Have you ever walked into a supermarket, browsed around – a nice cocoa powder packet in your hand, and thought, “How does this get straight to my local store? When did the world get so accessible?” Well, it’s the magic of modern living! You can even become part of the process and actually get paid for it, too! There are tons of positions available at Cargill at the moment, but you’d probably want to know what I’m talking about first, right?
Cargill is your so-called middle man between farms and big food companies. It is the largest privately held corporation in the United States. Cargill is, more specifically, one of the top exporters of Brazilian soybeans, and for years, this agricultural giant managed to stay on Santa Claus’ good list as being a sustainable company sharing interest in environmental discussions.
This global food corporation really values their workers and puts them as their top priority, which you can clearly notice Brassilian soybeans just take a look at their incredible benefits and above-average pay. If you work hard at Cargill, it pays off.
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Hiring Requirements
If you’re super keen on starting a career at Cargill, there are some boxes you should tick first. Are you 18 years old? Great, you’re one step closer to joining their team. Do you have a right to work in the United States? If you do, that’s excellent. All they’ll need next is your high school diploma and your dedication, blood, sweat, and tears! I’m only joking, of course. Please move on from my bad joke, thank you.
Does Cargill Offer Benefits?
Of course they do! Cargill actually does a great job of providing benefits to all their staff, regardless of whether they are part-timers or full-time employees. There’s even a starting bonus for the most urgently required positions! Check them out:
- $2,000 Sign-On Bonus: For Urgent Recruitment Roles
- Vacation Available Within the First Year: For All Staff
- 401k Retirement Plan: For All Staff
- Tuition Reimbursement: For All Staff
- Life Insurance and Short-Term Disability: For All Staff
- 3 to 8 weeks of PTO: For All Staff
Careers At Cargill
There are so many different kinds of jobs to choose from. This is the great thing about working for an extremely successful corporation – they constantly have new jobs in various locations popping up, and they can actually afford to pay their staff above-average wages. You can look for jobs in production, marketing, and IT and apply if you think you have the right experience. There were so many jobs to choose from that I decided to select three entry-level positions where people can apply for without having three decades of experience. Take a look.
Cargill Operator Assistant
Cargill Operator Assistant or, more plainly put, the person that looks after the raw materials, parts, and goods manufactured by the company. You’ll have to make sure that you’re working in a clean environment and that you know how to operate and maintain the upkeep of machines and equipment. You’ll be working closely with the shift supervisor and other operators to approve product quality. Don’t worry, they’re not expecting you to be born with all this knowledge – they even provide training, as well as that tasty starting bonus listed in the company benefits, just in case you were interested!
Cargill Operator Assistant Salary: $17/hour
Cargill General Production Worker
Another great entry-level position. Are you a vegetarian? You might find this job difficult, as you will be working closely with the processing of beef and weighing, labeling, bagging, packaging, and boxing the finished product. Of course, health and safety are extremely important for food handlers, so anyone working in this position will go through training.
Sure, it’s not the most glamorous job in the world, but the company understands that very well, so they aim to provide all benefits to any kind of staff, unlike other companies that save those for their management positions. Your wages also increase when passing your training successfully, and at the moment, there is a hiring bonus for this position too! It’s a great entry-level position even for students!
Cargill General Production Worker Salary: $16.05–18.30/hour
Cargill Packaging Technician
Okay, so perhaps you don’t have the stomach to handle meat like your fellow colleague over at General Production, but you’re still impressed with the benefits and the wage. Looking into the packaging technician job role might be a better idea.
This job is all about packing equipment, monitoring products, weighing, performing quality control and testing, as well as providing a clean and safe work environment for yourself and other people. There is also an incentive program with some performance-based benefits that you’ll enjoy when working as a packaging technician at Cargill. You really don’t need much qualification to apply, preferably a forklift certification, but even that isn’t compulsory!
Cargill Packaging Technician Salary: $22.04/hour
Cargill Application 2021
Cargill offers so many jobs that they have their own platform for sharing them! If you want to have a look at some jobs at Cargill and start filing in the Cargill application form, simply visit their official website, and get digging!
Choose between professional jobs, production jobs, and university jobs. You then have to register a profile with the company, and start applying – nice and easy! You can even log in with your LinkedIn profile and automatically get suggested a job vacancy based on your skills!
Sadly, you can’t really print off your resume and walk in to get a job, but always make sure to have a resume printed at least for your interview. Wait, you have a resume, right?
Do You Need A Resume For Cargill?
Just think – you’re applying for a job that doesn’t require experience – you can clearly see it stated so on the job ad. You decide that there’s no point in making a resume for a job with minimal requirements, so you simply apply using just the application form online. Guess what, you’re not the first one to do that today. In fact, there are hundreds of people who have decided to take it easy today and not upload a resume. How do you stand out from the rest of the crowd? Easy. You make a resume and show them exactly why they should hire you – that’s how!
All jokes aside, resumes and CVs are a pain to write, so I’ll give you a piece of advice. Just download a template online, and fill it in! There are loads of free templates and guides that will make even the tiniest amount of experience look presentable and impressive. I have selected a few examples, including useful information you should add to your CV if you want to increase your chances of getting hired!
1. Cargill Operator Assistant Resume Template
Okay, so you have added your address, name and skills, and education. What’s next? Well, start by taking a closer look at the job application. There are some really important keywords that you should try and cover in your resume. For example, I can instantly see that a Cargill Operator Assistant will be able to perform physical duties and manual labor. You have amazing written and spoken English – what about another language? Are you able to work weekends? If your schedule is flexible, add that in. Have you processed material goods before? Add that in. There is more information you can follow in the guide linked to the resume template!
2. Cargill General Production Worker Resume Template
Have you had any experience with food handling before? Now is the time to add that to your resume! General production workers spend a lot of their time near raw food, so communicating your knowledge of the health regulations in your state is important! If you don’t have that knowledge, of course, don’t lie! See what else you can implement. For example, a general production worker knows how to use knives and other tools. It’s a good thing to get that down. It might make a difference, especially if you’re going to be using knives every day!
3. Cargill Packaging Technician Resume Template
I already mentioned one thing you can add to your packaging technician resume – are you certified to drive a forklift? If so, great. Cargill prefers to hire people with this certificate, as well as prior experience in this field of work. Do you have any computer skills? You’ll need them for this job! Have you used SAP software before? Put that down if so!
Cargill Interview
Let me guess, they loved your resume, and you have been asked to attend an interview with Cargill! Good on you! Interviews are the easiest part of getting a job, right? Haha, I know that I can do better than that, but one has to try and lift people’s spirits sometimes! Well, there are some things you can do to make your interview process easier. I’m not talking about advice along the lines of “Get there 15 minutes early” or “Make sure to Google your commute the day before!”
Don’t get me wrong – that’s good advice but how about the specifics: “What do you know about Cargill?” If you get asked that question at an interview and haven’t even bothered to read some facts about the company you’re in trouble! How are you going to be convincing and show excitement for a job if you know nothing about the company that may hire you?
Don’t worry, I’m here to save the day and give you some interesting facts about Cargill which you can use during your conversation to woo your interviewer.
Use These Cargill Fun Facts to Help You Land the Job
- Cargill began in 1865. Back then, it was only a single-grain storehouse, and now, it is a global supplier of food, agricultural and risk management products, and service – spreading in 66 countries.
- Cargill Protein Group produces over 4.5 billion lbs of beef every year
- What do they do with all the cow hides you ask? Some of the hides wind up inside BMW vehicles. Others are used in Red Wing boots or shipped to Rawlings to produce 2.4 million baseballs annually!
- Cargill produces so many hides. They could cover the surface of El Dorado lake (which covers an area of 32.37 km²) twice!
- Cargill has over 150,000 workers across the whole world!
Now that you’ve got yourself familiar with some Cargill fun facts, let’s get to the real juicy stuff – the interview questions. I did a lot of research to try and find questions that were actually featured in real-life Cargill interviews. Together, we’re going to take a look at how to answer them convincingly and get that yes from our interviewer!
Cargill Interview Questions
Even after going to interviews for years, I still get surprised by some questions. By now, I think I should have them all figured out, but guess what – even an experienced interview attendant needs to refresh their memory and practice some questions before they apply anywhere. So here are my top 7 FAIQs – famously asked interview questions.
Q: Why do you want to work at Cargill?
A: There’s never a perfect answer to this question. Be honest – are you applying for a personal or a professional reason? Maybe someone recommended Cargill to you, and you want to start working at a company that really values its people, celebrates employee growth, and does its own training. Or maybe you believe you have the right experience for the role already and want to start there because of their competitive salary and great benefits?
Q: What are your top 3 strengths?
A: Try and avoid using lists here. Always remember you’re trying to make your answers stand out from everyone else’s. Is there a particular skill you’re extremely confident in? Are you great at working under pressure? How did you discover that about yourself? Are you extremely organized? What examples of your excellent organization skills can you share with your interviewer? Do you have an incredible focus on tasks?
Everyone is good at something, but if you’re struggling to find your good qualities, ask a friend or a colleague. That also makes a great answer – maybe you remember how an ex-colleague of yours complimented you on a certain skill. Did your previous boss ask you to teach other staff a specific skill? These will all make great answers. Switch on your charming self, and have a conversation!
Q: What are your top 3 weaknesses?
A: Pretty similar to the question above, know that listing won’t cut it. Perhaps you’re not very good at your communication skills. Listen, I’m not saying you’re illiterate, just that approaching strangers may be difficult for you sometimes. After all, that’s why you haven’t gone for that bartending job or retail job, right?
Actually, you’re just not as talkative, so a job that requires less small talk and more “down-to-business” tasks is more suitable for you. Another weakness could be that you’re a “yes” man and can’t help yourself – literally! You’re too busy helping others. You really want to work on these skills, especially the second one, so you started practicing being more direct in your approach. It’s not much, but it’s a start!
Q: Why should we hire you?
A: Okay! Get 👏 serious 👏 ! Time to sell yourself and pull your A-game. What skills are you most confident in? What about your education? Hobbies? Is there anything you didn’t include in your resume for Cargill that would fit perfectly as conversation material? Try and be specific – what about this job really appealed to you? How are you a good candidate for this position? If a friend recommended it to you, why do you think they chose you specifically?
Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
A: To be honest, unless you’re about to start work during a busy holiday season, it’s rare that a hiring assistant will be happy to hear you’re not planning on sticking around for the long haul. Even if that’s the truth, I recommend you keep it to yourself, but try to highlight your ambitions still.
No one is asking you to give up on your dreams and aspirations for a job at Cargill, so talk about your actual ambitions. Perhaps you put your family as a top priority, and providing for them is what’s essential to you right now. Or you’re actually thinking about climbing the ladder of success little by little and moving up the company? Perhaps neither is true for you. and you have your very own unique answer. Don’t be afraid to share it! This question will help employers get to know who you really are if you’re honest!
Q: Describe a time when you were wrong and how you went about correcting it.
A: Listen, try not to overshare here. It’s a really bad look if you start a conversation about how horrible your ex-coworkers were – it just shows poor work ethic. Do your best to tell a positive story about what you learned from your mistake. Don’t focus so much on the intricate details of that experience, and don’t dwell on it too much. Instead, think of a way of explaining how this change and lesson you learned can potentially help you with your job at Cargill!
Q: Are you able to work with people from culturally diverse backgrounds?
A: Cargill is all about diversity – even if you spent 30 seconds browsing around their website, you’ll notice they take it very seriously. It’s all part of their aim to put people first in their company. So how do you go about answering such a complex and sensitive question?
Well, working with people from a completely new culturally diverse background to yours requires patience and understanding. Trying to grasp where they are coming from in various workplace scenarios is important. It also goes both ways. For example, I once worked at a place that hired people from all around the world. We were all different, and it was exciting to meet new people and hear their stories.
A few of my colleagues were from Latvia and often spoke to each other in Latvian, during breaks but especially at work. A lot of my colleagues started to get offended – not because they were saying anything rude but because they were contributing to miscommunication at the workplace. Our boss stepped in and explained that it makes sense for them to talk in their native language – after all, it’s a lot less effort on their part and sometimes it’s faster to communicate that way. However, if it slowed people down and contributed to making mistakes at work, they should minimize it. Staying professional and being respectful are the answer to such a tricky situation at work.
What Happens After The Interview?
Well, it depends on who you are as a person really. Some people like to go home and have a chill bath. Others hardly reach the bathroom door – they’re so desperate for a nap, especially after an early interview. Likewise, those who feel confident in their success might prefer to call their friends and have a nice celebratory drink or non-celebratory drink. I’m sure if you followed this advice, you definitely managed to improve some of your skills when applying for any job, and even that should be celebrated! What is your unique way of treating yourself? It’s the perfect thing to do after a tough interview!
I really hope you find this information helpful. I know exactly how tough it is to look for a job and have to go through it alone, so I’m hoping this article gave you some interesting points to think about! Let’s hope Cargill manages to open up all your dream opportunities for you!
Have you attended an interview at Cargill before? Do you know someone who has? Share your experience with us in the comment section below!
