Mastering Your Electrician Interview: Tips and Strategies

hey what's going on you guys this video is part 3 in my series about how to become an audition and in today's video

I'm gonna be giving you advice in how to absolutely destroy your interview but not like this alright well if you guys

are here watching this video today it's probably because you have an interview in the near future and I know what

you're probably wondering did I get all dressed up just for you yes yes I did alright well hey you guys in all

seriousness my name is Stephen and this is my youtube channel Matt electrician now

Michael with a serious I'm going through right now is to just help walk you guys through the steps that you need to take

to become an electrician my last video if you guys watched it was about taking your aptitude test I hope that you found

that helpful and in today's video we're gonna go in depth of how to do a really good job at taking your interview so as

always I just want to say that this video today of course is going to be specific to my experience here in

Portland Oregon with IBEW Local 48 now if you live in another state and you're applying for a different local union

just know that the interview process may be slightly different but for the most part it's gonna be pretty similar

and of course if you're applying from the non-union well it's probably gonna look pretty different but for the most

part these tips and tricks I'm going to give you guys today are going to also apply to that as well so I think that a

good way to start this video off today it would be but kind of just giving you guys a quick overview of what this

interview process is actually gonna look like this is going to be pretty different than any other interview that

you've probably ever had in your life and it's arguably going to be the most important interview that you're probably

ever gonna have so I hope this video helps out anyways so after you've taken your app to do test you're going to get

a letter in the mail that one gonna congratulate you on passing and two it's going to have the specific

date and time that you need to show up to the training center to take your interview so you're going to show up the

day off with your portfolio and the later on I'll explain what that portfolio is going to have in it but

you're gonna show up with your portfolio you're gonna go and sign in and then you are gonna be assigned to a specific

classroom where you're gonna be interviewed so you're gonna wait in line because there's gonna probably be a lot

of people in front of you and when it's finally your turn you're gonna walk into that classroom and you're gonna start

your interview now this is where the interview might seem a little scary especially if you weren't expecting this

so when you walk into the classroom you'll notice right away that it's not just one person interviewing you it's a

whole panel of people that are interviewing you so you're gonna have basically three to six people that are

there in that classroom saving in kind of a you formation around you and you're gonna be right in the center okay

and once you sit down the interesting thing is they are not going to be the ones asking you the questions you are

gonna be the one asking yourself the questions okay so on the table in front of you there's going to be a piece of

paper that has each of the interview questions and I want to say there's normally three questions that's how many

I had when I was interviewed so you're gonna read the questions out loud you're gonna answer those to the best of your

ability and then after you're done answering the questions the interview committee they are going to maybe ask

you some questions about your answers and once that is all done then they are going to dismiss you and you're gonna go

home and you're hopefully gonna feel really good about your interview because you're gonna have done a really awesome

job so I can mention before in my previous video is the training center is gonna have thousands of applicants that

apply every single year to be a part of this apprenticeship so it's really important that when you take your

interview you are gonna stand out amongst everybody else and you're gonna show them exactly why they need to pick

you for this apprenticeship so my first bit of vice that I would give you before even

getting to the point of taking your interview is to do exactly what you're doing right now and that is to do your

research so when I say do your research this is basically what I mean whether you're applying for the union or the

non-union I think that this is a really important thing to do you're going to want to learn what the ins and outs of

the company or the local union are and exactly what they have to offer right so if you're applying for the Union then

you're gonna want to know what the wages are maybe what the pensions have to offer you're going to want to know some

major projects that the local union has worked on or the company that you're applying for and if you're applying for

the Union you're gonna maybe want to know what some of the major companies are that work with that Union and then a

couple of really big ones that are gonna really make you stand out if you can memorize these and incorporate them into

your answers when you're doing your interview would be what is the mission statement of the Union or company and

what are the core values if you can memorize those then oh my goodness you're gonna stand out so once you've

spent a considerable amount of time doing your research on either the company or local union that you're

applying for well then you're going to want to start thinking about how you're going to answer the interview questions

now of course you're not going to know exactly what the questions are that you're going to be asked but I can give

you a pretty good idea of always two questions that you can expect and whether they're exactly asked this way

or a variation of these questions this is probably what you can expect so the first question is going to be why do you

want to be an audition and the second question is going to be why should we choose you now if you're anything like

me when you're in a high-stress situation much like a job interview you may have a hard time answering questions

on the spot or at least the answer is that you can be proud of and so I'm going to let you know a bit of advice

that works really well for me and I'm gonna recommend that you do this too so when I was preparing for my interview

and I did my research and I had an idea of where the interview questions were gonna be this is what I would do so at

the time I worked for AT&T and basically when there were no other customers in the

store or no other employees what I would do is I would take my phone out I would set it on the table and I would open up

the voice recorder app and basically what I would do is I would just spend every single moment that I could without

anybody in the store recording my answers out loud to the interview questions I probably looked crazy if

anybody were to look back at the security footage just me talking to myself in the store all the time but it

worked out really well and basically since I did that when I actually eventually got to take my interview I

was really lucky because the two questions that I spent time answering over and over again were actually

questions that I was asked on my interview and yeah my answer may have sounded slightly robotic but I knew

exactly what I wanted to say and I felt really good and confident after my interview now this next bit of a device

is probably gonna be the best advice that I gave you in this whole video so I really want you guys to take advantage

of this okay so what I would absolutely do if I were you and this is what I did is before you actually go and take your

interview you're gonna want to call the training center for the local union that you are applying for and you're gonna

want to set up a mock interview so a mock interview is awesome and this is what my experience was like with it and

this is why I would recommend it so basically I called the training center a week or so before my real interview and

I let them know hey I really want to get as much practice in as I can before I do my real interview can I schedule a mock

interview with you guys and of course you know this is something that I actually do all the time so they said

yeah you can come in on this day and time and you'll have an interview with this person which ended up being one of

the office ladies and so the day of I showed up early and I even dressed up just like it was the real thing I went

back into the office and I basically had an interview and here's why it was so valuable you guys is one it gave me a

chance to to practice my interview answers in front of an actual person that worked

for the training center I got actual feedback on my answers maybe things that I should say and

things that I shouldn't say I basically got to see exactly what the interview questions were gonna be which again

because I did my research I kind of already knew but this just reinforced that and one thing I think that I got

really lucky with is the lady that actually did my mock interview was one of the ladies that was on the interview

panel when I did my real interview so she knew as soon as I walked into the room she recognized me and I could I

could tell and I'm convinced that she knew that I was so serious about wanting to get into this apprenticeship I'm sure

that she gave me a great score and so one of the reasons why I got in now there's one last thing that I'm gonna

really recommend that you guys spent some time on before you actually go and take your interview and that is getting

your portfolio's ready so I mentioned these portfolios earlier and this is basically what they are so when you show

up to your interview you're gonna be able to give a portfolio to each person that is on the interview committee and

basically in this portfolio it's basically a folder you're gonna have these documents okay you're gonna have a

cover letter you're gonna have a resume you're gonna have a number of letters of recommendations from previous employers

or people that have worked with you in the past and then IBEW Local 48 once you also include pictures and descriptions

of projects or jobs that you have worked on before hands basically just things that you want the interview committee to

see so for me I had never worked on any construction projects before but I did make my wife a table for Christmas one

year it turned out really good so I put a picture of that in there I have spent some time working on electronics I

learned how to make my own guitar pedals at one point so I took a picture of one of those and put that in there and then

also some community service that I had done so put anything at all that you want the interview committee to see make

sure that these are really nice and buttoned up in that you feel proud when you get a

hand to each of those portfolios to the interviewers at the time of your interview so that pretty much covers all

the prep work that you need to do before the day of your interview but now the day is here now this is the real deal

and just like your aptitude test and your mock interview you're gonna want to show up nice and early to the actual

interview and I mean like at least a half hour early okay you want to make sure that you eliminate any possibility

of being late because of traffic and then of course you just also want to show up early enough to kind of let your

nerves simmer down you're gonna sign in Oh also of course beforehand you're gonna

want to make sure that you are nice and dressed up now you don't need to wear like a full-on suit or anything but you

are competing against thousands of people that apply for this apprenticeship and it's really important

that you show that you want this not only by the things that you say but also by what you're wearing I remember when I

actually went to take my interview there were lots of guys that showed up in like Carhartt pants and dirty you know

shirts with paint on them and whatnot and I mean that it just doesn't show that you're really serious about one to

get in yeah maybe that's what you look like day-to-day on the job but this is an interview I mean you want to make

sure that you are presenting yourself in a way that is professional and presenting yourself in a way that shows

that you are serious about wanting this as a career so when I had my interview I was actually the very last person that

they interviewed on that day and I remember sitting outside of the room you know being nervous and kind of going

over all the answers in my head and basically I just remember hearing you know the door was closed but I could

hear the interview committee it's just laughing and joking around with each other and I thought to myself hey these

guys are in a good mood maybe this won't be so bad and so eventually one of the guys came out of the room and he said

hey Steven all right come on in your last and it took a little bit of a chance but I walked in the room and I

said hey best for last and thankfully they liked it I tried to show

a little bit of personality and yeah they laughed and honestly it kind of just alleviated some of the tension but

anyways you know I went around Chuck everybody's hands and then I gave each of the interviewers the portfolio and

then I sat down and I started my interview so I could said the first question that was asked of me or I guess

that I asked myself is why do you want to become an electrician and I think basically what they were looking for in

the answer was the fact that you don't want just another job that you're not just trying this out because it sounds

cool but that you actually want to do this because you want a career right and that you're genuinely interested in this

so that's where doing all the research before hands-on exactly what an electrician is is gonna be really

important the second question was why should we choose you and I was actually really happy with the way that I

answered this and this was my approach so basically what I said is anybody can come in here and tell you that I would

be the best fit for this apprenticeship and I said well most people will say that but I can actually prove it to you

and so since I had given everybody a portfolio I said if you go ahead and open up the portfolio I gave you and go

to my resume you'll see that every single job that I've ever had in my past within a short amount of time I was

quickly promoted to a position of leadership and I said what that shows you is that the employers trusted me and

that I did such a good job that they put me in a position of leadership you know then I went on to tell them about some

achievements that I had as a store manager any team and I think that was good because I

we proved to them yeah that I would be a good candidate for this and even though I didn't have any electrical real real

electrical experience beforehand I told them that you know my motivation and my my character and all that that I had in

any previous jobs and my integrity that would bring that over and that I would just give you know my 100% best effort

into this apprenticeship and doing this as a career so one thing that the interview committee did do after I

answered all of the questions is they asked me some of their own questions right they wanted to know basically what

my hobbies were outside of work they also wanted to know if I had any experience with power tools or anything

and again I was able to refer them to my portfolio with community service that I had done in the desk that I made for my

wife but it was I think it was a really good experience overall and to be honest just like the aptitude test the

interview went by really really fast and I honestly couldn't believe that I was already done by the time that it was

finished and you know at the very end of my interview I got up and shook everybody's hands and said thank you so

much and that I was looking forward to hearing back from them and I got up and I walked out and I went home and I just

remembered driving on my way home feeling honestly really confident and I called my brother and I called my wife

and my parents I called a lot of people and I just let them all know I think I did really good and I think I'm gonna

get this and luckily for me I did I ranked in the low 60s and I was actually starting the apprenticeship within just

a few short months after my interview now let's say that after your interview you get your score back and

unfortunately it's not a score that you are hoping for you know that's it's a bummer but again that's not the end of

the world just like with the aptitude test because you can actually apply to be re interviewed and from what I hear

most people actually interview 2 3 sometimes even like 4 times so it's not the end of the world it does happen to a

lot of people basically what you're going to need to to within that six-month period where

you have to wait to be reinterviews is you're gonna maybe want to take a college class on electrical theory or

maybe get a job in construction or as a material handler like I talked about in my last video because what you want to

do is show that you're a better applicant and that you're really serious about wanting to get into this as a

trade when you come back after six months and you re interview and you can show them look this is what I did in the

last six months in order to make myself a better applicant well chances are you're gonna get a much better rank

because it's gonna show the training center that you're really serious about wanting this as a career all right well

I think that is it you guys again I really appreciate you sticking around this long make sure you smash that like

button and then also subscribe to my channel so you can stay up to date with any future videos that I release my goal

is to release one video about once a week and then last but not least if you have an Instagram make sure that you

follow me at Mad electrician official I hope that you guys have a fantastic 4th of July and have a great rest of your

day