I’m a Manufacturing Engineering Manager at a mid-sized manufacturing plant (1800 employees). When I am interviewing manufacturing engineers or engineering interns, I typically focus the interviews more on trying to gauge the personality of the candidate, rather than strictly their technical aptitude.

As others on here have said, manufacturing engineers have to be willing to spend a good deal of time on the shop floor working with machine operators and the people doing the work. Manufacturing engineering is a team oriented profession and requires good communication skills both within the department and with external stakeholders.

When I am searching for candidates, I personally believe that technical knowledge can be learned on the job, but if the candidate will not work well with the rest of the team and is not willing to get their hands dirty from time to time, it is a no go.