GATEKEEP GASLIGHT GIRLBOSS GUIDE TO ENGINEERING JOB INTERVIEWS
Alrighty so I'm job hunting, helping my work friends job hunt, STRESSED and having imposter syndrome. Trying to get my thoughts in order about what's worked for me in the past as I enter this shitshow again.
Like I've interviewed people for years so I know what jobs are looking for. I've gotten most of the 8 jobs I've decided I wanted (5 yesses, 2 rejections, 1 time I ghosted a company because I realized mid-interview they'd push me to sign off on something unsafe) so I should NOT be feeling this imposter syndrome.
Preparation
If I really want to go for a job, I like to dig into a company like a fuckin journalist. Read through their company website, newsletter, LinkedIn, look for YouTube videos or podcasts with the founders, see if the leadership team is exclusively old white dudes who have frats on their LinkedIn profiles, read between the lines a bit. That way I can find out if I even want the job, and if so, how to impress them.
Insane girl tips (that work tho)
importyeti takes advantage of an obscure law about maritime shipments being public record to show companies supply chains. You can get an idea of how they're doing financially and dodge some bullets by looking at the graphs over time here.
Use this tool to search through like 30 databases of corporate records that can really tell you how that company screws over employees in court, and the details of the government contracts they have for their (conveniently not mentioned) military work. (Scroll down to the 'populate all' box and enter the company's name)
If you're in the US, use this database of every individual and corporate political campaign donation to search the name of the company, and its board and c-suite members. If they're donating to bigots, run.
Ask everyone you know if anyone knows someone who works there, who'd be willing to tell you the tea about the place
Take notes in a Google drive you share with ya girls. This especially pays off if you build it over years and have the shit on all the local companies. A lot of people in this industry are still sexist af so we gotta stick together.
Questions
Write questions based on your research in a notepad, to bring with you! You can also take notes in the interview.
You can and should ask your hardest questions, just ask them nicely. Anything concerning you found in your research, ask about it! You'll look super well informed. It helps to ask ChatGPT to code switch your actual questions. It ain't good for much, but it is a large language model.
(cotd under the readmore)
How do I get an interview?
Easiest is a referral (ew nepotism but that's how it is, you're near definitely going to get an interview if you do this)
Second easiest is to fill out your LinkedIn like a resume (bonus points if you highlight skills you know your target job needs), go look through their page's list of employees till you find a recruiter, DM them and tell them you're interested. They'll see your profile and if they think you've got a chance, they'll reply. Their job is to find people to interview, you'll cut the line if you hit them up. If they don't reply, DM another recruiter, and send in an official application after a week or two, just in case ;) If you still get nothing, take that as a no and don't take it too personal, some companies keep job listings up just to hide that they're in financial trouble, but they ain't really hiring.
How to interview
I don't think I need to tell you to prep for technical questions lol. Do that for whatever questions are likely to come up in your field, try practice ones online or have a friend interview you.
But on top of technical stuff, they're seeing if y'all could get along as coworkers. I try to be chill and friendly and make (PG-ass) jokes. Plus you can tell if employees have time to spend on hobbies or with their families if you ask about them.
As an interviewer, being funny and friendly and enthusiastic about learning shit makes such a difference when the other candidates are arrogant douchebags. This happens more than you think, the "At least they're not an asshole, we can train them"
It's also chill if you're nervous, most people are, and interviewers see it as more earnest and nice than anything. It's more common then not and won't count against you so don't worry if you stumble on anything!!
And ask questions throughout the interview trying to make it more like a conversation than an interview! (unless it's a technical section, then treat it like an exam lol). My go tos are:
What do like the most about your job, and what's the most difficult part of it?
What would my average week in the job would look like, in terms of how I spend my time? How about the busiest week?
Detailed technical questions about their work that show you understand it - you can even guide the interview out of the exclusively "you ask me technical questions and I sweat" vibe if you ask them technical questions first, and you'll still leave them knowing you're smart ;)
How would I do (Main job duties) day to day? What resources do you have to support this work? How would you recommend a person address (foreseeable challenges) in this role?
All the hard but politely put questions you prepped.
Act really positive and enthusiastic about the company. If your interviewer says something you like or that you're interested in, say so! And if they say shit you don't like, this isn't the time to argue. Maybe just go 'uh huh' with a smile and see if they tell you more :)
And this is gonna sound like some boomer bullshit, but it works. Get the names of everyone you interviewed with, and send them a thank-you email after, mentioning the most interesting thing y'all talked about!
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so. um. @mean-scarlet-deceiver's post about thomas and henry's relationship has been living in my brain rent free for the past month and i have been turning over a scene for just as long.
so. i tried to write it. i hope you don't mind, jobey. and also you're right. they are Hard to get right. if i had to put an era on this i'd call it BG (Before Gordon).
about 1.5k, full fic under the cut
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Thomas keeps shooting glances at the sheds as he bustles around the yard.
It… the hired help from the other railway, the engines who are slightly too full of themselves for Thomas’ liking (and he’s made sure to let them know as such) have been talking loudly all morning, as they were getting ready to take their trains, about… the new engine.
Henry. Even if he couldn’t have remembered Henry’s name, the other two have been saying it loudly enough to carry around the yard that Thomas certainly has the picture now. And… Thomas’ lip curls as he hears their newest comment as he goes past.
“Hey!” he calls, boiling over, and the two hired engines look at him. “It’s 9am already. Are you going to actually go take your trains, or are you just going to sit and preen all day?”
“What would you know, little Thomas?” one of them calls back, all smarmy and smug. Thomas’ lip curls even more into a full on frown. Eugh. Tender engines.
“About running a railway on time?” Thomas snaps back. “Clearly more than you! Are you waiting for Sir Topham Hatt to personally invite you, or?”
They huff and sneer and pout at him, but they do still steam off one by one. However, they each shoot Henry a knowing and cruel side-eye as they go that makes Thomas bristle, despite himself.
Henry is still in his berth in the sheds. Well, he’s half-in, half-out. He only seemed to have made it so far before he… stopped. And he’s been going all sorts of shades of red as the others’ gossip had gotten louder and louder as he waited for his driver to return with an engineer of some sort.
Henry isn’t looking at Thomas now, but his eyes had snapped to the tank engine when Thomas had spoken up. He’s instead closed his eyes, puffed out his cheeks, and seems to be trying – and trying hard – to… to what? To move?
Thomas tries not to stare, as he moves trucks into the siding they’re expected to be found in. Why is he trying so hard?
Eventually, Henry does actually move – but he… Thomas frowns again. Henry moves backwards, back into the shed. The wheesh Henry lets out as he comes to a halt is limp and weak.
Henry has been here, what, all of a month, maybe two at this point. Thomas hasn’t heard… many kind things, actually, so far, which is weird because look at him. Henry’s huge – Henry’s the biggest engine Thomas has ever seen, and he’s surely powerful to boot.
But Henry… Well, Edward said that Henry is sick, and sick often.
“Why?” Thomas had asked, as they had approached the shed. “What’s wrong with him?”
“Thomas,” Edward had reprimanded, and that’s when Thomas had realised Henry was in earshot, and clearly trying to pretend he wasn’t.
And that had been that.
Thomas had seen Sir Topham Hatt come out of his office at the station to watch Henry’s comings and goings, and more often than not with a stormy expression on his face. And Thomas didn’t get that either. Problems get the stormy expression. Troublemakers get the stormy expressions (Thomas would know). And Henry seems… too…
Thomas biffs his truck ahead of him as he turns his thoughts over.
Too… quiet? Too wallpaper? Too chameleon? Too…?
He snorts to himself. Whatever Henry is, he’s too much of it. And certainly too much of it to be a troublemaker, not like those mainline engines. It’s not like Thomas has gotten to know Henry yet, and it’s not like Henry has given him the opportunity to, either: but Thomas doesn’t get the impression Henry wants to be trouble. But he has to be… there has to be something wrong here, otherwise the Fat Controller wouldn’t be so upset.
Thomas hears a sniff from behind him as he backs down his stretch of track, and realises it’s come from the sheds.
And Thomas sighs quietly. …Then again, if nothing was wrong, Henry wouldn’t be so upset either.
“Those two,” Thomas says, before he can think, and Henry has gone absolutely silent, eyes flicking over to Thomas as Thomas pauses on a nearby siding for just a moment. “Bloody wankers, the pair of them.”
The silence holds for another second or two, before Thomas is rewarded with a shaky laugh.
“…I noticed,” says Henry.
“All those mainline tossers, really,” Thomas continues, and he keeps talking even as his work takes him all around the yard, speaking up so Henry can still hear him. “I almost wish the Fat Controller wouldn’t hire them. Sure, we need more wheels on rails, but they don’t seem to know a blazing thing about this railway.”
Henry – in the shadow of the shed – purses his lips, before he lets out another sigh, another limp wheesh of steam.
“I would hardly say I do, either,” he says miserably.
Thomas frowns, and comes to a halt a little too sharply with a big woosh of steam.
“Of course you do,” he replies, indignant. Henry’s a big engine, he should- why would he say that? Sure, Henry hasn’t been here long, but he’s a big engine, he should know plenty. “More than them, anyway.”
Henry sighs. He doesn’t argue, but Thomas’ fire flickers in annoyance as he can read of Henry’s face that Henry doesn’t agree either.
“I mean, you wouldn’t have been bought if-”
“Don’t.”
Thomas’ mouth hangs open for a second, before he closes it, blinks, and glances at Henry.
Henry looks even more upset. Great job, Thomas.
“I’m just saying-”
“Well, don’t,” Henry cuts him off again, sounding grumpier. And he’s gone from miserable to grumpy – that’s a win in Thomas’ book. “I’m particularly not in the mood to hear how I’d be more useful as a tin can.”
“The only tin cans around here are those self-important mainland pricks,” Thomas shoots back, and Henry side-eyes him – suspicious. “I’m not convinced they know what a timetable is, let alone how to read one. What kind of engine hangs around in the sheds when there’s work to… be…?”
Thomas trails off, and Henry… actually laughs. It’s tired and it’s bitter, but it’s a real laugh and it’s better than miserable.
“…Well, I want to assume you’re going to go work. When you can.”
“Optimism,” Henry says dryly. “I admire that in an engine.”
Thomas scrunches up his face. “I don’t understand you,” he says bluntly, in a way he’s sure Edward would scold him for if he was with them. “You’re miserable in the sheds, you’re miserable out on the line, you’re miserable doing nothing and you’re miserable pulling trains.”
Henry stares at Thomas for a moment, before his eyes flick away.
“If I could get out of this yard and actually pull trains, I’d do it in a heartbeat,” Thomas says, far more dreamily than he’ meant to, and he cringes a little, chuffing out of where he can see Henry’s face, because he doesn’t need to hear an earful about it from another big engine.
“…You’re small,” Henry says, slowly, not accusatorily nor really condescendingly. He sounds more …confused than anything. “…And you’re useful, here.”
“And?” Thomas snaps back, defensive. “I could be useful anywhere.”
Henry’s silent for another moment, like he’s really chewing that statement over.
Then, eventually, he surprises Thomas by saying, “…I suppose you would be better than those two.”
And Thomas lets out a sharp bark of laughter, shooting Henry a grin as he goes by, and punctuating it with a hoot and a whistle – delighted. The enthusiasm makes Henry blink, before slowly, a smile of his own spreads across his face; one that sharpens to match Thomas’.
“You’re most certainly right! And besides. You let them get to you, you let them win,” Thomas agrees. “And they’re far too useless for that.”
Henry laughs again. Thomas lets out another peep-peep and a woosh of steam of his own, pleased to have earnt it. Footsteps crunch over the gravel of the yard, and Thomas spots Henry’s driver returning with a couple of engineers in tow before Henry does, and replies to their hellos as he bustles past.
“Hello, lad,” Henry’s driver says to Henry, patting his side. “We’ll have you right as rain in no-time, alright?"
Henry sighs again, but does actually smile back at his driver.
His driver blinks in fond surprise as the engineers get to work finding the newest problem. “You’re in good spirits, all of a sudden.” Then, he glances at Thomas as the tank engine goes past. “Making friends?”
“More so finding the only engine in this yard with a thought in his smokebox, it seems,” Henry says dryly, loud enough for Thomas to hear, and that makes Thomas snort in amusement.
He does call back, “Hey, now, be nice to Edward!”
And the engineers and Henry’s driver alike seem relieved when the two engines laugh together.
Thomas watches them work to get Henry’s steam up, and Henry’s finally pulling out of the sheds a good half-hour later. Thomas whistles goodbye as Henry chuffs away.
He smiles with the satisfaction of a job well done when Henry, completely of his own volition, whistles a goodbye in return as he disappears off down the line.
Then, Thomas returns to his trucks, and gives them a good biff once more, ignoring how this time, they really shriek. He – and Henry, he imagines – can’t wait for those mainlanders’ contracts to run out.
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