Practicing before you've picked defense or commercial
An aerospace engineering search usually runs across two different worlds at once, defense-program openings on one side, commercial aerospace manufacturers on the other, and it's common to be applying to both before settling on which one to chase harder. A general interview fits that exact stretch of the search.
It doesn't ask about a specific subsystem or a specific posting because none has been chosen yet. It asks the standard opening round instead: why aerospace, what draws you to this field over adjacent engineering work, how you've handled a conflict with a teammate, what you're looking for in your next role.
Those questions come up whether the next interview is for a propulsion team on a defense contract or a structures role at a commercial manufacturer, so getting comfortable answering them cleanly is worth doing before the search narrows.
What a general interview covers for this role
A general session pulls from Intervieux's fixed base of standard questions rather than a job posting or a resume, since neither is required to start. For an aerospace engineer, that means the interview stays on background, motivation, and common behavioral prompts rather than probing a propulsion, structures, or avionics subsystem by name.
It's a reasonable place to practice explaining why you're drawn to aerospace specifically, a question that comes up in almost every loop in this field regardless of which sector or program is behind the posting, and to work through a standard behavioral prompt about a disagreement with a coworker or a missed deadline before a real interviewer asks the same thing with a program's schedule riding on the answer.
Scoring
How scoring reads on a general aerospace session
Communication and Behavioral carry most of the signal in a general session, since there's no job description or resume feeding the conversation toward subsystem specifics for the Technical dimension to grade against in depth. That dimension tends to read closer to a baseline here, and it's the technical or comprehensive session that gives it real subsystem material to work with.
The penalty system still applies in full. A behavioral answer about a coworker disagreement that skips a clear situation-action-result structure loses points the same way it would in any other session, and ending the interview without asking the interviewer a question of your own costs points too, a habit worth building before it matters in front of a program manager.
Frequently asked questions
Should an aerospace engineer start with a general interview or go straight to technical?
Either works, but general is the faster one to start since it needs no job posting or resume. It's a reasonable first session to check communication and behavioral footing before narrowing into subsystem-specific technical practice once a program or posting is picked.
Does the general interview ask which aerospace sector I want, defense or commercial?
Not directly. It asks standard motivation and background questions, why this field, what you're looking for next, rather than sector-specific questions. Once a specific posting is in hand, the job-description interview type is built to question against that posting's own requirements.
Will a general aerospace interview ask about security clearance eligibility?
The general session focuses on standard background and behavioral practice rather than eligibility screening. A real defense-program loop may still raise citizenship or clearance status directly, so it's worth having a concise answer ready separately.
How does the Technical score dimension behave in a general session with no subsystem to discuss?
It still generates, but with less material to grade against than a session built around a specific subsystem. The technical or comprehensive interview types give the Technical dimension real subsystem reasoning to score once a target has been chosen.
Related pages
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