Engineer Mock Interview
Practice 34 Engineer interview questions covering technical problems, design scenarios, and project experience.
Question 9 of 34
What do you do when your time schedule or project plan is upset by unforeseen circumstances?
How to Answer
Example Answer
Community Answers
Allison Atkinson is a technical and academic writer, leveraging her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and Master of Arts in English.
Even the most carefully planned project will have problems. Take this opportunity to show the interviewer that you are adaptable and flexible. If you are aware of any formal ways of handling project scheduling, such as re-evaluating scope, fast-tracking, or crashing the schedule, tell your interviewer.
Allison Atkinson is a technical and academic writer, leveraging her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and Master of Arts in English.
"Well, one idea is to re-evaluate the scope - sometimes schedules can get thrown off because of scope creep and the project changes some way in the middle of the process. Another thing we can do is 'fast-track' the schedule and more than one part of the project at the same time. Finally, a third idea is to 'crash the schedule' and put more people on the project than we had originally planned. Every project is different, and we would have to assess the situation when it came up, but those are a couple ideas."
Interview Coach
Jaymie
A real coach, not AI. I read every answer myself and write back with personalized feedback.
Typically responds within 24 hours.
0 - Character Count
Anonymous Answer
I was wrapping up my design project by building the prototype to make sure it was all done before my internship ended. However, an emergency situation rose up a week before my deadline where a laser cutter broke down and they wanted us interns to verify that all drawings and dxf files were there in the system and are correct so we can send them to 3rd party manufacturers. I and the other intern paused all our projects and put all of our efforts into this task as it was an emergency task that needed to be done asap. By throwing all hands on deck, we were able to finish that task in two days way ahead of schedule and I was able to resume my design project and successfully finish before my internship ended.
Marcie's Feedback
Excellent! You have done a great job using the STAR method here to explain the situation, task, action, and result. It sounds like you managed the situation well, which the interviewer will be happy to hear. Consider also talking a bit about how you emotionally handled this disruption; if you remained calm, mention this as well. Great job!
Unlock All 34 Engineer Questions
Unlock expert responses to technical and behavioral questions engineers face in interviews.
Get StartedJump to Question