Do Potential Employees Know Who You Are and What You Do
It's that time of year again. Schools are letting out, caps and gowns are being packed away, and a whole new wave of young people are asking themselves the same question: What do I do now?
High school seniors are hunting for a summer job to stack some cash before college. Recent graduates are nervously stepping into the adult world, resume in hand, wondering where they actually fit. They're searching, scrolling, and clicking and here's the question you need to honestly ask yourself: Are they finding you?
And if they do find you, what do they see?
Your Career Page Is a Sales Tool (Treat It Like One)
Walk through your career page right now. Imagine you're an 18-year-old who has maybe driven past your facility a hundred times but has no idea what happens inside. You land on the page. Can you answer these three questions in under 60 seconds?
- What does this company actually do?
- What jobs are available, and what would I actually be doing every day?
- Why would working here be a good thing for me?
If the answer to any of those is "probably not," you have work to do.
Too many foundry career pages read like capability brochures, with lots of talk about tonnage, alloys, and decades of industry experience. That's great for a customer. It means almost nothing to a 20-year-old trying to figure out if this is a place they could see themselves building a career.
Your career page needs to stop informing and start convincing.
Be Intentional About Your "Come Work Here" Pitch
Think about what actually makes your shop a great place to work. Not the boilerplate stuff, the real things. Is it the tight-knit crew? The fact that you promote from within? Starting wages that beat the warehouse down the road? Skills that translate into a lifetime of opportunity?
Say that. Clearly. Loudly. Up front.
Young job seekers are making fast decisions. If your page doesn't speak to them in plain language, with some personality, they're moving on in seconds. You need them to land on your page and think, I can see myself here.
That means showing real people, real jobs, and real reasons to choose you. A short video of someone walking through a shift. Quotes from employees who started where they're starting. A clear picture of what growth looks like. The talent is out there and looking, but the burden is on you to make the case.
Give Them a Real Look at the Job
Here's where a lot of companies miss an opportunity: they talk about the job without ever showing what it's actually like.
That's where a Realistic Job Preview comes in, and it's something TPP has built specifically for this. A Realistic Job Preview gives candidates an honest, transparent look at what working at your foundry looks and feels like, before they ever apply. It also includes a message from leadership, which helps set the tone and signals to candidates that the people at the top are invested in who joins the team. It sets expectations, filters in the right people, and filters out the ones who wouldn't be a fit anyway, saving you time and reducing early turnover.
Think of it as the ultimate "try before you buy" for both sides of the hiring equation. The candidate gets clarity. You get applicants who actually know what they're signing up for and still want in.
When paired with a career page that's doing its job, selling your culture, your opportunity, and your people, a Realistic Job Preview is the closer. It takes someone who's curious and turns them into someone who's committed.
The Talent Is Looking. Are You Ready?
This is your moment to get in front of that audience. Audit your career page. Sharpen your pitch. Show them who you are, what you do, and why joining your team is the best decision they could make this summer.
Interested in learning more about TPP's Realistic Job Preview tool and how it can transform your recruiting process? Reach out to our team(Bill Padnos bill@nffs.org and Erin Boehm erinb@nffs.org) and we'd love to show you what it looks like in action.