LIKELY QUESTIONS

- Describe your experience with advanced electrical installation, inspection, and maintenance work on water infrastructure, machinery, or plant equipment.
- How do you interpret electrical drawings, wiring diagrams, and schematic symbols before carrying out an installation or repair?
- Explain how you would test an alternator relay, including the tools, readings, and safety precautions you would use.
- How do you test armature resistance and continuity, and how would you diagnose an armature fault?
- What are the common causes, signs, and remedies for battery sulphation and slugging in industrial battery systems?
- Walk us through your approach to inspecting, fault-finding, and repairing a large battery charging plant.
- Describe a major electrical fault you repaired on machinery or plant equipment. How did you identify the root cause and confirm the repair was successful?
- How do you ensure compliance with electrical safety procedures, KETREB professional requirements, maintenance standards, and accurate inspection records?

BEHAVIOURAL QUESTIONS

- Tell us about a time you identified an electrical defect before it caused equipment failure or a safety incident.
Model approach: Situation: State the equipment, site, and emerging risk. Task: Explain your responsibility to inspect and protect operations. Action: Describe the tests performed, defect identified, isolation procedure, repair recommendation, and communication with operators. Result: Quantify avoided downtime, improved safety, or restored reliability.

- Describe a time you handled an urgent electrical breakdown affecting operations.
Model approach: Situation: Explain the operational impact, such as a pump station, charging plant, or critical machinery outage. Task: State your role in restoring service safely and quickly. Action: Outline fault diagnosis, prioritization, use of drawings and test instruments, repair, and functional testing. Result: State restoration time, safety outcome, and preventive action taken afterward.

- Give an example of when you had to follow strict safety procedures despite pressure to restore equipment quickly.
Model approach: Situation: Describe the pressure or urgency. Task: Explain your duty to protect people, equipment, and the organization. Action: Explain isolation, lockout/tagout where applicable, verification of dead condition, PPE use, risk communication, and controlled return to service. Result: Show that the work was completed safely without incident and that stakeholders accepted the decision.

- Tell us about a time you improved maintenance documentation, reporting, or use of computer applications in your work.
Model approach: Situation: Identify a gap such as incomplete records, recurring faults, or delayed maintenance reporting. Task: State your responsibility to improve traceability and decision-making. Action: Describe how you used spreadsheets, maintenance logs, asset registers, or reports to capture test results and trends. Result: Explain the improvement in planning, reduced repeat failures, audit readiness, or stock control.

SMART QUESTIONS TO ASK

- What types of electrical plant, machinery, alternator systems, and battery charging installations will be the main focus of this position?
- How is the electrical inspection and maintenance function structured, and who would the Inspector I report to on technical and administrative matters?
- What are the most frequent electrical reliability challenges currently affecting CWWDA facilities?
- What testing instruments, maintenance management systems, and safety procedures are available to support inspectors in the field?
- How does CWWDA measure success for this role during the first six to twelve months, particularly regarding safety, uptime, inspection quality, and maintenance reporting?

RED FLAGS TO WATCH FOR

- Unclear answers about electrical safety controls, isolation procedures, PPE, testing equipment, or responsibility for approving work on live or critical equipment.
- Expectations that one inspector will cover extensive sites, emergency repairs, inspections, and documentation without adequate staffing, transport, tools, or standby support.
- Vague descriptions of reporting lines, maintenance planning, spare-parts availability, or whether recurring equipment failures are addressed through root-cause analysis.