interview q planning engineer
TRANSCRIPT
Login or register to post comments 22 replies [Last post]
Tue, 2004-11-02 16:37
mohsin farooqi
Offline
Joined: 17 Oct 2004
Content Credits: 18
Groups: GPC India, Roads & Infrastructure
Top
Sat, 2005-03-12 00:02 #1
Jaco Stadler
Offline
Joined: 9 Sep 2004
Content Credits: 300
Groups: Building Services / E&M, GPC South Africa
interview (Q & A) for planning engineer
Hi everbody
iam called for an interview for planning engineer for a qatar based construction company
and
i want to know from dear planners what would be the probable questions ? and there
respective answers ? (Q&A). Any help from fellow planners is required
Printer-friendly version Login or register to post comments Send to friend
Are you a graduate engineer ?
If yes then it should be easy.
You start of by making a BOQ. With other word’s how much material is required.
Once you have completed the material list all you need to do is get rates (Estimates) for
each of them.
Then you ad them all up and you have your budgeted price.
Then you do a Monte Carlo / or Other and determine your contingency.
If you still whish to tell your boss something I would suggest review your Job Description.
I remember many years ago before I became a planner my boss walked into my office and
ask me to do a project budget. It took me a half a day to find out what he is on about and
half a day to do. Needlest to say it was not 100 % correct when submitted to him the next
morning but he showed me the problems and told to fix it.
REPLIES
Page 1 of 12interview (Q & A) for planning engineer | The world-wide leader in planning...
7/25/2012http://www.planningplanet.com/forums/project-services-career-issues/412376/interview-q-...
Top
Fri, 2005-03-11 18:14 #2
Erik Jonker
Offline
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Content Credits: 86
Groups: Building Services / E&M, GPC South Africa
Top
Fri, 2005-03-11 17:13 #3
Philip Jonker
Offline
Joined: 7 Nov 2004
Content Credits: 852
Groups: GPC South Africa, Railway Construction
Top
Fri, 2005-03-11 16:13 #4
So in short I had to learn it the hardway.
Cheers
Login or register to post comments
Hi Mosin,
Try your best, don’t drink tea. Rather have lots of coffee. Sounds like you’ll be needing it.
Regards,
Erik Jonker
Login or register to post comments
I WOULD SUGGEST< DO NOT DRINK ANY MORE TEA< SAY HAM"D"ALLAH" EVERY
MORNING< AND TRY SOME REAL PLANNING
Login or register to post comments
Page 2 of 12interview (Q & A) for planning engineer | The world-wide leader in planning...
7/25/2012http://www.planningplanet.com/forums/project-services-career-issues/412376/interview-q-...
mohsin farooqi
Offline
Joined: 17 Oct 2004
Content Credits: 18
Groups: GPC India, Roads & Infrastructure
Top
Tue, 2005-01-25 02:39 #5
Neeraj Agarkar
Offline
Joined: 25 Jul 2003
Content Credits: 61
Groups: Building Works, GPC United Arab Emirates
Top
Mon, 2005-01-10 00:48 #6
Alex Wong
Offline
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Content Credits: 874
Hi everybody iam well doing my job by Allah’s grace but now my vice president
want me to make a budget of a project, by giving the drawings of an waste water
treatment project and i had to estimate and make the budget which is what is the job of an
estimator IMHO but he insists saying your a graduate engineer and you have to make one
and the deadline is 16 march so my question is how to tell him that its not my cup of tea
but think well before suggesting he is my boss.
Login or register to post comments
Dear Alex and Jaco,
I agree with what Alex said.
I would like to add that, even for a scheduler, it is required to visit the site, because I have
come across many such cases where the site engineer will boost up progress
measurements to keep the pressure off from Project manager or consultant / client.
For a planner, site visits are an absolute must, essentially because midway through a
project, site situation changes so much that the schedule will not give accurate projections.
Activity durations and their linking logic may have to be changed (with approval ofcourse)
and this should be done as committed by site engineer.
Resources requirement may change as per site conditions.
We have sites which are more than 1000km away from our offices but there is usually a
person from site who has to do the above coordination on behalf of planner.
Regards,
Neeraj
Login or register to post comments
Jaco
I am not saying that, just talk, action too. If you get the job, it is part of the job as a
planner to go down to the site and understanding the progress and difficuity if you can do
it as regular as possible. Of course if physical constraint like location. Then I would ask if a
project manager can visit his site from time to time, why a planner cannot??
Page 3 of 12interview (Q & A) for planning engineer | The world-wide leader in planning...
7/25/2012http://www.planningplanet.com/forums/project-services-career-issues/412376/interview-q-...
Groups: Building Services / E&M, GPC Australia, GPC Hong Kong, TILOS
Top
Mon, 2005-01-10 00:46 #7
Alex Wong
Offline
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Content Credits: 874
Groups: Building Services / E&M, GPC Australia, GPC Hong Kong, TILOS
Top
Sun, 2005-01-09 04:33 #8
Jaco Stadler
Being present in site will help to communicate and understand your job. Thats why I
always looking for planner willing to take the effort to visit to site. Of course, I can tell if it
is only just talk but no action. In addition, I came across so many time when the site
supervisor comments about their planner sitting in their air-conditioned site office and
never understand the real site conditions, and trying to instruct them what to do next...
Well if a plan only exist in planner’s own world and not the real world then, it will never
work.
I hope this will help to understand not only what to answer the question but also what a
planner should do in real project as well.
Regards
Alex
Login or register to post comments
Jaco
I am not saying that, just talk, action too. If you get the job, it is part of the job as a
planner to go down to the site and understanding the progress and difficuity if you can do
it as regular as possible. Of course if physical constraint like location. Then I would ask if a
project manager can visit his site from time to time, why a planner cannot??
Being present in site will help to communicate and understand your job. Thats why I
always looking for planner willing to take the effort to visit to site. Of course, I can tell if it
is only just talk but no action. In addition, I came across so many time when the site
supervisor comments about their planner sitting in their air-conditioned site office and
never understand the real site conditions, and trying to instruct them what to do next...
Well if a plan only exist in planner’s own world and not the real world then, it will never
work.
I hope this will help to understand not only what to answer the question but also what a
planner should do in real project as well.
Regards
Alex
Login or register to post comments
Page 4 of 12interview (Q & A) for planning engineer | The world-wide leader in planning...
7/25/2012http://www.planningplanet.com/forums/project-services-career-issues/412376/interview-q-...
Offline
Joined: 9 Sep 2004
Content Credits: 300
Groups: Building Services / E&M, GPC South Africa
Top
Mon, 2005-01-03 20:51 #9
Alex Wong
Offline
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Content Credits: 874
Groups: Building Services / E&M, GPC Australia, GPC Hong Kong, TILOS
Top
Sat, 2005-01-01 07:55 #10
Balaji Surendiran
Offline
Joined: 26 May 2004
Content Credits: 44
Groups: GPC United Kingdom, Railway Construction
Alex
I tend to disagree I would suggest when a interviewer ask you a question be honest.
Also remember sometimes project are done 1 000 km Apart in this case your require the
propper controls systems.
Cheers
Login or register to post comments
When the interviewer ask, how did you obtain the progress information: Always reply : talk
to the people (Supervisor, site managers) and site visit.
It is extemely important for a planner to know their site as well as their people on the job
in order to have a realistic plan/report. And this is what the employer always looking for.
If a planner planning is project 100% on his desk. I personally will never hire them.
Regards
Alex
Login or register to post comments
Thanx a lot for the explanantions of Philip & David it was really very very useful &
interesting... V r always interested in knowing such unknown facts from experienced
planners like u.
Mail ID:[email protected]
Cheers
Bala
Page 5 of 12interview (Q & A) for planning engineer | The world-wide leader in planning...
7/25/2012http://www.planningplanet.com/forums/project-services-career-issues/412376/interview-q-...
Top
Sat, 2005-01-01 07:54 #11
Balaji Surendiran
Offline
Joined: 26 May 2004
Content Credits: 44
Groups: GPC United Kingdom, Railway Construction
Top
Fri, 2004-11-26 09:24 #12
David Bordoli
Offline
Joined: 8 Apr 2002
Content Credits: 416
Groups: Building Information Modelling, GPC Applicants, GPC United Kingdom
Login or register to post comments
Thanx a lot for the explanantions of Philip & David it was really very very useful &
interesting... U r always interested in knowing such unknown facts from experienced
planners like u.
Mail ID:[email protected]
Cheers
Bala
Login or register to post comments
In my humble opinion (ha!) I believe PERT to be a statistical technique that is applied to
critical path analysis (activity-on-line in particular) which takes account of the variable
nature of activity duration in a project. Using PERT, three time estimations of the activity
duration are made, the optimistic time (o), the most likely time (m) and the pessimistic
time (p). The expected time for the activity is then (o + 4m + p)/6. Using some fancy
statistics it is possible to calculate confidence levels for the completion time of the whole
project.
This technique was particularly useful at the time of its development as the projects it was
being applied to were pure prototypes and estimations of activity durations were educated
guesses at best most of the time and PERT attempted to make time estimations more
relaible.
You could have a look here for more information:
">http://www.ce.cmu.edu/pmbook/11_Advanced_Scheduling_Techniques.html#11.2%
20Scheduling%20with%20Uncertain%20Durations
Page 6 of 12interview (Q & A) for planning engineer | The world-wide leader in planning...
7/25/2012http://www.planningplanet.com/forums/project-services-career-issues/412376/interview-q-...
Top
Tue, 2004-11-23 07:18 #13
Erik Jonker
Offline
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Content Credits: 86
Groups: Building Services / E&M, GPC South Africa
Top
Tue, 2004-11-23 05:00 #14
Jaco Stadler
Offline
Joined: 9 Sep 2004
(thanks to Bernard Ertl for providing that link)
Regards
David
Login or register to post comments
A well-known pioneer in the early days of scientific management was Henry Gantt. Gantt
worked for Frederick Winslow Taylor in the USA and is to be remembered for his
humanizing influence on management, emphasizing the conditions that have favorable
psychological effects on the worker.
(I know of a couple of project managers who wold have fit in perfectly in that period )
The Gantt chart for which he will also be remembered, is a visual display chart used for
scheduling which is based on time, rather than quantity, volume or weight. It was created
in 1917 and was used for production control.
PERT was devised in 1958 for the POLARIS missile program by the Program Evaluation
Branch of the Special Projects office of the U.S.Navy, helped by the Lockheed Missile
Systems division and the Consultant firm of Booz-Allen & Hamilton. The calculations were
so arranged so that they could be carried out on the IBM Naval Ordinance Research
Computer (NORC) at Dahlgren, Virginia.
CPM was the discovery of M.R.Walker of E.I.Du Pont de Nemours & Co. and J.E.Kelly of
Remington Rand, circa 1957. The computation was designed for the UNIVAC-I computer.
The first test was made in 1958, when CPM was applied to the construction of a new
chemical plant. In March 1959, the method was applied to a maintenance shut-down at the
Du Pont works in Louisville, Kentucky. Unproductive time was reduced from 125 to 93
hours.
Hope this clarifies the details.
Regards,
Erik Jonker
Login or register to post comments
Hi Philip
What came first
Page 7 of 12interview (Q & A) for planning engineer | The world-wide leader in planning...
7/25/2012http://www.planningplanet.com/forums/project-services-career-issues/412376/interview-q-...
Content Credits: 300
Groups: Building Services / E&M, GPC South Africa
Top
Fri, 2004-11-19 02:48 #15
Philip Jonker
Offline
Joined: 7 Nov 2004
Content Credits: 852
Groups: GPC South Africa, Railway Construction
The Critical path or The Pert Chart
Or are they the same thing.
(Or is it a chicken and egg thing)
and if memory is correct I think you are correct with NASA developing the Pert Chart. Come
on Amarica help us with the history facts about planning.
(I am sure it is not NAASA)
Cheers
Login or register to post comments
Hi Moshin,
Seeing nobody answered your questions, I suggest you find a good book about project
planning.
The answers is as follows.
1. Gannt is a form of graphic presentation of planning, ie the bar chart. It is the named
after the guy who came up with the idea. (I was taught all this more than thirty years ago
so I stand corrected if I am wrong). PERT was a form of planning invented in the USA I
think by NASA prior to gantt. However the bar charts you used to make was originally
known as gannt charts.
2. Early and late dates? The difference between early and late dates is that early dates are
the earliest dates on which an activity can be performed in terms of the logic within the
schedule, and the opposite for late dates, ie the latest an activity can be performed but the
end date of the schedule will be maintained. In the old days before primavera, open plan,
super projects and the rest planners actually drew up pert charts, and calculated dates
manually. Have you seen the terms forward pass, and backwrd pass on your screen? A
forward pass is done to calculate the early dates, and the backward pass to calculate late
dates. The software uses the same calculations to achieve this.
3: Float is the difference between late and early dates. This is the time that you can be late
without being late overall. If the float is zero the activity is critical as there is no time to
waste. There is also more than one type of float, the two main types being Total float and
free float. Total float being the amount of float within the overall schedule, and free float
the amount of float within the activity’a sub chain.
4: I think I have explained critical already, but the reason the critical activities are shown in
red is so that that wiil stand out.
Good luck with your interviews. Insh Allah
Page 8 of 12interview (Q & A) for planning engineer | The world-wide leader in planning...
7/25/2012http://www.planningplanet.com/forums/project-services-career-issues/412376/interview-q-...
Top
Thu, 2004-11-18 17:41 #16
mohsin farooqi
Offline
Joined: 17 Oct 2004
Content Credits: 18
Groups: GPC India, Roads & Infrastructure
Top
Sun, 2004-11-07 08:52 #17
Jaco Stadler
Offline
Joined: 9 Sep 2004
Content Credits: 300
Groups: Building Services / E&M, GPC South Africa
PS Jaco I liked your dissertation on costing. Good luck to you and your wife:-)
Login or register to post comments
Hi to all,
Well Planners by Gods grace i think i got the job as they said they short listed me and
thanking to all my fellow planners who had guided me and plz guide me in future also, i
require your opinions as they are worth for a novice like me . especially thanx
Daya,Shazad,Jaco Stadler for there comments and Shazad eagerly waiting for the name of
book you said you are going to send me.if any one give the answers for all the other
questions i had posted will be a great help.
regards
mohsin farooqi
Login or register to post comments
Cash Flows
I would suggest you read a book on the subject. (AACE have some good books)
The answer is simple.
Yes.
Most people do know how cash flow work.(You use it everyday)
You get your salary Cheque = Budget
You promise your wife you will buy her something = Commitment.
You Get the Item delivered
You get invoiced
You pay the person.
What ever is left "over" at the end of the month is your’s/or your wife’s = Profit/loss.
(Normally I have found any money loss it is mine - any Profit made belongs to My Wife)
Then we go on you purchase on credit = (cash Negative)
You pay your account on last month pays = (Cash Positive)
You pay your account as you recieve your pay = (Cash Neutral)
Calculating wat you will spending the month is your = cash forecast (Cash flow) (tricky if
Page 9 of 12interview (Q & A) for planning engineer | The world-wide leader in planning...
7/25/2012http://www.planningplanet.com/forums/project-services-career-issues/412376/interview-q-...
Top
Sun, 2004-11-07 07:15 #18
mohsin farooqi
Offline
Joined: 17 Oct 2004
Content Credits: 18
Groups: GPC India, Roads & Infrastructure
you dont have estimating experiance lesson = Know your wife) This you achieve by saying
on which day you are going to pay which account.
And then their is thousand more things.
The tricky part in cash flows is when you use more than one currency’s (Currency
savings/loss projection) and inflation. Also try to calculate interest.
So next time just think a little about everyday live (we all use planning etc evryday of our
live)
PS the answer to your qeeustion regarding percentage complete on the excavation I would
sugget the following manner.
1) Calculate total Volume required for excavation (1000m2)
2) Calculate total Volume to Complete excavation (400M2)
This will tell me you have 40% to complete so you are 60 % complete. (I prefer looking at
wat is required to complete rather than what is completed which eliminate estimating
errors in progress)
Login or register to post comments
My Final interview was taken today and the delegate from Qatar asked me the following
questions
The
1) put on some of the tasks you encounter in constructing a small villa?
2}Which platform or version of p3 u work?
3) Do you know to work with cash flows? etc
well all gone well except the later question
plz give answer for my last question and other comments
Regards
Mohsin
Page 10 of 12interview (Q & A) for planning engineer | The world-wide leader in planning...
7/25/2012http://www.planningplanet.com/forums/project-services-career-issues/412376/interview-q-...
Top
Wed, 2004-11-03 16:30 #19
mohsin farooqi
Offline
Joined: 17 Oct 2004
Content Credits: 18
Groups: GPC India, Roads & Infrastructure
Top
Wed, 2004-11-03 16:28 #20
mohsin farooqi
Offline
Joined: 17 Oct 2004
Content Credits: 18
Groups: GPC India, Roads & Infrastructure
Top
Wed, 2004-11-03 09:32 #21
Dayanidhi Dhandapany
Offline
Login or register to post comments
Hi Everybody, well i had gone for the interview today and the very basic question
encountered from the interviewee was If you consider a Road project in which there are
lots of activities going on like asphalting, excavation , etc and if You Consider a activity
Excavation, which will be going on repeately simultaneouslly for the entire stretch of say
50km and its divided among 1000 mtrs stretch, how would you know the actual work done
for the 50km stretch for excavation. my answer was make subprojects for the each
1000mtrs and update this subproject updating and scheduling for this sub projects will give
you the actual work done for the whole main project whether my answer was correct or
any one from roads or fellow planners can give a correct answer ? any way i had to
convince him once again for the final interview shortly regards Mohsin
Login or register to post comments
Hi to all
well iam having 4 months of experience only in planning ,for a contracting firm into
construction in oman, and i was the only planning engineer in the firm . where i worked on
p3 platform, where i used to make baseline programmes that too for projects which are
ongoing ,for the clients .this baseline projects where nothing but mere requirement for the
client as per the contract.So kindly be symathetic and answer my questions
1) what is gantt? i mean in my previous job i used to make bar charts which states
activity id ,activity description ,duration, %complete,thats it.
2) what are this dates early start early finish, late start, late finish imply after scheduling ?
in certain terms how is scheduling done with the software ?
3) what is float define in your terms best suits me if you give with an example?
4) what are critical activities and why does the bar chart shows red colour for this activities
any way thanx for replying my earlier questions
Login or register to post comments
Probable Questions: 1. Brief something about your previous project experience and your
achievement in the project. 2. Have you used Resource loading, project budgeting etc. etc.
Cash-flow curve.......etc...etc into your schedule. 3. How good you are in preparation of
Page 11 of 12interview (Q & A) for planning engineer | The world-wide leader in planning...
7/25/2012http://www.planningplanet.com/forums/project-services-career-issues/412376/interview-q-...
Website Development by Hunt Data Solutions and Vit-al Interactive. CMS: Drupal THEME: Acquia Marina
Joined: 18 Mar 2003
Content Credits: 467
Groups: Asta Powerproject, Building Works, GPC India, GPC United Arab Emirates
Top
Wed, 2004-11-03 09:02 #22
Shahzad Munawar
Offline
Joined: 2 Jul 2003
Content Credits: 551
Groups: GPC United Kingdom
Top
weekly/monthly progress reports. 4. Any experience in cost controlling?. 5. How well you
could handle Primavera(for an example). 6. Can you perform well under pressure. 7. Why
do you want to be considered for this post?. ........etc...........etc................
Login or register to post comments
Firstly prepare yourself for basic knowledge and techniques of Planning if you have 1~2
years experience but if you have more experience then concentrate on what you have
performed in that period.
There are no specific questions that we make it as guidelines for interviewers.
Login or register to post comments
Page 12 of 12interview (Q & A) for planning engineer | The world-wide leader in planning...
7/25/2012http://www.planningplanet.com/forums/project-services-career-issues/412376/interview-q-...