HSA & Associates Interview Questions
& Process

You'll take a timed exam for 1 hour with 7-9 questions on structural analysis and member design. Then, you'll have an hour-long panel interview. The exam is graded before the panel interview, and they expect a high score.

This company's recruiter reached out about a Senior Project Designer role, which is why I responded. The PDF they sent was vague about the responsibilities. After I was flown out and talked to the principal, I wasn't offered that position. Instead, I was offered Project Designer. When I went to take the test, I asked for blocks or a guide to the company's AutoCAD Standards, but they didn't give me any. I was given vanilla CAD and a detail, without layers, text styles, or dim styles. The detail I was creating took too long because I didn't have the proper standardization, and I couldn't finish within the hour. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, but when I asked about the standards again, they said they didn't really have any, which surprised me for a company as old as HSA and Associates. I asked about the CAD Manager's role, and they said they do little CAD work and mostly check drawings, suggesting no investment in their tools. They have about 55 staff, with 19 designers. They claimed 40% CAD and 60% Revit, but it seems like they're just starting to move to Revit. When I asked about Dynamo and Precast tools, they didn't respond, so I assumed they aren't using them. Regarding my offer, the principal offered to match my current salary, justifying it by saying I'd make more with overtime. Overtime shouldn't determine my hourly pay. A quick search showed the salary for a Senior Project Designer wasn't close to what was offered, and I wasn't even offered that role. They also mentioned working about 50 hours a week, which is fine, but I'm tired of it. They also haven't paid all my travel expenses for the interview. I'd say go if you live nearby, but don't expect reimbursement if you're from out of town and they promise to pay everything.

Applied online and got a call back within a week for an in office interview. Interview was taken by two principals along with a senior project engineer. They asked basic questions on my resume (technical as well as non-technical). The senior project engineer asked few basic questions on seismic design parameters. However, at the end of the interview, one of the principals offered me the job and told me to think it through which was really odd. I declined the offer since I heard negative feedbacks from the employees working at the firm.

The interview process was pretty straightforward. I was first contacted by a recruiter via LinkedIn, and we then scheduled a call with the Principal. The interview itself took place on Zoom and started right on time.