Applied elasticity course because it was a problem solving course that involved a lot of analysis and physics problems.
What were your worst classes? Why?
- Humanities courses and English courses. I found that no matter how hard I tried to organize the material into a process, I couldn’t find a way to satisfy the grader or get the correct answer. Although I do have some interests in the humanities, I always struggled with getting decent grades in them.
- Manufacturing; I’ve always been a computer guy. Very early in my life I became relatively proficient with a computer and have grown connected to it. Most of the others in my manufacturing course were already experienced with the shop equipment and the instructor lumped me with them. I didn’t find much success with textbooks or online resources and my grades showed that I struggled with the course.
What were your proudest accomplishments during school?
Submission and review of both of my capstone projects for college and university and winning the prize for best mechanical engineering project at Applied Research Day at Algonquin.
Please explain your responsibilities at your last 2 jobs. What did you like best/least?
At 360, I was on a team that was responsible for entering all of the hard copy claims into the proprietary software and to determine the legitimacy of each claim. I later went on to do a first phase QC of these submitted claims. The best part about my job at 360 was the community and resources. They had a variety of things provided for employees that kept me happy from day to day. I didn’t like that it was organized into shifts and my desk was shared so that my work had to be wrapped up before the end of my work day. I like having the freedom to stay a bit late to finish tasks and projects.
At Honeywell, I was an AutoCAD operator and mostly worked with As-Builts. That is, producing drawings by working with the technician and PM’s markups or redlines. I enjoyed the team that I was in and the application of the skills that I have built through school. The part that was most troubling to me was when a job had to go on hold because they was a communication disconnect or some information was missing. I found that the most frustrating.
Why should you be considered for this position?
o Because I truly believe that I have what it takes to become the best designer at the SDC.
o I will do everything that I can to work my way towards becoming a great asset, and through time I strongly feel that I can prove myself.
o I am passionate, driven, and determined to succeed at this role and make a name for myself.
o I feel that in time, I will be able to fill the engineering needs of the company even beyond the scope of the job posting.
I’d like you to think about the greatest project challenge you met successfully, and the greatest challenge you failed to meet.
- Capstone project at university. It had many elements that I was not proficient in and I needed to do a great deal of research and grind my way through all of the problems that we encountered along the way. All of the hard work paid off and we successfully met our design objectives.
- In 2015, as you know ~ my brother passed away during my winter semester at school. After dealing with this family emergency, I attempted to go back to school and finish my year. I found it too difficult and withdrew myself from the semester.
What strengths do you have that we haven’t talked about
analytical, mathematical, BBQ planning, beginner at programming/development but passionate about learning it
Describe the three most important events in your education and/or work experience. (all 3 grads)
Graduation from high school, college, and university. Each graduation was a rite of passage for me and I felt very strongly about each one. My graduation from university was the most important to me and I am the most proud of that achievement.
Tell me about the three most important people in your education and/or work experience.***
a. Adrian Subryan, for bringing me in as a summer student and helping me find the engineering path that I wish to continue as a career.
b. My Project course supervisor in college. She was a huge help to me for both technical understanding of engineering, and management skills to help deal with a project team as well as having high expectations of me to perform.
c. My high school calculus teacher ~ he pushed me to take on new challenges in math and opened my eyes to what was to be expected after high school if I were to pursue mathematics.
What are your career objectives, and what actions have you taken toward achieving them?
I want to be a technical expert in my field and want to eventually lead others to becoming experts in their field. I have taken a keen interest in leading others.
Completing my college and university in mechanical engineering has set me up to prove myself.
Leading and coaching others has been something that I have developed throughout my life. In high school I was the captain of our school rugby team and in college I was the project leader for our capstone project.
In what technical areas do you consider yourself proficient? And in what areas do you feel you need some development?
a. I feel that I am most proficient with computer skills; namely, getting familiar with new software. Although I haven’t needed to use software to solve problems lately, I am sure that I can pick them up quickly and I am looking forward to doing so.
b. In general, I find that I have a tough time with orally presenting technical information to those that I am not acquainted without having done a great deal of preparation. I need to work on both my technical eloquence as well as communicating effectively while under pressure to perform.
What are the biggest adjustments you would have to make to succeed in the job for which you are interviewing?
The biggest adjustment for me will be to tackle problems that have unique solutions and don’t have a textbook or resource that I can depend on to solve the problem. Getting used to a rigid work/life schedule and finding the balance.
Describe what you know about Honeywell:
Honeywell is American but it is a multinational company that is headquartered in New Jersey. Last year Honeywell was in the top 100 of the fortune 500 companies and has approximately 130 thousand employees worldwide. The current CEO and president is is Darius Adamczyk (a-dom-sick) who replaced Dave Cote recently.
- Honeywell is made up of 4 divisions - Aerospace, HBT (Homes and Building Technology, PMT (Performance Material and Technologies and SPS (Safety and Productivity Solutions)
- This department is the SDC (Solution Design Center) and it is a centralized (North America) engineering department and it is a part of HBT. We Do Hardware, software, graphics for HVAC, same for Fire and Security.
- The most iconic thing to me about Honeywell is seeing their sticker on thermostats or home security systems.
