Review the evidence signals before interviewing. Then use the anchored descriptions—not instinct alone—to choose the score that best matches each answer.
01
Evaluation factor
Technical depth
35% weight
Probe command of EPC Gen2 / ISO 18000-6C air interface: Q value tuning, session flags, dense reader mode, link profiles, plus antenna gain, polarization and near-field versus far-field behaviour.
Evidence to listen for
Explains the physics or mechanism behind their work, not just the tooling
Names the standards, tolerances, and constraints they designed against
Can defend a design decision under follow-up questions
Distinguishes what they personally engineered from what the team delivered
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Cannot explain the fundamentals of their own stated specialism.
2
Needs Improvement
Knows the vocabulary but not the underlying mechanism; struggles under follow-ups.
3
Satisfactory
Solid working knowledge for the role; depth thins out on edge cases.
4
Very Good
Strong command of the domain; explains trade-offs and defends decisions well.
5
Excellent
Explains Q and session choices against tag population size, and links antenna polarization and power settings to measured read reliability.
02
Evaluation factor
Work that shipped
30% weight
Ask for deployed systems: portal or overhead reader arrays, Impinj R700 or Zebra FX9600 fleets, SGTIN-96 encoding schemes, and the read accuracy achieved in production.
Evidence to listen for
Names specific programmes, parts, or systems that reached production or field use
States their own scope inside the project
Can give measured outcomes: yield, cycle time, cost, failure rate
Explains what went wrong and what they changed
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
No delivered work; experience is coursework, lab-only, or purely observational.
2
Needs Improvement
Contributed to projects but cannot say what shipped or what their part was.
3
Satisfactory
Has delivered real work; outcomes described without numbers.
4
Very Good
Names shipped work and their scope, with some measured results.
5
Excellent
Names specific deployments with before and after read rates, tag counts, site conditions, and their own role in commissioning and tuning.
03
Evaluation factor
Diagnosis under uncertainty
20% weight
Test how they chase intermittent misreads: liquid or metal detuning, multipath nulls, reader-to-reader interference, cable loss, and use of Voyantic Tagformance or spectrum analysers.
Evidence to listen for
Describes a real failure they chased to root cause
Shows a method: isolate variables, reproduce, measure, eliminate
Distinguishes correlation from cause
Says what they ruled out and why, not only what the answer turned out to be
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
No diagnostic method; guesses or escalates immediately.
2
Needs Improvement
Trial and error with no structure; cannot explain how they narrowed the cause.
3
Satisfactory
Reasonable method on familiar problems; less structured on novel ones.
4
Very Good
Clear systematic approach with a real root-cause story.
5
Excellent
Describes an isolation sequence from tag to antenna to reader to middleware, with measurements taken at each step before changing anything.
04
Evaluation factor
Working across the org
15% weight
Check work with operations, IT and vendors: middleware or EPCIS integration, ARC tag selection, FCC Part 15 constraints, and training warehouse or line staff on tag placement.
Evidence to listen for
Explains technical constraints to non-technical stakeholders without condescension
Has negotiated scope, cost, or timeline with manufacturing, product, or suppliers
Documents decisions so others can act on them
Takes review feedback without defensiveness
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Cannot communicate outside their specialism; dismissive of other functions.
2
Needs Improvement
Communication gaps cause rework; avoids stakeholder contact.
3
Satisfactory
Works adequately with other teams; documentation is thin.
4
Very Good
Communicates clearly across functions; reliable collaborator.
5
Excellent
Shows they translated RF constraints into workable process changes and got operations and IT teams to adopt them without escalation.
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