Groton — Alden White, 17, spent the bus ride to school Wednesday morning poring over potential interview questions.

White, of Lisbon, is one of 13 seniors majoring in mechanical design at Ella T. Grasso Southeastern Technical High School. He is enthusiastic about job prospects at Electric Boat, which is busy with work thanks to some lucrative Navy contracts to build nuclear-powered submarines.

Job stability and the potential for growth make EB an attractive place to work, White said. He also pointed to the company's 401(k) match, which is much higher than those of other potential employers he's researched, and the performance-based raises that EB offers. He is most keen to learn "when I can start."

White, and most of the seniors, are 17 years old, and will have to wait until they turn 18 to apply for a job at EB. But that didn't stop them from getting to experience EB's interview process as EB designers spent several hours at the school Wednesday morning interviewing the students and answering their questions.

While events like this have happened in the past, Wednesday's interviews were different in that there was a larger number of students involved, according to Tom Allen, who heads the mechanical design and engineering department at Grasso Tech. All of the students, he said, are interested in jobs at EB.

Wednesday's event showed that the school — one of 17 diploma-granting technical high schools in the state — was fulfilling its mission of preparing students for the workforce, Allen said.

Allen began working at Grasso Tech in the mid-1990s and remembers times when EB didn't have much of a need for the students here. But that's changed.

EB is in the midst of a hiring spree as the company manages a workload that, in the future, could entail building three or four submarines a year. The company expects to hire 2,000 employees this year alone.

That ramp-up has led to a greater interest in the design program at Grasso Tech, according to Allen. Training programs have been created at Grasso Tech and elsewhere to develop the skilled workers that EB needs, though the design program at Grasso Tech is not one of those training programs.

If hired, the Grasso Tech seniors would join some 1,900 draftsman, a field that provides plenty of room for growth, according to EB officials. These are union jobs that offer good pay and benefits. The starting base pay for a draft learner, an entry-level position in the design field, is $15.47 an hour.

A 2001 Grasso Tech graduate was among the interviewers Wednesday. For Jeremy Lessard, 33, the experience of interviewing those whose shoes he was in 16 years ago was like "coming full circle."

The skills that the design students learned over the past four years are the building blocks for their future careers, Lessard said. It was the reason he got a job at EB, he added.

Tony Gigliotti, 58, a design supervisor at EB who has conducted more than 300 interviews for the company, said the students he interviewed had a technical background unlike any other candidates their age.

While nervous, they were well prepared, bringing robust portfolios, demonstrating sound technical knowledge, and looking the part — most wore suits, Gigliotti said.

He was also impressed by the questions the students asked. One student even pulled out a sheet of paper with a bulleted list of six or seven questions.

"That's perfect," Gigliotti said. "That's what we want to see."

j.bergman@theday.com