5 Reasons Manufacturing Employers Reject You

Ever apply for a job you feel perfect for, only to never hear back? Or have you ever walked out of an interview feeling great and then find out the company hired somebody else?

There are a lot of reasons this can happen, and while some are outside of your influence, many can be controlled. I created this checklist to highlight a few areas that could be the deciding factor in your next job search.

1. You submitted a generic resume

This is how the typical hiring manager reads your resume: He or she is going to sit down with the job description and your resume side-by-side, looking for overlaps. If they are very familiar with the job requirements, they might not have a physical copy but it’s absolutely what is in the forefront of their mind.

I recommend you do exactly the same before applying. Sit down with both documents and tailor your resume to target the requirements that the company has prioritized. Add relevant keywords, mention as many overlaps as possible, and go lighter on areas that they don’t seem to value as highly.

A lot of job seekers look at their resume in a vacuum and try to create a document that shows what’s most impressive in general. While this is good, the priority should be to show what’s most relevant to the job you want (and to the profile the company wants).

It’s become the norm to tailor your resume to each specific job. If you skip this step there’s a much higher chance you’ll get rejected, and may even lose out on the job to somebody less qualified than you.

2. You made mistakes on your job application

Not everyone is detail-oriented by nature, but when it comes to a job application, manufacturing companies expect you to be. If this isn’t your strength, have a friend or family member look over everything before you hit “Submit.”

Careless mistakes and errors reflect poorly on the quality of work you’d deliver if hired for the job. It might seem unfair, but that’s the only thing they can judge by at this point; they haven’t spoken with you yet and they don’t know the type of work you do.

So take your time, go slow with the job application and remember that this is their first impression of the work that you do. You want to seem careful, thoughtful and focused.

3. They didn’t believe you were truly interested in the job

This is mostly judged in the interview itself, but is also something that ties in with the areas mentioned above. For example, tailoring your resume and submitting an error-free application is a good start to showing that you’re truly interested.

There are a couple areas to be careful of in the actual interview. Not knowing anything about the company or the person you’re speaking with is a tip-off that you didn’t do anything to prepare, which they’ll see as a lack of interest.

If you want to put their mind at ease and show that you’re interested in finding out more about their opportunity, the best thing you can do is read a bit about the company on their website before the interview. You’ll be able to use this info to answer questions like, “so, what do you know about us?”

Then when it comes time to ask questions of your own, you’ll have some background info to reference and you’ll come across as more impressive.

4. You didn’t seem confident in the interview

If a company likes your resume and application enough to invite you to interview, it’s a sign they’re interested and you should walk in with confidence. If you don’t seem fully confident that you can come in and make an immediate impact to their company, why would they hire you?

So before your interview, prepare good answers for the questions that require you to brag about yourself. Here are a few examples you should be ready for:

• What accomplishment at work are you most proud of?
• What’s your greatest strength?
• Why should we hire you?

5. The requirements changed or they filled the position

Things aren’t always 100% within your control in the interview process.

Maybe you applied for the job when they were already in the third stage of interviews with somebody else that they like. They’re not going to speak to you or respond unless that other candidate doesn’t work out most likely.

Requirements also change. Maybe a company posts a job requiring a high level of technical expertise, you fit extremely well and decide to apply, but they decide soon after that they need somebody with managerial experience and you’re missing that piece. Again, not your fault, but it happens.

The approach I recommend is to put your full effort into the areas you can control, take your time when applying for jobs and preparing to interview and set yourself up to succeed as often as possible. But recognize that nobody gets an offer from 100% of their interviews. It’s important to repeat the process, continue doing things the right way, and not get discouraged if a couple of companies don’t call you back.