Estimator is a person who prepares and submits tenders for contracts by calculating the costs involved in supplying a product or service to the clients technical specifications. He or she takes into consideration various account factors such as material costs, cost of operating or hiring plant or specialist equipment, transport costs, labour and other overheads such as rent, administration, electricity and other services in order to make accurate estimations.
Listed below are some common interview questions that come up again and again during interviews for the post of estimator.
1. How will you make test estimation?
Test estimates are based on size, effort and schedule. The size of a project is determined by LOC (lines of code), function points and number of screens/forms. The effort of a project is determined by using the formula: size estimates + productivity + amount of time taken to test the product. Schedule of a project is determined by using the WBS (Work Breakdown structure) with start and end dates for each activity.
2. Can you tell us something about the roles and responsibilities that you had in your previous positions?
In my previous job, I performed various jobs such as discussing on a number of things with organization to calculate contract performance, creating essential records and cost statements at usual intervals. I also calculated price structure and analyzed cost proposals and maintained the cost proposal information.
3. Please elaborate about your skills and abilities?
Well, I have 7 years strong experience as estimator. I have excellent ability to do all financial works. I can easily learn new technology and adopt any new methodology. I possess very good communication, customer service skills, interpersonal, analytical, and organizational and problem solving skills.
4. What are you looking for in a job?
Tell about the range of opportunities which you are expecting from your new job. Tell the interviewer about your dreams and what you aspire to achieve in life. You can say that I want to grow in terms of interest, responsibilities, designation and monetary matters.
5. Would you like to ask any question?
You should ask plenty of questions from interviewer to show interest in the position and organization. The employer will not hire someone who has no questions. You should prepare question in advance for the interviewer such as the growth scope, your project etc.
These are some of the frequently asked interview questions. I hope now you will not face any problem in answering the above questions.
