Do any of you guys work in utility design?

I have been selling cars for the last 17 years....or, uh, had been until my boss broke the piggy bank open and took all the pennies out. So I am without work currently.

I have an interview next week with the local utility as an "Associate Electrical Utility Design" person. Basically if a customer has a load request I would be the person who looks at what they need verses available routes/wires and gives them the go/no go and maybe a quote if they need a pole or wire ran. There is another guy doing the same job, a kid, but he has an EE degree so if I got not something deep he'd be there to help, and also, I think all this stuff is mostly software driven anyhow.

The fella who's doing the interview told me there would be a test involving "symbols common in the electrical industry" so I have made index cards for the usual stuff like diodes, transformers, etc. I also made some for more planning oriented stuff,lke the symbols they use on maps to denote certain types of power lines, fuses, substations, etc. To be honest my level of electrical understanding is not great, but currently my primary interest is in getting the job and then bootstrap it from there with in-house training and OTJ experience.

If any of you have a suggestion as to what what I might do to increase my odds of success (by which I mean what should I cram on), I'd appreciate it, and will even dedicate my next beer to your honor.

Find a book or online articles on power distribution, and 3 phase power. I worked on 208v and 480v 3 phase circuits, designing motor controls, motors, etc. All were fed with 15kv power we distributed on our medical campus. A lot online can be found.

I worked in the electric/gas utility industry for 23 years. The position you’re interested in is a terrific opportunity, frequently sought by linemen as a way to move from the trades into the office. It sounds like you are doing all the right things. If you have an apprenticeship instructor nearby see if you can borrow some of the classroom study materials or possibly even sit in on some classes.
Best of luck!

Pretty much adding loads, know the load factors they want to use, etc, most online

I'm just a mechanical engineer student. Some electrical understanding of electrical engineering, but enough to toy with breadboards and understand simple circuits. I got A's in the classes. We did many DC in labs with variable loads and AC sinusoidal on paper. If you have a chance to sit in on lectures and learn stuff from skilled mentors professionally that will help you the most. It helps when they put time in and let you try to solve it with them and you learn how to analyze it. Our instructor gave us three hours per lecture with staying two hours after class. That really helped us all that he cared to help us. We had dork kids go from no knowing what a voltmeter was to doing RLC circuits. It's mostly going to be algebra. You basically balance voltage drops and currents. Voltage laws and current laws. There can be way harder instances. It will make sense when someone skilled shows you specifically what you are having issues with. Having an outstanding instructor will help you understand what the heck is going on. Ask any questions you want to anyone around you willing to help you. This stuff may take a lot of practice book wise to understand. There was website analog discovery it has many concepts, videos, instructional breadboards. It went from DC power to AC phaser analysis in basic three phase systems with phase angles and complex numbers. "Academically" and it's all free except the lab kits. You professionally will likely have to understand more complicated stuff then I have learned. I stopped at certain diodes after AC power 3 phase academically. Make sure you can tell the difference between devices, resistors capacitor, and power sources symbolically and beyond and how to solve some of those problems. If I had to guess the electrical engineer is using pspice or ni multiview program. If you can simplify systems of resistors and capacitors that may help. It sounds like you may be tested on building off of basic fundamentals into a specific area.

I do not have the practical understanding and experience that you have earned professionally. Your exams may be way harder than what I learned in college. But if you understand more stuff conceptually and some of the math maybe you can score better. I think there was voltage division rules and thieven's thereom that may have dealt with loads it's been a few years. Try to seek advice of the electrical engineer and others at your work. They should have study resources and advice particular to your career.