Interview Questions:
Professional Specialty
Richard Stokes, Human Resource Consultant
May 22, 2012
The Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) is a state-wide agency of the University of
Tennessee Institute for Public Service, and helps municipalities in Tennessee with technical
consulting, training and field services. Through MTAS cities and towns are supported by and
have available technical experts dedicated solely to their service.
MTAS links the expertise of Tennessee colleges and universities with cities and towns to provide
timely and valuable information and assistance on issues of critical importance.
ordinances and not enforce them.
PROFESSIONAL SPECIALTY
PSOO1
What was your responsibility at each stage of development of products or
equipment that you designed, fabricated, and tested?
PS002
What computerized equipment have you used for research and development?
PSOO3
What is the biggest problem, you have encountered in developing a system to
meet a set of rigid specifications?
PSOO4
Explain your method of logging and documenting your work.
PS005
What have you invented independently or for a company?
PS006
What have you designed that you are particularly proud of?
PS007
Do you have any inventions or patents that you researched and helped develop?
Engineering - Civil
PS008
Tell me about some of the structures you have actually built.
PS009
Tell me about some of the structures you have designed.
PSO10
What specific responsibility have you had for supervising actual construction?
PS011
Describe your highest level of authority on a project where you could make
changes in completion dates and designs.
PS012
How much experience have you had with preparing proposals?
PS013
How much experience do you have in purchasing equipment and business
supplies?
PS014
What is your experience with budget and cost analysis?
PS015
Describe a project with cost overruns and your method of dealing with the
interested parties.
PS016
What specific experience do you have with structural analysis?
PS017
Describe the methods of structural that work best for you.
PS018
What is your background with residential constructions?
PS019
What is your background in road construction?
PS020
What is your background with concrete highways and runways?
PS021
Describe your experience with clams and flood control.
PS022
To what extent have you interfaced with the architect and at what stages of the
project?
PS023
Describe your experience with integrated circuits.
PS024
Describe your experience with printed circuits.
PS025
Describe your experience with analog circuits.
PS026
Describe your experience with digital circuits.
PS027
What electronic component systems have you designed?
PS028
What patents do you hold?
PS029
Describe some projects where you had to troubleshoot and modify equipment to
get better results.
PS030
What is the nature of your experience regarding the operation of a power plant?
PS031
What is your specific experience with nuclear plant?
PS032
What is your specific experience with hydroelectric power plants?
PS033
What electrical power equipment have you designed?
PS034
Tell me about your specific experience in planning for quantities of power
generation.
PS035
How were you involved in the needs analysis of a power system?
PS036
Describe special project designs for which you have been responsible.
Engineering - Industrial
PS037
Sometimes an industrial engineer is referred to as an efficiency expert. Would
you comment on this statement?
PS038
Please list the manufacturing and service processes you have worked with.
PS039
Tell me about your approach to streamlining a manufacturing process?
PS040
What results are you looking for as an industrial engineer?
PS041
In your previous employment, how much of your time was spent on time study?
PS042
Tell me about the job categories for which you establish rates by doing a time
study.
PS043
How does knowledge of cost accounting integrate with industrial engineering?
PS044
What is your specific experience with incentive systems where a union was
involved?
PS045
If you were to set incentives for indirect labor, how would you do it?
PS046
How do you feel about facility layout work?
PS047
What criteria do you examine before you design a facility or work flow layout?
Engineering - Mechanical
PS048
Please list the mechanical engineering functions with which you have the most
experience.
PS049
Which products have you designed or helped design?
PS050
What is your experience in using computers to design products?
PS051
Explain to me whether you would prefer troubleshooting problems or actually
designing prototypes of products?
PS052
What experience do you have with writing or editing technical manuals?
PS053
Tell me about some results that were achieved when you recommended and
followed through on product modifications.
Law
PS054
What was your rank in your graduating class from law school?
PS055
Tell me about any law review articles which you have authored.
PS056
Tell me about any experience you have as a law clerk.
PS057
Specifically, what legal specialty areas do you have experience with?
PS058
In which specialty area would you like to build a practice?
PS059
Are you a member of the bar in this state?
PS060
In which other states are you eligible to practice law?
PS061
What legal documents its have you prepared?
PS062
What experience have you had conducting depositions?
PS063
What is the nature of your experience in researching and preparing memoranda
of law?
PS064
Tell me about any experience you have had in appellate world?
PS065
How much actual client contact have you had?
PS066
What experience have you had in negotiating with other attorneys on behalf of
your clients?
PS067
What trial experience do you have?
PS068
Tell me about your experience with pretrial motions?
PS069
Tell me about one of your more interesting experiences with a legal case?
Nursing
PS070
What is your attitude about primary care nursing versus team nursing?
PS07l
Do you see your career advancement through a clinical ladder or in nursing
administration?
PS072
How do you deal with the frustration of having the responsibility for patient care
but only limited authority in directing that care?
PS073
Which methods of medication administration are you familiar with?
PS074
What is your flexibility in being able to shift to different hospital departments as the
need arises?
PS075
How have Diagnostic Related Group (DRG's) affected your role in nursing?
PS076
How do you feel about performing non-nursing duties such as patient transport or
specimen delivery?
PS077
Describe the typical documentation you would be responsible for with a
Medical/Surgical patient.
PS078
Where do you see the opportunities for nurses to help control health care costs?
PS079
What effect do you think the use of agency nurses has on the quality of patient
care?
PS080
Which types of patients do you most enjoy caring for?
PS081
Which types of patients do you least enjoy caring for?
PS082
In which nursing service such as O.R., O.B. or Pediatrics, do you feel most
productive, and why?
PS083
How do you feel about caring for geriatric patients?
PS084
Please describe any special training experience that you have in passing
medications.
PS085
What is the most difficult part of a nurse's job?
Social Work
PS086
Please describe the setting, such as hospital, mental health clinic, or school that
best fits your talents.
PS087
With which client populations do you have "hands on" experience?
PS088
What special problem areas do you see in working with the elderly?
PS089
How much of your work day should consist of counseling clients?
PS090
Tell me about your experience in assisting clients with their financial planning.
PS091
Tell me about your experience in coordinating your efforts through the department
of Health and Human Services (HHS).
PS092
What approach do you take to providing liaison between your clients and various
social service agencies?
PS093
How do you establish criteria to determine where you should refer a client for
additional help?
PS094
What is your experience with family counseling?
PS095
Tell me about the teams, comprised of several professional disciplines, which you
have worked with.
PSO96
What is your reaction to the phone work, paperwork and documentation required
of a social worker?
PS097
What special attributes are needed by the social worker who works with physically
ill patients?
PS098
How would you react to a physician who shows little respect for social work or your
opinion during a patient conference?
PSO99
Please describe your approach to discharge-planning.
PS100
What is your specific experience with home health care?
PS101
How have Diagnostic Related Groups affected the role of the social worker in the
hospital?
PS102
What part of your work day are you willing to spend performing routine tasks such
as arranging client transportation?
PS103
What, in your opinion, is the real value of possessing an MSW degree?
PS104
What is your opinion of the value of community support and advocacy groups for
mental health?
PS105
How do you feel about using nonprofessional volunteers to work in the mental
health and social service field?
PS106
What kind of case management system have you worked with?
PS107
How familiar are you with the Baker Act laws?
PS108
Do you have Baker Act authority?
PS109
What specific experience do you have with discharge-planning?
PS110
Describe your experience working with other professional disciplines in order to
best serve your clients.
PS111
Where did you take your Social Work Internship and what were your primary
duties?
PS112
What client population have you most enjoyed working with?
PS113
In what area of mental health do you feel best suited to practice?
PS114
Tell me about your work with Social Service agencies funded by public grants.
PS115
What responsibility have you had for Social Service or Mental Health organizations?
PS116
What are the signs that indicate that a counselor is in danger of burnout?
PS117
What do you do to avoid counselor burnout?
Teaching
PS118
What is your approach to maintaining discipline in the classroom?
PS119
Please explain your method of preparing lesson plans for a week and for a month
of classes.
PS120
What criteria do you emphasize in evaluating a student's performance and in
assigning grades?
PS121
What is your attitude about the paperwork and record-keeping that are part of a
teacher's job?
PS122
How do you use parent conferences to aid the teaching process?
PS123
What is your personal feeling about assisting with student clubs, teams, and other
extra-curricular activities?
PS124
Please outline your experience with specific audiovisual media equipment.
PS125
Give me some examples of innovation and improvisation which you have
introduced in the classroom.
PS126
What method or criteria do you think should be used to measure a teacher's
performance?
PS127
How do you feel about the teacher's responsibility to be a positive role model for
students and to teach them a value system?
PS128
What training have you had in identifying students suffering from substance
abuse?
PS129
What subjects are you certified to teach?
PS130
If you have ever been suspended from teaching by a school system or regulatory
board, please explain the circumstances.
PS131
How have your students performed on statewide or regents' exams compared to
the overall student population?
PS132
What is your attitude about the frequency and value of quizzes and tests?
PS133
What difficulties have you encountered in teaching a curriculum to a classroom of
students with different learning capabilities?
PS134
If there is a negative to teaching that might drive you out of the profession, what
would it be?
PS135
With curriculum and procedures becoming more and more restrictive, how do
you bring freshness and originality to your work?
PS136
How do you think people outside of teaching view the profession of teaching?
PS137
How do you react to performing non-teaching duties, such as hall monitoring or
cafeteria duty?
PS138
How do you react to the fact that a businessman with comparable education
usually earns much more than a teacher?