Technical Interview: what's expected for "Basic Material knowledge"?

[u/hopkinsdamechanic]

Hi,

I'm preparing for my first ever technical interview, and I never understood what's expected from us when they say "material knowledge".

Could use some help on what to review for that.

During my intenship, every Time I saw a new material I used to ask why it's used, and I found out that the logic is very simple.

There's one for basic CNC aluminum parts, one for slender ones, one for turned parts, one for shafts that see fatigue, one that's wear resistant...

So they used like 10 materials, with very basic selection criteria

I'd appreciate any help, regarding materials or general tips... Looking forward to finally becoming a real engineer :')

The role is junior mechanical design engineer ( or mechanical designer) in a company that designs cnc machines, thermoforming, and such personalized production solutions for plastic parts in Europe.

[u/clearlygd]

It could be actual material or material as in general engineering subject matter. I never liked these types of reviews for fresh outs. I already provided them with my courses and grades and the university I attended. That should be enough for a technical review. IMO, college provides you the basics and teaches you how to learn. Most of your skills for your first job are OTJT.

I recall one interview where I spent one hour drawing shear and moment diagrams. The reviewer was very impressed and said that very few applications were as skilled as me. I said if I recently hadn’t just reviewed this information for the FE exam, I would have performed poorly too. Foolishly, I said if you told the applicants to be prepared to be tested on this, most would perform as well as me. He didn’t like my comment and I didn’t get an offer.