Interviews – whether you love them or loathe them one thing is for sure and that is that there will be some questions! These aren’t always intended to “trip you up”, it’s a chance to get to know the person and a chance for the interviewee to shine. Here we have provided some popular questions asked in superyacht engineer interviews, with suggested answers.
Whatever superyacht you work on, you’ll need to succeed at an interview first!
When can you start?
Obviously, it’s great if you are immediately available, but be respectful to your current employer. If you need to serve notice just state that whilst also being as keen as possible about the role.
What about your current engineer role do you dislike?
This is a tricky question, which needs to be answered with honest sincerity but also professionally. The best way to answer this is to emphasise you need a more challenging engineering role (something to get your teeth into), whilst also stating you enjoyed working on the superyacht generally and also with the staff too.
What are your main strengths and weaknesses?
Another tricky question, answering strengths shouldn’t be an issue but as for weaknesses you need to reverse this into discussing a strength.
For strengths accentuate some of your main assets, e.g. highly qualified, positive, very experienced, a team-player, etc.
For weaknesses choose an authentic weakness, which is minor in nature and one you can work upon. An example might be “I am nervous if I need to do presentations in front of large groups of people”. You should only say this if it’s true, but as this arises infrequently in an engineering role it’s unlikely to be “make or break” in the interview.
What elements are you looking for in your next role?
There are various elements, which may appeal to you, but we would recommend:
- Engineering challenge – it’s good to say you are looking for a role which offers challenge and ways for you to grow in engineering. But not to an extent the role would appear to stretch you too much!
- Great crew – it goes without saying that a great crew makes any yacht work much more enjoyable!
- Great owner – similarly, a great owner works wonders for how much enjoyment you will have on the yacht
- Package – salary is important, but so are other benefits too!
N.B. All superyachts offer an opportunity to travel. It’s best not to state this as a main objective as this is a “given” and is a secondary available benefit when the work is done!
J4Crew – always placing superyacht engineers
Here at J4Crew we have approaching twenty years-experience of placing superyacht roles, with a special emphasis on placing engineers into roles. Why not send us your CV today?
Contact Joe or Chad at J4Crew to discuss your next career step as a superyacht engineer.
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