Company electricians placement test

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__dan said:
You can also test to see if a guy can do math in his head, what is 32 x 32 without using paper or calculator.
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That particular example, using powers of two, will also pass a computer geek who still cannot do math (other than binary) in his head. :)
[25 x 25 = 210 =1024]
 
What do you do when the oil light comes on in your service truck?

The correct answer is to stop and look for any leaks. Check the oil level with the dipstick. If there are no apparent leaks (like busted oil pan) add oil to the full mark.
If the oil pan is busted, take your hand tools and start walking because you will most likely be fired!:eek:
 
1. What is the ampacity of a 12 AWG THHN conductor?
Most will answer 20 amps.
This question was on a placement test a few years ago and the answer key was wrong.

2. Draw a 2 wire and 3 wire motor control circuit
 
tom baker said:
1. What is the ampacity of a 12 AWG THHN conductor?
Most will answer 20 amps.
This question was on a placement test a few years ago and the answer key was wrong.
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I love questions that you cannot answer without more information for a live interview, because the right guy will ask for what he needs, but they are just useless on a multiple choice test.
 
cadpoint said:
With a closed book, ask for the wire size of 100 Amp and 200 AMP grounding wire!
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That's a trick question, what is a grounding wire? :)


A few years ago I made up a TRUE/FALSE practice test for apprentices, about 40 questions every answer was FALSE. Very simple stuff but can test your knowledge of the code vs. common industry myths.

Ex: T/F

A 250', 3" EMT run between a pull box and a panel with 3-90? bends requires two pulling points because portions of the run exceed 100'.
 
GSXR600 said:
Hi
The company I work for is putting together a test to test new employees tech skills. I wanted to try and get some questions from you guys that may be beneficial to ask.
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What type of electrical work are you doing? Ask questions that you would want your employees to know the answers to.

If I'm running a residential service company looking for guys that know a lot about PLCs is not really necessary. It's nice for guys to be well rounded but to make money they only need to know the job they are hired to do.
 
Have him ask you questions & see if you know the answers. You will find out his depth of code expertise and field experience. When you make up questions, do you need to research the code or are they common knowledge? I mean did you know the 6 rules the first time asked or did you do your homework to learn. Being fair can have it's advantages.
 
cadpoint said:
With a closed book, ask for the wire size of 100 Amp and 200 AMP grounding wire!
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I disagree with you and actually feel that it is counterproductive and sends the wrong message. Here is why. I was teethed on Aircraft and Nuclear Submarines. You are required to have the technical manual open in front of you at all times when doing work. That is extreme for construction electrical, but journeymen and above should be trained and in the habit of opening the code book for their answers, instead of there memory bank. Memory is fallible and the code changes. You would be far better served asking 5 code questions and requiring the answer as well as the code section in a certain time frame. I would much know that the guy is familiar with the code book than ANY one code.
 
Strathead said:
I disagree with you and actually feel that it is counterproductive and sends the wrong message. Here is why. I was teethed on Aircraft and Nuclear Submarines. You are required to have the technical manual open in front of you at all times when doing work. That is extreme for construction electrical, but journeymen and above should be trained and in the habit of opening the code book for their answers, instead of there memory bank. Memory is fallible and the code changes. You would be far better served asking 5 code questions and requiring the answer as well as the code section in a certain time frame. I would much know that the guy is familiar with the code book than ANY one code.
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With the advent of searchable code in electronic form, there is less emphasis these days on the ability to flip through the code book to find the relevant sections, but the ability to follow cross references to other parts of the code is still tested.
Just as we still (sometimes) teach kids to do pencil and paper math, using a hard copy code is a useful skill, but maybe in the future the efficient use of the electronic form will be the main skill used on the job.
 
GoldDigger said:
With the advent of searchable code in electronic form, there is less emphasis these days on the ability to flip through the code book to find the relevant sections, but the ability to follow cross references to other parts of the code is still tested.
Just as we still (sometimes) teach kids to do pencil and paper math, using a hard copy code is a useful skill, but maybe in the future the efficient use of the electronic form will be the main skill used on the job.
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I agree with what you have written. It goes along with my premise as opposed to contradicting it in my opinion. My point being more that you need to refer to the references instead of relying on your memory. If you use a Calculated industries calculator, a smart phone application, an Ugly's book etc., as long as you are in the correct versions it has the same impact. Those young guys have only lived through a couple code cycles, I on the other hand go to look something up and go, "What? when did they change that?"
 
Strathead said:
I agree with what you have written. It goes along with my premise as opposed to contradicting it in my opinion. My point being more that you need to refer to the references instead of relying on your memory. If you use a Calculated industries calculator, a smart phone application, an Ugly's book etc., as long as you are in the correct versions it has the same impact. Those young guys have only lived through a couple code cycles, I on the other hand go to look something up and go, "What? when did they change that?"
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There is currently a technical problem to be solved on how to give access to an electronic form of the Code during an exam without giving access to too many other resources like Google. So we are, for now, limited to an open-book Code exam with the clean copy of the book furnished by the test giver. With that stipulation I do agree that we agree completely. :)
 
The exact question (closed-book) that I stated was exactly what I ran into going into a interview.

My point is (and I'm sure it was their point also) was that there is a lot of information that as a technician in the
trade that depending on experience, one should just know.

Any company could ask just about anything. Open or closed book is just the companies or owner's opinion.

Now I understand the point of it being an open book.

I've taken many tests over the years, I've seen tests where the questions couldn't even be answered with the multiple choices available.
To having taken tests where I pondered why I even signed up to so humbled.
 
GSXR600 said:
Hi
The company I work for is putting together a test to test new employees tech skills. I wanted to try and get some questions from you guys that may be beneficial to ask.
Click to expand...

Much can depend upon what the job position requires.

A position for someone to do motor controls you would want to ask questions that pertain to motor controls, one of the most popular are the drawing of a simple start stop control circuit to drawing a complete reversing motor starter control circuit, as well as 9 lead dual voltage motor hook up WYE or delta 12 lead to me is a bit too much unless the job would require the knowledge.

But for a position of someone who might only do residential/light commercial, some of the good questions should be about code, theory, and circuit layout as well as how to save cost on designing a layout that will save in wire runs, also conduit bending knowledge is a good area to know.

one of the most common ones I always asked was to draw a circuit to switch a light from two location using 3-way switch's, then ask to draw the same but switched from 4 locations.

understanding derating is often a big issue with many who proclaim to know what their doing, many don't even know to use the 90? column for THHN or 60? for NM or SE or SER that often lead to over or under derating, another often missed area is 440, what size breaker and conductors should you run for an A/C unit with a minimum circuit of 22 amps and a max of 30 amps.

Generally I do a verbal interview in which I give some off the cuff questions just to see if a person is trying to BS their way into the job with little to no knowledge of electrical, it doesn't take me long to send the BS'ers on their way, if they do show some knowledge then I will give them a much more in depth test just to see how much they know and where they are at, because if I hire them I want to know what I can trust them to be able to do, if they they do show that they do have a good grasp of code and some theory, then I talk to them to see how open they are to learn more, you don't need to get people who think they already know it all and have closed their mind to learning more, this is an ever evolving field that requires people to always keep an open mind to learning new things and ways of doing them, nothing like getting someone that is going to do things their way no matter what any one says.

Basically you want to know what they really know or not know and your test/interview should be designed around this.
 
Strathead said:
I disagree with you and actually feel that it is counterproductive and sends the wrong message. Here is why. I was teethed on Aircraft and Nuclear Submarines. You are required to have the technical manual open in front of you at all times when doing work. That is extreme for construction electrical, but journeymen and above should be trained and in the habit of opening the code book for their answers, instead of there memory bank. Memory is fallible and the code changes. You would be far better served asking 5 code questions and requiring the answer as well as the code section in a certain time frame. I would much know that the guy is familiar with the code book than ANY one code.
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I agree with what you said. I went into a job one time and they asked me all of the basic questions, then they unrolled a set of plans and asked me to point to a paticular piece of equipment and tell me where it was fed from and then show them the panel location (panels were numbered by grid lines) I took one look at the plans said heres the piece, it's fed by this disconnect which is being fed by circuit such and such in panel such and such and the panel is right here. It took the engineer longer to verify my answer than it did for me to answer it. Part of my point is, don't ask a bunch of questions that you don't know the answer to just to show that you can give a tough test.

But then I've only had three jobs in the last 37 years, but I do sit on a bunch of oral boards.
 
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