Engineering Facilities interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your background + facilities engineering experience.
2. Tell me about a facilities project you've led.
3. Why utility facilities engineering vs commercial buildings or other engineering paths?
4. Why this discipline - civil, structural, architectural, mechanical, fire-protection, or physical security?
5. Why the firm?
6. What's your read on our facilities capital plan + recent rate case or hardening programme?
7. Tell me what you understand about our physical-security + fire-protection posture.
8. Walk me through a substation control house or civil / structural design you've led.

Technical concepts to master

• Substation civil + structural

  Foundations + equipment supports · Control house · Oil containment + SPCC · Fire walls + separation · Grounding-grid civil interface

• Control centre + service centre + building services

  IBC Risk Category + structural performance · HVAC for relay + control rooms · Uninterruptible-power + DC battery systems · Backup power + standby generation · Sustainability + LEED

• Physical security + NERC CIP-014

  DBT + threat assessment · Deterrence + delay - barriers · Detection - CCTV + intrusion · Response + integration · Documentation + R5 / R6 review

• Fire protection + battery + plant facilities

  NFPA 850 - plant fire protection · NFPA 855 - BESS fire + explosion · Transformer fire walls + deluge · Battery-room ventilation + spill · NFPA 70E + arc-flash

Practical drills

• You're designing a new 230/69 kV substation on a 5-acre greenfield site in seismic site class D, wind exposure C, with two 75 MVA transformers + a prefab control house. Walk through your civil + structural scope.
• the firm is consolidating two ageing control centres into a new IBC Risk Category IV operations centre serving 60 operators 24/7. Walk through your high-level facilities design.
• A 500 kV substation has been added to your CIP-014 R1 list + a transformer fire last year exposed gaps in fire walls + deluge. Walk through your hardening + fire-protection upgrade.

Smart-question anchors

• Facilities capital plan - new control centres, substation rebuilds, service-centre consolidation
• CIP-014 + physical-security programme - critical-substation list + hardening + cadence
• Fire-protection posture - NFPA 850 / 855 + transformer + battery + recent incidents
• Hazard exposure + hardening - seismic / wind / flood + post-event response
• Engineering org + tool stack - Revit / STAAD / RISA / AutoCAD + civil / structural / arch / MEP / fire / security groups

Sourced from

NERC CIP-014 Physical Security · NFPA 850 / 851 / 855 / 70 / 70E / 72 / 75 fire + electrical codes · ASCE 7 + IBC + NESC C2 loading + building codes · IEEE standards 80, 484, 485, 1106, 1187, 1402, 1635 · EPRI substation + facilities reports + T&D World + Utility Dive