Tips for electronics engineer interviews.

Do you have any tips to help prepare for an upcoming electronics engineer interview?

Are there common interview questions that come up again and again?

"What are your qualifications?"

you better have a damn good list

1. Research the company as much as you can before the interview. Even better if you can find out what your interviewer's specific problems and needs are. They will ask you what you know about their company, and will expect you to butter them up.
2. Get very familiar with all company literature related to the job you are after. Learn their catalogs and applications. Even better, try to figure out what technical directions they are heading in. They want you to show that you can hit the ground running.
3. Emphasize your schooling and experience that apply to numbers 1 and 2 above. Use a lot of applicable buzzwords and acronyms. If you have experience with their competitors, demonstrate your understanding of their customers and the marketplace.
4. Do not discuss long term goals you may have. Give them the impression that your life revolves around solving their immediate needs. If directly asked about future goals, indicate that you will accept additional responsibility as conditions warrant, but do not sound like you are TOO ambitious (such as might like to leapfrog over your interviewer on the corporate ladder). They will ask “Where do you see yourself in five years?”.
5. Be prepared to negotiate low-ball salary offers. Ask about other perks (such as company-paid training and assistance in publishing technical articles and/or patents). A common question is "How much salary do you want?".
6. Be prepared to ask questions about the job and company’s potential, but do it in a way that flatters them. Base these questions on what you learned in numbers one and two above. They want to believe that you’re the candidate who is eager and able to solve their problems quickly and cheaply and naively, but be careful not to sound phony or silly. They will ask “What do you want to ask me?”.
7. Although the job may be technical, to get it and keep it requires a lot of business sense. If you didn’t get business classes in school (like most of us) consider takin

...some courses at a community college or at least reading general business books. Your interviewers will be business-minded and expect the same from their employees. There probably won’t be direct business-related questions, but most questions will provide an opportunity for you to show that you understand the “big picture”.