CB&I Interview Questions & Answers

The application process is very simple. It just required a CV and cover letter. I was contacted about a month or so later being invited to a telephone interview.

Unlike most telephone interviews this was conducted by one of their recent graduate engineers, so make sure you know what you are talking about when you mention technical details as they will probe you with regards to it. In total this phone call lasted about an hour, however most of it ended up being the interviewer talking about his job and experiences when I asked him regarding it.

The interview started off like how most interviews too, with general questions confirming who you are, availability etc, then we got off to the questions.

The following questions were asked:

Tell us about yourself - This is a key question where you get to talk about your experiences etc. I mentioned my third year design project and my research project, so we spoke for a while on that as it was related to the work that CB&I do. So if you have the chance to include technical details then do so, because the interview in this case will know what you're talking about, and it will be your chance to impress them. They will ask you some follow up questions on this, such as when speaking about my degree they asked questions like what was your favourite subject as part of your degree, what do you find difficult?

What do you know about CB&I? - Make sure you do your research. Wow them with your knowledge.

General competency questions:

The questions are pretty much the same as most interviews:

Tell us about a time you worked with someone difficult?
What was the most challenging thing you've done?

There were one or two more questions which I can't remember, but I know was similar to other questions I've had.

Then they give time for questions. You're speaking to someone who completed the grad scheme, so take this opportunity to ask questions and find out more so that you know that this job is for you.

None of the questions were difficult. They were pretty much the same as I have discussed in my previous interview reviews (See GSK, Atkins and Baker Hughes + more I will be writing), so by the time I got to this I had enough experience in being able to answer the questions confidently.

Be confident in what you say. Practice numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning and psychometric tests as much as possible.

I wasn't invited to an assessment centre unfortunately. I managed to do quite bad on the online tests as I took it when I had multiple deadlines in my final year, so was quite difficult to do it justice! Wasn't too hard, just practice, practice, practice.