As with any profession, the employment of a manufacturing engineer starts with the interview. Since manufacturing engineers are experts in industrial production, it’s important to ask them the right engineering interview questions. This will help employers gauge the skills of their candidates and assess their suitability for the role. Listed below are the best engineering job interview questions.

What qualities, as a manufacturing engineer, do you need to be successful?

If your candidate is able to successfully answer this question, it demonstrates a level of self-awareness that is beneficial to any employment sector. Being able to recognise qualities that you have, as well as ones you could work on, allows you to improve yourself and become a better employee.

What major challenges did you face in your last role? How did you overcome them?

Problem-solving is one of the most prominent aspects of engineering, meaning it’s important to gauge just how well a candidate faces obstacles. Asking interview questions for engineers about a real-life experience means that they can present you with evidence to back up the positive claims they’re making about themselves.

Describe your day-to-day as a manufacturing engineer

The way in which someone describes their working day can tell you a lot about how they work. This is one of the engineer interview questions that will enable you to assess whether they’re a good fit for your company.

Briefly describe your experience

Experience is key in the field of engineering, especially for a role as complex as a manufacturing engineer. Asking good engineering interview questions will allow you to discover a little about your candidate’s experience. This will tell you what they’ll be able to bring to your company, as well as aspects that they may need educating on.

How do you stay motivated in your role?

In a role that revolves around problem-solving, it can be easy to become demotivated when things get too difficult. Therefore, it’s important that all manufacturing engineers have a method of staying motivated in their role on the hardest of days. This is one of the manufacturing engineer interview questions that will inform you if they’ll be able to consistently deliver good results.

Describe a time when you failed in this role and the lessons you’ve learnt

Failure is important to success, as learning from what you did wrong is the best way to get it right in the future, which is why this is one of the most common engineering interview questions. Discovering the mistakes that your candidates have already made means that you can say with confidence that they won’t make these mistakes again and may even have an optimised process due to the said mistake.

Why do you feel you are suited for this role?

This is another question in which the candidate’s answer displays their self-awareness. Similarly, selling yourself in a humble manner without bragging can be a tricky task. Therefore, anyone who’s capable of doing so has great communication skills.

Share with us your greatest achievement

This can be a difficult question to answer, as so few people have done something truly extraordinary in their lives. Therefore, if your candidate is able to come out with a unique and impressive achievement, you’ll know that they’re likely to be a valuable asset to your company.

Can you describe the term BOM and tell us how it’s used in manufacturing?

Bill of Materials, or BOMs, are the core of all manufacturing processes. As a result, it’s essential that your candidate is able to answer this question with confidence.

Explain what MES is and how it is used

All engineering companies will use a Manufacturing Execution System, or MES, to provide solutions for and optimise manufacturing processes. Consequently, every manufacturing engineer candidate should be competent in answering this question.

Are you looking to expand your engineering team? Upload your vacancy today.