Interviewing for any industry comes with specific questions designed to gauge an employee on certain subjects, and the world of manufacturing is no different. Employers want to make sure they’re hiring capable and talented workers on whom they can rely. Remember, every question they ask you is about underlying issues such as your ethics and commitment to safety. Below are a few common manufacturing questions and suggestions for answering to make sure you’re nailing your interview and landing the job.
Examples of Dealing With Conflict
Many job interviews will ask a question like this, trying to determine the type of employee you are, as well as if you’re level headed. Think through examples of your past and find one where you’re practicing effective conflict resolution and demonstrating your value as an employee simultaneously. Describe the strategy you used in the situation and always refrain from accusatory language or name calling.
Discuss a Time You Failed
Learning about success is important, but employers want to see how you handle failure. Because this is the real world, projects and ideas will inevitably fail and the ability to learn and grow from an experience is imperative. Explain what happened and avoid shifting the blame to someone else. Talk about your role, the aftermath, and how the experience helped you as a worker. Focus on the positives, like what you learned, instead of the negatives of all the ways it could’ve been better.
Hypothetical Situations (like a faulty product or co-worker failing to follow safety procedures)
The answers to hypothetical questions can illustrate the importance of ethics and safety to you. Are you the type of manufacturing employee who will notice a team member in improper safety gear or handling a machine incorrectly and ignore it? Or would you follow the proper procedure to ensure they were notified so the behavior could be corrected. If you answer you would ignore it, you’re demonstrating how little you value safety in the factory or warehouse.
It can be tempting to cover up a manufacturing error to protect your fellow workers or employer, but it’s not ethical. You want to show employers you’re willing to do what’s right, even in the hard situations. If the employer wants you to cover up mistakes, it isn’t the company for you.
Find the Right Manufacturing Employer With Workbox Staffing
We care about matching you with the best employer for your skills. We place workers in manufacturing jobs such as machine operations, assembly workers, packagers, welders, CNC operators, and more. Workbox Staffing believes in finding good people, and we’re looking for you. Contact our staffing specialists today to learn more!
