PIEAS MS Interview Chronicle
PIEAS M.S Interview Chronicle
I was shortlisted for interview after passing the written test. The selection ratio in the interview is 1 out of 3. So passing rate is 33% and there is a fairly good chance of being rejected after interview and two third candidates suffer from rejection each year. This year, 303 candidates from Electrical/Electronics category were shortlisted for interview and about 100 are to be selected (after interview) collectively for PIEAS, Islamabad & KINPOE, Karachi.
To my knowledge, overall Aggregate calculation for Final selection is based on Written Test score and score from interview; so one must try for maximum correct answers in interviews to remain in top 100 out of approx. 300 candidates. Interview is meant to test Candidate’s Confidence and Knowledge. So try to be confident (not over-confident) during the interview, don’t ever confuse after hearing a question, don’t think too much for the answer. If you answer a question correct but in puzzled manner then they’ll ask you even more difficult questions and will doubt your answer to make you more and more confused. But on the other side, don’t be rigid too, if you answer a wrong question don’t stick to it; if interviewer insists that answer is wrong; accept that and don’t argue.
The best thing about Interviews is that you may mold the next questions according to your own will; at the end of your answer you may add an extra comment so that interviewer is compelled to ask you question about that (but this doesn’t work every time). If you are asked a question about a totally irrelevant topic and feel that the question is out of context and beyond your knowledge level, then it’s better to tell the interviewer that you don’t have enough knowledge about that asked question! He surely will stop asking you questions regarding that topic.
The PAEC M.S fellowship interview consists of two sub-interviews: The first one is Technical Interview, it is meant to test candidate’s technical knowledge regarding his specific field. Candidate is asked questions about his final year project, core subjects of engineering, general subjects of applied sciences and sometimes also from English. Second interview is General or H.R (Human Resource) interview, it is intended to test candidate’s general mentality, his psychological stability, to know his family and academic background and to discover his general knowledge.
Technical interviewing panel consists of 3 interviewers. Each one of them is an expert in the field you’re applying for. Generally, the technical interview is of 2030 minutes or in some cases it may last up to 40 minutes.
General Interviewing panel consists of ~6-8 interviewers. Perhaps, one or two of them are your technical field expert, 2 or 3 of them may be Human Resource Managers responsible for fresh recruitments for PAEC. This interview spans over the same time as technical interview.
My interview center was INMOL, Lahore (Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Oncology) situated right in front of PU’s (Punjab University) Gate No. 1 besides UHS (University of Health Sciences). All the candidates who appear for written test in Bahawalpur & Multan are interviewed there. Interview time was 9:00 AM. I reached there at 9:10 AM due to my eternal laziness. L
But fortunately, interviews were scheduled according to the order in which candidates reported at the center. So, all the candidates who reported earlier than me were to be interviewed before me.
I presented all the original documents, their copies and initial security clearance forms to the clerical staff. They checked my original documents, kept the copies and returned me the originals. I had to wait for about more than an hour for my turn.
The first interview was Technical. I entered the room with attendant (who was holding file of all my photo-copied documents). The attendant handed the documents to one of the interviewers and left the room. There were 3 interviewers in the room and I knew they were going to bash me with hard questions for next couple of minutes to find whether I’m eligible to join their respected institute or not. I wasn’t confused at all nor did I had any fear except a frisson of cold that passed from my skull to my frigid hands elicited by thinking that what would happen if they started to ask me out-of-course and out-of-context questions (just like in the written test)? But this happened for a moment or two and I just shook my head to let go of this lousy thought.
>>Whole of the interview of was in Urdu (with a few sentences & terms in English).
Interviewer 1: (asked me to Sit Down and verified my name) Interviewer 1: From where did you complete your engineering?
Me: Islamia University Bahawalpur
(Thank God! He didn’t ask; where is it located? When did the start an Engineering degree? :D)
Interviewer 1: Has your degree been completed? If not, what is expected date of completion?
Me: No Sir! It is expected to be completed at the End of October.
Interviewer 1: What is your percentage?
Me: 87%
Interviewer 1: What is your position in class?
Me: First
(I didn’t expect this Qs. I thought not to tell them of my 1st position; but it was listed on my application form; so I told them. I think academic percentage is not considered for final selection (Aggregate calculation) but a 1st position may help you NOT to fail in the interview at least) Interviewer 1: What is your Final Year Project?
Me: I told the title and specified that it is related to Power Engineering. (It’s better to tell them that your FYP is Power Engineering relevant; then they’ll ask you most of the questions related to Power Engg.) Interviewer 2: Explain the project.
Me: I explained the project to them comprehensively by drawing the block diagram of the project. (It took me about 5 minutes conjointly) They asked a few questions related to project.
• What sort of algorithm are you employing?
• How your developed micro-grid is different from conventional grid?
• Where comes the smartness of the grid?
• Which type of protection are you using in the project?
• What is HIL (Hardware-in-the-Loop simulation)? etc., etc…
Then they started to ask questions from power engineering!
Interviewer 1: What is difference b/w AC and DC transmission system? Which one is better?
(The question is a little tricky and answer needs some references from latest research and also from older 19th century research. I provided all the required suitable references during my answer & I think my answer impressed them in a much positive sense!)
Interviewer 2: What are bundled conductors?
(I answered quite correctly this question, but at the end I said bundled conductors are used to avoid skin effect, as I mixed up Skin Effect with Corona Effect, after hearing this; a notion of un-satisfaction was expressed by Interviewer. I had completed my answer and I knew I had told a bit wrong but it was too late and I couldn’t verbally EDIT my answer then) Interviewer 3: How to measure high voltage?
(I first told them the simpler (but practical) methods of using instrument transformers and also drew a little power measurement scheme for 3 phase 3 wire system and then told about Abraham Voltmeter for HV Measurements)
Interviewer 1: Have you ever visited a power station? Which one? How much capacity it was? How many turbine units are there? What is their extension plan? Why their kWh price is higher?
(I hadn’t had an internship ever (I didn’t tell them though coz they didn’t ask :) ) but Thank God! I had visited just 1 power station in my whole life; Thermal Power Station, Jamshoro! I told them details regarding TPS, Jamshoro!) Interviewer 1: What is infinite bus?
(A simple question; I answered with examples)
Interviewer 1: How to synchronize an alternator to grid? What’s the procedure?
(I explained all four steps to synchronize an alternator to grid/infinite bus) Interviewer 2: What are types of protection systems used in power system? (I told him bus topologies and Breakers protection schemes, but he said No! In fact He was asking about Distance protection, Differential protection, Circulating currents protection (Merz-Price scheme) etc. He named one of them and I answered him as in next question)
Interviewer 2: What is differential protection? How is it used?
(I explained by drawing differential protection scheme for a transformer) Interviewer 1: Okay G! Thank you!
And I was out of room thanking Allah (SWT) for such an awesome experience of my very first (and perhaps last too!) interview of career. J I made two minor mistakes in answering the questions (as detailed previously) but I don’t think if they’re going to affect my overall interview performance because I guess interviewers didn’t even consider them as mistakes..!
My technical interview was much more successful than I even expected. Though chances are rare that you get rejected on the base of General Interview after performing Excellent in Technical interview. But you still need to be careful and attentive. Don’t show any kind of irresponsible demeanor/response during General interview.
General interview is just to counter-check your mechanical-intelligence, mental caliber, suitability for the job and the manners you treat people. It is also about management abilities because an engineer’s job majorly concerns troubleshooting, maintenance and resource management so they’ll ask some questions related to management and will observe how you manage the problem confronted to you. So be yourself, act yourself and you’ll perform well in this interview too! Way of talking and body-language does matter in General interview (because a psycho-analyst is present there). Any non-serious behavior and/or irresponsible conduct may prove fatal for you. So don’t make any moves that make them feel that you are confused or feeling uncomfortable. And above all Trust in yourself and have faith in Allah Almighty!
I again sat in the conference hall, drank some water and started waiting for the General interview. I had to wait only for 15 minutes and it was my turn again. I entered with attendant who had my documents’ copy. He passed on the copy to an interviewer and left the room. This time there were 7 (or perhaps 6 or 8, I’m not sure because I didn’t look all of them at once in the whole interview nor did I got enough time to count them) interviewers on the other side of the table. One of them asked me to sit, I sat in the chair.
As I sat in the chair, one of the interviewers said to other sitting beside him pointing at me: “He has an Engineering degree with first position in his class.” The other interviewer said: “Oh! That’s nice.”
(I don’t know how did they come to know of my first position, probably either they knew it from previous interview (But how could they? The room and interviewers were all different for General & Technical Interview) or may be from the copy of my documents which contained registration form for Written test in which I declared my first position in the Engineering Degree column or may be Technical Interviewers may have written some remarks on front of my documents copy because that was a single copy presentment in both interviews. Allah knows better!)
Interviewer 3 (I think He was an Electrical Engineer because he asked all the questions relating to Electrical Engineering even in the general interview):
Tell me about your FYP!
Me: I told him the project title and explained it!
Then he asked me some questions from the project emphasizing the Simulink part and Differential equations:
Interviewer 3: Why are you using Simulink for your project?
Interviewer 3: What does Simulink do?
Interviewer 3: How does it solve differential equations?
Interviewer 3: Which type of differential equations does Simulink solve? Interviewer 3: Does your project involve any non-linear DE (Differential Equation)?
Interviewer 3: What are different type of solvers?
Interviewer 3: What are types of differential equations?
Interviewer 3: How have you interfaced hardware part with Simulink?
Interviewer 3: What is non-linearity?
Interviewer 3: How is a differential equation non-linear?
Interviewer 3: What is the criteria to check non-linearity of a differential equation?
(I said, an equation with a power of variable greater than one is a non-linear equations, He said: No! that is called the degree of differential equation! Then I said: Sir! I don’t have a strong background in differential equations! I just modeled the physical system and Simulink itself does the DE modeling using State-space equation. He was satisfied and asked me to have a look on DEs sometime later)
Out of 6,7 interviewers, almost 3 remained quite during the whole interview, some asked a few general questions and One of them (I think he was the Psychiatrist/Analyst) asked a bundle of general questions, some of them are presented here:
Interviewer 4: Your Family background?
Interviewer 4: What does your father do?
Interviewer 4: Family members? What do they do?
Interviewer 4: What are your hobbies? (I said Book Reading and
Travelling/Exploring)
Interviewer 4: Which spots would you like to travel to?
Interviewer 4: Which countries would you like to visit?
(I said, countries from Middle-East and he smiled: What do you find of your interest in middle-eastern countries??? :D I said: I know a lot of places of my interest in Middle East. :))
Interviewer 4: So, you live in Okara, do you have any problem if Commission (PAEC) places you away from home? I said, Not at All!
Interviewer 4: Which city would you prefer to be placed after completing study?
I said, Islamabad. He said, but you are from power engineering and power engineers are most likely to be placed at Atomic Power Plants.
Interviewer 4: Do you know where power plants are located?
I said, Yes Sir! Karachi and Chashma (One in Khoshab too, but that is not a power plant, that’s a breeder reactor!) But I’d like to be in Research field, so I might have a chance to stay at Islamabad center. He said, Ok!
Interviewer 4: What do you think are the necessary things to succeed in life? I said: Honesty and Hard work. He said, No, I’m asking about tangible (touchable, physically existing) things!
I said: Money and Consistency (as its outcomes are physical) Interviewer 4: How much money do you need to be successful?
Interviewer 4: What if your expenses exceeds the money you earn? Interviewer 4: If you’re give Rs. 10 Lac. What would you do? You have to spend the whole money on yourself only!
(I said: I’ll buy a Computer, a lot of books and would like to travel to some locations!)
And they asked many more questions of the same sense! They didn’t ask me any G.K question but some other candidates were asked G.K questions too!
So, this interview ended in 25-30 minutes approx. and I was out with a sigh of relief. Both of my interviews went fine and I really enjoyed the interview. I wish to appear in the interviews again! J
What to prepare for the interview? Revise every basic topic from Power Engineering’s subjects and read your project report in complete detail. Pay attention to Electric Machines, Physics, Maths (especially Differential Equations), FYP! These are must for interview. Sometimes they may ask questions from Physics and Maths. It’s better to be prepared for that.
How can I prepare myself for M.s physics test?Which are major areas of physics?what is test pattern?Guide me plzz
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