Practice 30 Metallurgical Engineering interview questions covering phase diagrams, failure analysis, and materials processing.
Question 19 of 30
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Carilee Moran is a retired automotive engineer with 30 years of experience writing and editing technical reports.
Oh yes, this actually did happen. The engineer who ordered the test chamber accidentally wrote 'mm' instead of 'cm' on the drawing. For whatever reason, the modelmaker built the part as specified instead of calling to ask about the obvious error. News of the engineer's angry and outraged response to his doll-house test chamber spread like wildfire, and he was laughed at behind his back for the rest of his career. We can guess that an interviewer could have a legitimate interest in knowing whether you are the kind of person who can just 'roll with it' sometimes.

Carilee Moran is a retired automotive engineer with 30 years of experience writing and editing technical reports.
"I am pretty sure that my first reaction to seeing that tiny test chamber would be to say, 'Hmmmm. It's a bit smaller than I expected. Could you show me the drawing that you were using?' I am not sure, but there also might be a tickle in the back of my mind that the only thing that could cause a modelmaker to make a perfect scale model of what I requested would be if I screwed up the dimensions somehow. Like when JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and Lockheed Martin didn't communicate with each other about what units each was using to design and build a Mars lander, and it ended up crashing because JPL used the number 9.8 m/sec/sec for acceleration due to gravity, while Martin Lockheed was using 32.2 ft/sec/sec. My first guess would be that it was a mistake of mine that caused the dollhouse test chamber to be built.
I think I would be tempted to ask where my dollhouse laboratory was, and if he would also be making the test samples to fit into the microchamber. Also, tweezers. I would need tweezers to set the little samples in there. If I could, I would keep from laughing, but I am pretty sure that would be impossible. I know I shouldn't laugh, because the modelmaker wasted company resources to build that desk ornament, but on the other hand, this lesson might keep me from making a similar but less obvious mistake in the future that would waste a lot more company resources to correct.
I would probably quickly reflect on the fact that I may have to work with this modelmaker many times in the future, and better to invest a few company dollars in that relationship right now than to contribute to a sour, adversarial environment by being righteously indignant."
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Written by Carilee Moran
30 Questions & Answers • Metallurgical Engineering

By Carilee

By Carilee