Electrical Engineer Interview Questions and Scorecard
Six question sets for the owner running the interview: core questions, separate blocks for power, embedded, controls and RF, questions by seniority, PE licensure and code checks, situational judgment, and a scorecard with red flags. Download as DOCX.
The hardest interview I have ever watched a small business owner run was for an electrical engineer. He owned a controls integration shop, he needed someone to program panels and commission machines, and he had no way to tell whether the person across the table actually knew how to do it. Every candidate sounded confident. Every candidate used acronyms he did not know. He hired the most impressive talker and spent nine months undoing the damage.
That is the real problem with this hire. Electrical engineering is not one job, it is four or five, and the owner asking the questions is usually not an engineer. At FirstHR we build for exactly those owners. These six question sets give you the core questions, separate blocks for power, embedded, controls and RF, questions calibrated by seniority, a PE licensure and code set, situational judgment questions, and a scorecard with red flags.
Every question that needs one carries a short note on what a good answer sounds like, so you can grade the response without grading the engineering. Pair this page with the electrical engineer job description templates to define the role before you interview for it.
TL;DR
Interview an electrical engineer on five things: design ownership from requirement to working hardware, verification before a build, depth in your one domain (power, embedded, controls, or RF), codes and safety, and judgment under pressure. Decide the domain before you post, and use a short paid practical exercise. Federal wage data puts the median at $120,630.
What the Job Really Involves at a Small Company
At a small business, an electrical engineer designs and validates electrical systems and then lives with the results: talking to customers, walking the floor, standing next to the machine that will not start. The title covers power distribution, printed circuit boards, embedded systems, industrial controls, and radio frequency work, and almost nobody is genuinely strong in more than one or two of those.
The federal occupation combines electrical and electronics engineers, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects to grow 7 percent from 2024 to 2034, much faster than the average for all occupations, with about 17,500 openings projected each year. That matters to you as a hiring signal: this is a competitive market, and a slow, unstructured process loses good candidates to faster employers.
The practical difference from a big employer is scope. In a large company an engineer works inside a narrow slice with senior review at every gate. In yours, the same person may write the specification, choose the parts, draw it, test it, sit with the contractor, and answer the customer call at seven in the evening. Interview for that reality, not for the specialty they trained in.
One clarification worth making before you interview anyone: engineers design, electricians install. If the work you described is really installation, service, or troubleshooting in the field, you may want a licensed electrician or an engineering technician instead, and the engineer job description library can help you compare the roles before you commit.
Which Question Set Should You Use?
Use the core set with every candidate, then add the one domain block that matches the work and the seniority block that matches the level you are paying for. The licensure set applies only if the role involves stamped drawings or permits. The situational set belongs in the second interview, and the scorecard is used with all of them.
Core Questions
Every candidate
The base set: design ownership, verification, codes, documentation, and failure stories, each with a note on what a good answer sounds like. Includes a short phone screen.
By Domain
Power, embedded, controls, RF
Four separate blocks, because a power systems engineer and an RF engineer share a title and almost nothing else. Ask only the block you are hiring for.
By Seniority
Entry, mid, senior
The same question has a different right answer at each level. Fundamentals and coachability at entry, project ownership at mid, decisions and mentoring at senior.
PE Licensure and Codes
Stamped work and permits
For roles that need a licensed Professional Engineer: license status, what they will and will not stamp, code adoption, permits, inspections, and safety around energized gear.
Situational and Culture
Judgment and fit
Field failures, shipped defects, impossible schedules, and disagreeing with the owner, plus how much hands-on work they actually want at a smaller company.
Scorecard + Red Flags
Rate and compare
A seven-area scoring rubric, a red-flag checklist, and four paid practical exercises that tell you more than any interview answer.
Match the Set to the Hire
Every candidate gets the Core set. Add exactly one domain block: power for building and utility work, embedded and hardware for products and boards, controls for machines and panels, RF and analog for wireless and signal chains. Add the seniority block for the level you are actually paying for. Add the licensure set only if drawings need a stamp. Use Situational in round two and the Scorecard for everyone.
6 Free Electrical Engineer Question Sets to Download
Download all six as one Word document or copy the sets individually. Each follows the same structure: when to use it, the questions with good-answer notes where they help, a what-to-listen-for block, and space for notes. The core set and the scorecard both end in a rating rubric so you can compare candidates on evidence.
Download All 6 Electrical Engineer Question Sets
Core questions, domain blocks for power, embedded, controls and RF, seniority questions, PE licensure and codes, situational judgment, and a scorecard with red flags. All in one DOCX.
Set 1: Core Electrical Engineer Questions
The base set for every candidate: design ownership, requirements, verification, failure stories, codes, and documentation, plus a short phone screen to run first. Each question that needs one carries a good-answer note.
Core Electrical Engineer Interview Questions
CORE ELECTRICAL ENGINEER INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Candidate: __
Business: __
Interviewer: __
Date: _
HOW TO USE THIS SET
This is the base set for any electrical engineering hire. Ask 7 to 9 of these
questions in the first real interview, after a short phone screen. Use the
"good answer sounds like" notes to judge technical depth even if you are not an
engineer yourself. Score every candidate on the rubric at the end of this kit.
Short phone screen (10 minutes, before this set):
•What kind of electrical work have you actually owned end to end?
•What are you designing right now, and at what stage is it?
•Are you licensed, working toward a PE, or not pursuing licensure?
•What pay range are you targeting?
CORE QUESTIONS
1. Walk me through a project you designed from a blank page to working hardware.
(Good answer: names the requirement, the constraints, the tradeoffs, the test
results, and what they would change. Owns the mistakes as well as the wins.)
2. How do you go from a rough requirement to a specification you can design to?
Set 2: Domain Questions for Power, Embedded, Controls and RF
Four separate blocks for four different jobs. Feeder sizing and arc flash for power, board bring-up and EMC for embedded, PLC commissioning and safety circuits for controls, noise budgets and impedance matching for RF and analog.
Domain Questions: Power, Embedded, Controls, RF
DOMAIN-SPECIFIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEER QUESTIONS
Candidate: __
Domain being hired for: __
Interviewer: __
WHEN TO USE THIS SET
"Electrical engineer" is four or five different jobs sharing one title. A power
systems engineer and an RF engineer have almost nothing in common day to day.
Pick the block below that matches the work you actually need, and ask it after
the core set. Skip the blocks that do not apply. Hiring the wrong domain is the
single most expensive mistake on this role.
POWER AND ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS
1. Walk me through how you size a feeder and select overcurrent protection.
Entry level tests fundamentals, curiosity, and how they ask for help. Mid level tests project ownership and honest estimating. Senior tests decisions, mentoring, build-versus-buy judgment, and whether they will tell you a schedule is impossible.
Electrical Engineer Questions by Seniority
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER QUESTIONS BY SENIORITY
Candidate: __
Level being hired: [ ] Entry [ ] Mid [ ] Senior or lead
Interviewer: __
WHEN TO USE THIS SET
The same question produces a different right answer at each level. An entry-level
engineer should show fundamentals and coachability. A mid-level engineer should
own projects. A senior should own decisions, budgets, and other people's work.
Use the block for the level you are paying for, and hold the bar there.
ENTRY LEVEL (0 TO 3 YEARS)
1. Walk me through your senior design project or a personal build.
(Good answer: can explain the whole thing, including the parts that failed.)
2. Explain Ohm's law and Kirchhoff's laws to me as if I were a customer.
(Good answer: correct and plain. If they cannot teach it, they do not own it.)
3. What lab equipment have you used, and what did you measure?
4. Tell me about a time you were stuck. How long before you asked for help?
(Good answer: tries independently, then asks with a specific question and the
data already gathered. Neither helpless nor stubbornly silent.)
5. What do you want to be good at in two years?
6. How comfortable are you being on the shop floor or on a job site?
MID LEVEL (3 TO 8 YEARS)
1. Which project are you proudest of, and what was your specific contribution?
2. Tell me about a design decision you made that turned out to be wrong.
3. How do you estimate how long an electrical design will take?
(Good answer: breaks the work down, adds explicit risk buffer, tracks actuals.)
4. How do you work with the mechanical, software, and manufacturing side?
5. Describe a time you pushed back on a requirement. What happened?
6. What have you automated or standardized so the next project went faster?
SENIOR AND LEAD
1. What technical decisions do you want to own, and which will you delegate?
2. How have you mentored or reviewed the work of a junior engineer?
3. Tell me about a time you were the only engineer in the room with the answer.
4. How do you decide when to build in-house versus buy a module or hire a
consultant? (Good answer: thinks in cost, schedule, risk, and maintenance
burden, not engineering pride.)
5. How would you set up design review and revision control for a small team?
6. What would you want to change in our engineering process in your first quarter?
7. How do you handle a schedule you know is not achievable?
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
•Entry: fundamentals, curiosity, hands-on evidence, asks for help well
•Mid: owns projects, estimates honestly, works across functions
•Senior: owns decisions, raises the team, tells you the truth about schedules
NOTES
__
Set 4: PE Licensure, Codes, and Safety
For work that needs a stamp: license status by state, what they will and will not stamp, code adoption and editions, permits and plan review, plus safety questions about working around energized equipment.
PE Licensure, Codes, and Safety Questions
PE LICENSURE, CODES, AND SAFETY QUESTIONS
Candidate: __
Business: __
Interviewer: __
WHEN TO USE THIS SET
Use this set when the work involves stamped drawings, permits, building power,
utility interconnection, or anything where a licensed Professional Engineer must
sign off. Most product and embedded roles do not need a PE. Most building,
infrastructure, and public-facing design work does. Decide which you are before
you interview, because it changes the pay range and the size of the candidate pool.
The licensure path is set by each state board, not federally: an engineering
degree, the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, several years of relevant
engineering experience, and then the PE exam. Requirements and exemptions vary
by state, so confirm with your state board rather than assuming.
LICENSURE QUESTIONS
1. Are you a licensed PE? In which states, and are any licenses inactive?
2. If not licensed, where are you in the path: FE passed, experience logged,
exam scheduled? (Good answer: a specific, dated plan or an honest "not
pursuing it," never a vague "someday.")
3. What have you stamped, and what would you decline to stamp?
(Good answer: understands that a stamp carries personal liability and will not
stamp work they did not supervise.)
4. How do you handle continuing education and license renewal?
5. Have you ever had a plan review rejected? What was the comment and the fix?
6. How do you work with an outside PE when your own work needs a stamp?
CODES AND COMPLIANCE QUESTIONS
1. Which code editions does our jurisdiction enforce, and how would you find out?
(Good answer: knows adoption is state and local, and that the edition matters.)
2. Walk me through a permit or inspection you took from submittal to sign-off.
3. How do you handle a code change between design and construction?
4. For products: what compliance testing have you managed, and with which labs?
SAFETY QUESTIONS
1. Describe how you work safely around energized equipment.
(Good answer: de-energize first, lockout and tagout, verify absence of voltage,
correct personal protective equipment. Treats it as non-negotiable.)
2. Tell me about a time you stopped work over a safety concern.
3. How do you build safety into a design rather than into a warning label?
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
•Straight answers about license status, with states and dates
•Respect for what a stamp actually means legally
•Knows codes are adopted locally and editions differ
•Safety answers that are instinctive rather than rehearsed
NOTES
__
Set 5: Situational Judgment and Culture Fit
Field failures, a defect discovered after shipping, an impossible schedule, a discontinued part, and disagreeing with the owner. Score the reasoning rather than the conclusion. Use these in the second interview.
Situational Judgment and Culture Fit Questions
SITUATIONAL JUDGMENT AND CULTURE FIT QUESTIONS
Candidate: __
Business: __
Interviewer: __
WHEN TO USE THIS SET
Technical depth gets an engineer hired. Judgment and fit decide whether the hire
works out at a small business, where the engineer talks to customers, walks the
floor, and often has no senior engineer to escalate to. Ask these in the second
interview. Score the reasoning, not the conclusion. There is rarely one right
answer, but there are clearly wrong ones.
SITUATIONAL JUDGMENT
1. A prototype passes on your bench and fails at the customer site. First moves?
(Good answer: gathers data before theorizing, reproduces the failure, considers
environment and installation, does not blame the customer first.)
2. You find a design error in a product already shipped. What do you do?
(Good answer: assesses safety exposure immediately, tells someone the same day,
quantifies the field population. Never quietly fixes it in the next revision.)
3. The schedule says two weeks and you know it needs six. How do you handle it?
4. A supplier discontinues a part mid-build. Walk me through your response.
5. Production wants to ship a unit that failed one test by a small margin.
6. The owner asks for a change that you think is technically wrong. What now?
(Good answer: explains the tradeoff in business terms, offers an alternative,
then commits to the decision. Neither silent compliance nor a standoff.)
7. You are the only engineer here and you are stuck. What is your escalation path?
CULTURE AND WORKING STYLE
1. Describe the engineering environment where you did your best work.
2. How do you explain a technical constraint to a customer or a salesperson?
3. How much of your work do you expect to be hands-on versus at a desk?
(Good answer: matches your reality. A candidate expecting pure design work will
not be happy troubleshooting on the floor, and the reverse is also true.)
4. What do you need from an employer to stay for several years?
5. How do you feel about wearing more than one hat at a smaller company?
6. What questions do you have about how we work?
(Good answer: asks about process, tools, budget, and who reviews their work.
No questions is a real signal.)
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
•Reasoning that starts with data and safety, not with blame
•Speaks about risk in business terms the owner can act on
•Realistic about hands-on work at a smaller company
•Disagrees well: states the case, then commits
NOTES
__
Set 6: Scorecard and Red Flags
A seven-area rubric with space for written evidence, a ten-item red-flag checklist, and four paid practical exercises that reveal more than any interview answer. Use it with every set above.
Electrical Engineer Scorecard and Red Flags
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER SCORECARD AND RED-FLAG CHECKLIST
Candidate: __
Role and domain: __
Interviewer: __
Date: _
HOW TO SCORE
Score each area from 1 to 5 immediately after the interview, while it is fresh.
Anchor every score to something the candidate actually said, and write the
evidence down. If more than one person interviews, everyone scores independently
before comparing. Use the same rubric for every candidate for the same role. A
consistent, evidence-based process is fairer and much easier to defend later.
Rating scale:
5 = Strong, specific evidence 4 = Solid evidence 3 = Some evidence
2 = Weak or mixed evidence 1 = No evidence or red flags
SCORING AREAS
Fundamentals: circuit theory, power, signals, whatever the role demands
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
Domain depth: real depth in power, embedded, controls, or RF as required
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
Verification and test: proves designs before committing to a build
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
Codes, standards, and safety: designs to the rules that apply to us
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
Documentation and handoff: someone else can build and maintain the work
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
Judgment under pressure: acts on data, escalates early, tells the truth
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
Communication and fit: explains it plainly, fits how we actually work
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
RED FLAGS (WEIGH CAREFULLY)
[ ] Cannot describe a single project in technical detail
[ ] Every project succeeded and nothing ever failed
[ ] Uses acronyms constantly but cannot explain them plainly
[ ] Claims deep expertise in power, embedded, controls, and RF at once
[ ] Vague or shifting answers about PE license status or states
[ ] Casual about energized work, lockout, or personal protective equipment
[ ] No answer for how a design gets verified before a build
[ ] Blames every past failure on other people or on management
[ ] Cannot say what they personally did versus what the team did
[ ] Reluctant to provide references or to name past projects
PRACTICAL EXERCISE (OPTIONAL BUT RECOMMENDED)
Instead of a puzzle, use a small piece of real work, paid, with a time cap:
[ ] Review a real schematic or one-line and list what they would change and why
[ ] Size a circuit or a load from a real requirement and show the calculation
[ ] Read a failure report and write a one-page root-cause plan
[ ] Walk your floor or site and describe what they notice
You do not need to grade the engineering, you need to tell a strong answer from a weak one. The pattern holds across every domain: strong answers carry numbers, follow a stated sequence, and include at least one honest failure. Weak answers carry adjectives, describe team accomplishments with no personal contribution, and report that everything went smoothly.
Walk me through a project you designed from a blank page to working hardware.
Strong answer: Names the requirement, the constraints, the parts chosen and why, what testing proved, and what they would do differently. Uses numbers: voltages, currents, tolerances, cost, schedule. Says clearly which parts were theirs and which belonged to teammates.
Weak answer: Describes a job title and a team accomplishment with no personal contribution, no numbers, and no tradeoffs. Everything went smoothly and nothing was hard.
How do you verify a design before you commit to a build?
Strong answer: Simulation, worst-case and derating analysis, a prototype, and a written test plan tied back to the original requirement. A strong answer treats verification as a separate step with its own evidence, not as careful designing.
Weak answer: Says they check the work carefully, or relies entirely on catching problems during debug after the build. No test plan, no analysis, no record of what was proven.
Tell me about a design that failed in test or in the field.
Strong answer: A concrete failure with a diagnosed root cause, a fix that was verified, and a process change so it does not recur. The candidate is comfortable owning it and can explain the physics of why it failed.
Weak answer: Cannot recall a failure, or produces a fake weakness. Blames the supplier, the customer, or management without describing their own contribution or what changed afterward.
Three signals do most of the work. First, ask for a number and see whether one arrives. Second, ask them to teach you something basic, because a candidate who cannot explain a concept plainly does not own it and will not be able to explain a constraint to your customer either. Third, ask what they are not good at, and treat a real answer as a strong positive.
Numbers, not adjectives
Quotes voltages, currents, tolerances, cost
Describes what was measured and with what
Vague superlatives replace data in weak answers
Order of operations
Debugs in a sequence, not at random
Verifies before committing to a build
Can teach the sequence to a non-engineer
Honesty about limits
Names what they are not good at
Says where their domain ends
Has a real failure story with a root cause
Evidence you can inspect
Brings schematics, drawings, or photos
Explains a past drawing on the spot
Will do a short paid practical exercise
The most reliable evaluation is not a question at all. Give a short paid practical exercise with a strict time cap: review a real schematic or one-line drawing and list what they would change and why, or size a circuit from a real requirement and show the calculation. Then show the result to a friendly engineer at a supplier or a customer. That one hour of borrowed expertise is the cheapest insurance on this hire, and it pairs naturally with a skills-based hiring approach.
Ask by Domain, Not by Title
Ask the questions that match the work rather than the questions that match the title. A power systems engineer sizing a service entrance and an RF engineer chasing a failed radiated emissions test are doing unrelated jobs. Decide which one you need, then ask only that block. The table below maps the four common domains at small businesses.
Domain
What they actually do
Ask about
Power and electrical systems
Feeders, panels, one-lines, grounding, generators, service entrance
Platforms programmed, safety circuits and interlocks, intermittent faults
RF and analog
Signal chains, noise budgets, matching, antennas, certification
Test equipment fluency, impedance matching, radiated emissions failures
The cross-domain question worth asking everyone: where does your expertise end and someone else take over? Engineers who answer that clearly are the ones who will tell you when a job needs an outside specialist instead of quietly guessing. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR, which will make it easier to keep domain-tagged candidates separate as your pipeline grows.
PE Licensure and Code Questions
Require a Professional Engineer license only when the work actually needs a stamp, because requiring one otherwise shrinks your candidate pool and raises your pay range for nothing. Stamped drawings, permits and plan review, building power, and engineering services offered directly to the public are the usual triggers. Product design, embedded work, and internal engineering typically are not.
How PE Licensure Actually Works
Licensure is granted by state boards, not federally. State licensure typically requires a four-year or higher degree in engineering, a passing score on the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, several years of relevant work experience, and a passing score on the PE exam. Licensure is not required for entry-level positions, and each state issues its own licenses (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Confirm with your own state board before you write the requirement into a job posting.
License status is a matter of public record, so a straight answer is easy to give and a vague one tells you something. Ask which states, whether any license is inactive, and what they would refuse to stamp. A candidate who understands that a stamp carries personal liability, and who will not stamp work they did not supervise, is showing you good professional judgment rather than reluctance.
Codes deserve their own questions. The National Electrical Code is adopted state by state and sometimes locally, and the enforced edition varies, so a candidate who knows to check the local adoption rather than assume is worth more than one who quotes a code from memory. For products, ask about listing and compliance testing and which labs they have worked with.
Red Flags to Watch For
One red flag should end an interview on its own: a casual attitude toward working around energized equipment, lockout and tagout, or personal protective equipment. Technical brilliance does not offset it, because the consequence is measured in injuries rather than in rework. Everything else below is a weighting factor rather than an automatic no.
Expert in everything
A candidate claiming deep expertise in power, embedded, controls, and RF at once is usually shallow in all four. Ask for a measurement they took in each and watch the depth drop away.
Acronyms without meaning
Fluent jargon that collapses when you ask for a plain-language explanation. If they cannot explain it to you, they cannot explain it to your customer or your inspector either.
Casual about safety
Shrugging about energized work, lockout and tagout, or protective equipment. This is the one red flag that should end an interview on its own, regardless of technical skill.
Fuzzy license status
Shifting answers about whether they hold a PE, in which states, and whether it is active. License status is a matter of public record and a straight answer is easy to give.
Two more patterns deserve attention. A candidate who cannot separate what they personally did from what their team did is either overstating their role or has never led anything, and a follow-up question usually settles which. And a candidate whose every past failure was somebody else's fault will bring that same account of events to your projects.
Verify what you can. Engineering work leaves evidence: drawings, part numbers, products on the market, projects with addresses. A reference check for this role should ask specifically about technical judgment and about how the person behaved when a design failed, not just about attendance and attitude.
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Score every candidate on the same seven areas immediately after the interview, anchored to something they actually said. Written evidence next to each score is what separates a real comparison from a memory of who felt impressive. If two people interview, each scores independently before the two sheets are compared.
Scoring area
What a 5 looks like
Fundamentals
Explains core theory plainly and correctly, without notes
Domain depth
Real, measured experience in the one domain you are hiring for
Verification and test
Proves designs with analysis and a written test plan before a build
Codes, standards, and safety
Names the standards that apply here; safety answers are instinctive
Documentation and handoff
Schematics, bill of materials, revisions, test records as a habit
Judgment under pressure
Gathers data first, escalates early, states hard truths about schedules
Communication and fit
Explains a constraint to a customer; realistic about hands-on work
The same questions and the same rubric for every candidate is the whole point of a structured interview, and it feeds a clean interview feedback step before the decision.
If you want a general-purpose form to sit alongside these technical sets, the interview evaluation form covers the communication and fit areas in a format you can hand to a second interviewer who is not technical either.
What This Role Pays
Electrical engineer pay is high relative to most small business roles and varies widely by domain, seniority, licensure, and metro area. Anchor to government data first, then adjust for the domain you need and your local market. Semiconductor and RF roles in expensive metros sit near the top of the range, while entry-level and rural roles sit far below the median.
Median $120,630 a Year (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), electrical engineers had a median annual wage of $120,630, with the lowest 10 percent under $76,550 and the highest 10 percent above $184,300. The middle half earned between $92,830 and $152,950 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Budget for total cost rather than salary alone. A first engineering hire usually brings design software seats, part libraries, lab bench equipment, and test instruments with it, and those line items surprise owners who planned only for payroll. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider, so pair it with your payroll system when you model the full cost.
Classification is the other pay question. Engineering is explicitly named by the Department of Labor as a field of science or learning under the learned professional exemption, which also requires payment on a salary or fee basis at not less than 684 dollars per week. Title alone never decides it, so review the actual duties against the exempt versus non-exempt tests and document your reasoning.
Interviewing Engineers Without an Engineering Team
A large manufacturer vets an engineer through a panel of senior engineers. You are doing it alone, between everything else, and probably without the technical background to catch a confident wrong answer. That constraint shapes the whole process, and it is where the avoidable mistakes on this hire happen.
You are hiring an engineer without an engineering department to vet them
A large manufacturer runs a candidate through a panel of senior engineers who can smell a weak answer in thirty seconds. You probably cannot, and that is normal. The workaround is structure rather than expertise: ask the same questions of every candidate, use the good-answer notes in each kit as your reference point, and lean hard on a short paid practical exercise. Reviewing a real schematic or sizing a real circuit reveals more in two hours than any interview answer. If you can borrow a friendly engineer from a customer, a supplier, or your contractor for a single call, that one hour is the cheapest insurance you will buy on this hire.
The title covers four different jobs and the wrong one is expensive
Power, embedded and hardware, controls and automation, and RF or analog are separate careers that happen to share a job title. A brilliant power systems engineer will not lay out your circuit board, and a brilliant board designer will not size your service entrance. Decide the domain before you post the role, write it into the job description, and ask only that domain block in the interview. A candidate who claims all four with equal depth is usually shallow in every one of them. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR, and when it lands it will make sorting candidates by domain far easier than a shared inbox.
One engineer means no one reviews the work
At a small company the engineer often has nobody senior to check their design, which raises the stakes on judgment and honesty. That is why the situational set matters as much as the technical one. You want somebody who escalates early, tells you when a schedule is impossible, and says the words I do not know when that is the truth. Ask directly what their escalation path would be here when they get stuck, and listen for a real answer: a former colleague, a professional network, a paid consultant, the supplier's applications engineer. A candidate who has never needed help has never been near the edge of their ability.
What you need
Electrical Engineer
Engineering Technician
Designs new circuits or systems from requirements
Performs analysis and calculations you can rely on
Builds, tests, and troubleshoots existing designs
Can pursue a PE license and stamp drawings
Costs materially less to employ
The simplest rule: if you need new designs, analysis, and eventually stamped drawings, hire the engineer and pay for it. If you mostly need someone to build, test, and troubleshoot designs that already exist, a technician does the work at a fraction of the cost, and your hiring process gets substantially easier.
From Interview to Onboarding
The interview is step one. Onboarding an engineer has extra moving parts because of the tooling and the intellectual property involved: a signed offer, a confidentiality and invention-assignment agreement, software licenses and lab access, safety training, and the code editions your jurisdiction enforces, alongside the standard I-9 and W-4 paperwork.
Offer and IP agreement
Confirm role, domain, pay, and exemption status in writing, and have the engineer sign confidentiality and invention-assignment terms before the first day.
Tools and licenses on day one
Design software seats, revision control, part libraries, lab access, and site badges take longer to arrange than most owners expect. Start early.
Safety and code orientation
Electrical safety training, lockout and tagout procedures, protective equipment, and the code editions your jurisdiction enforces.
Store the records
Keep the signed offer, I-9, W-4, license documentation, and safety acknowledgments organized and easy to produce.
Start the tooling requests before the first day, because design software seats and site access take longer to arrange than owners expect. The confidentiality agreement matters more here than in most roles, since an engineer will see your designs, your suppliers, and your margins from week one.
Once the decision is made, an onboarding template gives the new engineer a structured start. FirstHR connects the offer, e-signature, the new hire paperwork, safety and policy acknowledgments, and the tooling checklist in one place, so a business without an HR person can onboard a technical hire without losing a form. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Key Takeaways
Decide the domain before you post: power, embedded and hardware, controls, or RF and analog are four different jobs.
Use the core set with every candidate, then add only the domain block and the seniority block that fit the role.
Judge answers by numbers, sequence, and honest failure stories rather than by confidence or fluent acronyms.
A short paid practical exercise on real work reveals more than any interview answer, especially if you are not an engineer.
Require a PE license only when drawings need a stamp, and confirm licensure rules with your state board.
Casual answers about working around energized equipment are the one red flag that should end an interview.
Frequently Asked Questions
What questions should I ask an electrical engineer in an interview?
Start with design ownership and verification, then go deep in the one domain you are hiring for. The strongest core questions are: walk me through a project you designed from a blank page to working hardware; how do you verify a design before you commit to a build; tell me about a design that failed in test or in the field; which codes or standards do you design to; and how do you document your work so someone else can build it. After the core set, ask only the domain block that matches the role, whether that is power systems, embedded and hardware, controls and automation, or RF and analog. Finish with situational judgment questions about field failures, shipped defects, and impossible schedules. This page includes six ready-to-use sets plus a scorecard, each with notes on what a good answer sounds like.
How do I evaluate an electrical engineer if I am not an engineer myself?
You do not need to grade the engineering; you need to recognize a strong answer from a weak one. Strong answers carry numbers instead of adjectives: voltages, currents, tolerances, cost, and what was measured with which instrument. Strong candidates debug in a stated sequence rather than at random, verify designs before a build rather than only after, and can explain a technical constraint in plain language. They also name a real failure with a diagnosed root cause. The single most useful tool is a short paid practical exercise: ask them to review a real schematic or one-line drawing and list what they would change and why, or to size a circuit from a real requirement and show the calculation. Two hours of real work reveals more than any interview answer, and you can show the result to a friendly engineer for a second opinion.
What is the difference between an electrical engineer and an electrician?
An electrical engineer designs electrical systems, circuits, and equipment, working from requirements through analysis, drawings, and testing. An electrician installs, maintains, and repairs electrical systems in the field under the National Electrical Code and local rules. The credentials are different: engineers hold an engineering degree and may pursue a Professional Engineer license through a state board, while electricians complete an apprenticeship and hold a state or local electrician license. Many small electrical businesses discover in the interview stage that the work they described actually calls for a licensed journeyman or master electrician, or for an engineering technician, rather than a degreed engineer. Decide which role you are actually hiring before you post it, because the pay ranges, the candidate pools, and the interview questions are completely different.
Do I need to hire a licensed PE?
It depends entirely on the work. A Professional Engineer license matters when drawings must be stamped, when permits or plan review are involved, for building power and infrastructure design, and generally whenever engineering services are offered directly to the public. Most product development, embedded, and internal design roles do not require licensure at all, and licensure is not required for entry-level engineering positions. The licensure path is set by each state board: an engineering degree, the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, several years of relevant work experience, and then the PE exam. Exemptions and requirements vary by state, so confirm with your state licensing board rather than assuming. Requiring a PE when you do not need one shrinks your candidate pool and raises your pay range for no benefit.
How much does it cost to hire an electrical engineer?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), electrical engineers had a median annual wage of $120,630, with the lowest 10 percent under $76,550 and the highest 10 percent above $184,300. The middle half of the occupation earned between $92,830 and $152,950. Where you land inside that spread depends on domain, seniority, licensure, and local market: semiconductor and RF roles in high-cost metros sit near the top, while entry-level and rural roles sit far lower. Budget for total cost rather than salary alone, since design software seats, lab equipment, and test instruments add real money for a first engineering hire. Benchmark against government data for your metro area first, then adjust for the specific domain you need. This is general information, not compensation advice.
Are electrical engineers exempt from overtime?
Usually yes, but exemption is never automatic and depends on duties and salary, not on the job title. Engineering is explicitly listed by the Department of Labor as a field of science or learning under the learned professional exemption, which requires advanced knowledge customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction. The employee must also be paid on a salary or fee basis at not less than the standard salary level, currently 684 dollars per week. An engineering technician doing routine work under supervision, or a junior hire paid hourly, may not qualify even with an engineering title. Classify based on the actual duties performed, document your reasoning, and remember that some states apply stricter tests than the federal one. This is general information, not legal advice; consult a qualified advisor for your situation.
What are red flags in an electrical engineer interview?
The clearest red flag is a casual attitude toward safety around energized equipment, lockout and tagout, or personal protective equipment, and that one should end an interview on its own. After that, watch for a candidate who claims deep expertise in power, embedded, controls, and RF simultaneously, because depth in one of those usually costs years. Other warning signs: cannot describe a single project in technical detail; every project succeeded and nothing ever failed; fluent acronyms that collapse when you ask for a plain-language explanation; no answer for how a design gets verified before a build; blames every past failure on other people; and shifting answers about PE license status or which states it covers. Reluctance to provide references or to name past projects also matters, since engineering work is usually verifiable.
Are these electrical engineer interview questions legal to ask?
Yes. Questions about engineering experience, design process, tools, codes, licensure status, and how a candidate handled specific technical situations are job-related and permitted. The legal caution is the same as for any interview: avoid questions touching protected characteristics such as age, race, religion, national origin, disability, or family status, and keep every question focused on the job and asked consistently of all candidates. Using the same structured questions and the same scorecard for every candidate is itself a safeguard, because it demonstrates that you evaluated people against the same job-related criteria. Several states and cities also restrict salary history questions, so check your local rules before asking about past pay. For specifics, review EEOC guidance or consult a qualified employment attorney. This is general information, not legal advice.
