Job, Career and Future Scope for a Mechanical Engineer

Mechanical Engineering – One of the oldest and evergreen branches of engineering have witnessed many innovations, huge demands, glorious response, love and affection, and challenges over time.

The mechanical engineers are dealing in mechanical and structural design, thermal and hydraulic systems, manufacturing systems and processes, robotics and automation etc. They design, develop, manufacture, test, validate, install and ensure the functioning of any product or service provided to their end user or customer. It applies to products ranging from small to large consumer products, engines, machines, automobiles, power generating equipment like motor, generator, turbines, etc. Further, mechanical engineers analyze the problems, investigates the failures, identifies and recommends remedies, develops prototypes, analyze and interpret results, suggest alternatives and executes needful actions. They provide the versatility through their knowledge and skills widely applicable in every individual function of manufacturing organization ranging from design, develop, purchase, process, inspect, maintenance, deliver, etc. They develop all kinds of machinery like refrigeration and air- conditioning systems, elevators and escalators, material handling systems, manufacturing and power producing devices, automation of factories and processes, sensitive controlling machineries, etc. They use technology to design, develop, build, analyze and evaluate in a concurrent manner such as core mechanical softwares, controllers and actuators along with electronic devices like sensors and RFID, high end programming softwares, management information systems and their corresponding applications and softwares, etc.

However, this classic field of engineering is facing few shocking arguments and queries related to decisions of aspiring engineers to enter into mechanical field due to its current status of poor job offers and placement opportunities for graduates. So, let’s put a small torch in the ocean of promising engineering field – Mechanical Engineering.

Jobs and Career: Many industries for many roles and at various levels recruits mechanical engineers with annual package varying from 3lacs to 50lacs and more sometimes.

Following is the list of  segments but not limited for career  opportunities after graduating from mechanical engineering:

• Design Engineering
• Production Engineering
• Manufacturing Engineering
• Thermal Engineering
• Industrial Engineering
• Robotics and Automation Engineering
• Renewable energy generation
• System Design, Analysis and Testing
• Installation and Maintenance
• Research
• Railways and Marine
• Government Sector

Further, here some of the job roles are listed in demand for mechanical engineers:

Mechanical Engineer: Mechanical engineers work with a team to plan, design and develop products and processes. They conceptualize the products and solutions, develop and validate the products, ensures safe functioning of product as per design, etc. They find the root cause for routine issues, recommends the remedies, prevents its further occurrences. Additionally, they write technical reviews, collects feedback from the market after selling the product, lead a team and are expected to have an better understanding of the production process to handle daily issues and shortcomings.

Aerospace engineer: This job profile will help you to work with latest technologies for designing, developing, maintaining, researching on aircraft, missiles, weapon systems to satellites, space vehicles and many others.

Automotive engineer: Automotive engineer (graduated from mechanical engineering) design and develop various systems and sub systems like braking systems, steering systems, gear box, IC engine, etc. for various vehicles like trucks, buses, cars, etc. They further design- redesign and develop individual components in these systems if needed for optimizing the overall performance of vehicles.

Robotics and Automation Engineer: Robotics and Automation engineers design, develop and maintain (test, program, calibrate, etc.) self-operating machines and robots. They undertake a task of automating the process and ensure continuous communication with customer to understand their requirements from the automated machines or robots. They have to ensure the safety of people in vicinity of these self-operated machine and robots through precise and controlled motion and careful timings.

CAD technician: They have to design parts and products in a computer software generally known as computer-aided design (CAD) with their, mathematical, IT, engineering and other knowledge.

Production Supervisor and manager: A mechanical engineer with zeal to work in a manufacturing industry under daily target completion along with his/her team are best suited for this role of production manager and supervisor. They have to ensure regular manufacturing of products as per the target set by higher management in spite of breakdown of equipment and machineries, operator issues, etc.

Instrumentation engineer: They are specialized in building, testing, installing, monitoring, controlling, and maintaining equipment used in manufacturing and other engineering systems to work accurately and precisely.

Sales engineer: Technical sales engineer needs a combination of communication skills to deal with customers, sales skills to increase the sale of products, and science and engineering skills to make the clients understand about the functioning, servicing, maintenance, etc. for the products.

Maintenance engineer/Service Engineer: A maintenance engineer looks after smooth functioning of equipment and machinery. They strive for improved overall equipment effectiveness, reduced or zero downtime, preventive and predictive maintenance to ensure uninterrupted flow of production.

Nuclear engineer: They work with latest technology, better scope for growth, and secured job mind set.   They are responsible for building, running, designing, commissioning and decommissioning nuclear power stations.

Design engineer: They specialize in developing new products, leading the team from beginning of project to final dispatch to customers, identify and convert the goal and requirements of customers into successful product, prepare schedule and budget, identify and evaluate risks involved, maintain the connection between all the stakeholders, communicate and organize for every activity of product development, etc. They may be assisted by project engineers.

Research and Development Engineer: Primary duty is to develop new methods and products and improve existing system to improve productivity, efficiency and effectiveness of products and processes.

Project Engineer: They have to look after complete execution of the project from concept to end product. They assist many functional departments simultaneously and drive the project as per schedule to ensure zero waste of resources. They take a continuous follow-up from every functional department for smooth running (avoiding backtracking, shortage of resources, etc.) of project towards final stage.

Professors and Lecturers: This profession seems to be little relaxing but altogether with different challenges such as facing many students in a classroom with variety of questions and queries. Preparing these aspiring engineers is of high-level responsibility task where you need to have thorough clarity over fundamentals of mechanical engineers and high skill to deliver the same. These are just a few names for sectors and positions from mechanical engineer career perspective, many recruiters select determined candidates and graduates from diverse fields and train them at a subsequent stage. So, without restricting yourselves to the given list, with positive intent look beyond and push yourself harder to achieve a grand success.

Future scope:

Undoubtedly, a bright future of mechanical engineers is awaited as this domain opens up several job prospects due to its diverse nature into various industries.

In the current era of Fourth industrial revolution, mechanical engineers with IT talent are the most preferred choice of every manufacturing industry and even for service organization at certain extent. Rapid industrialization in India under the mission of make in India and era of automation with digitalization have uncovered limitless job opportunities and demands for mechanical engineers. Graduates with additional qualifications are actively being recruited by private and public sectors industries at senior positions of managerial and administrative fields across the globe. Easy access to learning new skills and hands-on-training by various organizations and startups have removed the barrier of mechanical engineer being absorbed by only manufacturing units.

Skilled mechanical engineers and hardworking characters can grow and advance their career exponentially by integrating mechanical systems with CAD-CAM, Mechatronics, AI, ML, Data Science, 3D printing, AR and VR, block chain, cloud computing, digital twin, robotics, energy generation and conservation, biotechnology and nanotechnology, etc. They have infinite opportunities in industries like aerospace, automobile, chemical, manufacturing of industrial and consumer products and services, research and development, petroleum and energy, oil and gas, metals and mining, fabrication and sheet metal, product development, transformer and power generation industry, health care, transportation, etc.

In conclusion, from the perspective of industrialization and digitalization of manufacturing and service organization, the demand of mechanical engineers is expected to surpass the supply soon. But all graduates need to understand that the technical knowledge and skill development will be the key to bridge the gap between university curriculum and industry demand (coding to interpersonal skills). This will help in fetching a good job and lucrative career. Hence, good planning and research is essential to make a crucial decision of selecting a career choice.