Solvay Manufacturing Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The job application process spanned two months. Initially, HR from the talent department reached out to schedule an interview. This first step involved light questions focused on behavior, motivations, and current career path, aiming to assess if my profile matched the company's values. A week later, I had the manager interview. This round included three participants: my potential future leader, a colleague from the same department, and a manager from a different area. They delved into my technical background, asking about my approach to developing reliability structures and requesting examples of past development projects. They also inquired about vibration analysis and potential new technologies for reliability engineering. Two weeks after that, I had an on-site interview with the industrial director. During this meeting, the director clearly outlined his expectations for the role and the essential soft skills needed for future demands. To gauge if I possessed these characteristics, he asked for specific examples from my career where I applied these skills during work challenges. He also brought up EHS behavior challenges and posed hypothetical situations to understand how I would improve safety and awareness. English proficiency was required throughout all stages; while the interviews were conducted in Portuguese, they confirmed my English skills by asking a few questions in that language. The job requirements were very clearly stated in the initial job application description.

I had a Skype call with HR, and she was nice. At the end, she said she wanted to move me forward to a second interview and would be in touch with more details. I didn't hear back for a while, so I emailed her, but didn't get a response for about two weeks. I was disappointed, but she got back to me and apologized, saying the site manager hadn't responded to her. They ended up hiring someone internally for the role. It was a shame because I liked the company, and I'd still apply for other roles there in the future.

I had a 30-minute one-on-one with a senior process engineer. They really wanted to gauge my technical understanding and see if I'd be a good fit for the chemical industry.