u/BusOk9756

Hello everyone,
I recently had a phone screening for an Entry-Level Electrical Engineer role at a defense aerospace company. It went really well, and the recruiter mentioned that the next step is an in-person interview where I'll need to give a technical presentation.
The panel will use this presentation as a foundation to ask questions about my engineering skills. They told me it could be *anything*—either a project I’ve already done or a brand new one I want to create before the interview. I'm expecting a callback in 1–2 weeks to schedule it.
I wanted to get some feedback from the engineering community here. What would be my best angle of attack?
**Option A:** Revisit, polish, and deeply document a major project from my university coursework (like a senior capstone, microcontroller lab, or digital logic project).

**Option B:** Build a brand-new, fast-turnaround project from scratch over the next two weeks using standard hardware (like an Arduino or FPGA dev board) specifically tailored to the job description (e.g., automated thermal/fan control, analog sensor filtering, or communication protocols).

If you’ve sat on interview panels before, what do you actually care about seeing? Would a quick 2-week project built on a breadboard look rushed, or does the rapid execution look impressive? Or am I safer sticking to a thorough, established school project that I can drill down into?
Appreciate any advice or project ideas you have!

Hello everyone,
I recently had a phone screening for an Entry-Level Electrical Engineer role at a defense aerospace company. It went really well, and the recruiter mentioned that the next step is an in-person interview where I'll need to give a technical presentation.
The panel will use this presentation as a foundation to ask questions about my engineering skills. They told me it could be anything—either a project I’ve already done or a brand new one I want to create before the interview. I'm expecting a callback in 1–2 weeks to schedule it.
I wanted to get some feedback from the engineering community here. What would be my best angle of attack?
Option A: Revisit, polish, and deeply document a major project from my university coursework (like a senior capstone, microcontroller lab, or digital logic project).

Option B: Build a brand-new, fast-turnaround project from scratch over the next two weeks using standard hardware (like an Arduino or FPGA dev board) specifically tailored to the job description (e.g., automated thermal/fan control, analog sensor filtering, or communication protocols).

If you’ve sat on interview panels before, what do you actually care about seeing? Would a quick 2-week project built on a breadboard look rushed, or does the rapid execution look impressive? Or am I safer sticking to a thorough, established school project that I can drill down into?
Appreciate any advice or project ideas you have!