Mechanical engineering as your career:
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Traditionally, the mechanical engineers have to deal with concepts such as mechanics, thermodynamics, robotics, kinematics, structural analysis, fluid mechanics and many others. These concepts are applied in the process of designing manufacturing units, different types of automobiles, aircraft parts and aerospace parts and a vast assortment of industrial machinery. Mechanical engineers also contribute in the development of various engines, power station equipments, heating and cooling systems and other simple and complex machineries.
Mechanical engineers not only design new mechanical systems but they are also responsive for the testing, maintaining and manufacturing them. However, the pasts have changed. Nowadays the scope of mechanical engineer is expanding beyond its traditional boundaries.
Mechanical engineers are now focussing their attention towards new areas of research such as nanotech, development of composite metals, biomedical equipments,etc. The increasing scope of this particular job profile now requires professionals to get into financial and marketing aspects of product development and even into people and resource management. All in all mechanical engineering offers a wide variety of job options to students who are looking for a stable and pursuing mechanical engineering as their career.
Eligibility for begin your career as mechanical engineer:
Passing your middle school level is the basic eligibility for a mechanical engineering course to become a professional mechanical engineer.
To be eligible for a mechanical engineering graduate programme (BE/BTech) in a college, you must have scored at least 50 percent of marks and 60 percent for eligible for IITs (Indian Institute of Technology) in with physics, chemistry, maths subjects.
After passing in your middle school exams, you can also pursue your ways cracking entrance examinations such as:
- The Joint Entrance Examination(JEE) for IITs, also various NITs, IIITs, and other regional government and private colleges.
- Another option is state level entrance tests conducted by the state level authorities like WBJEE, JKCET, UPCET, JCET, APCET so on.
- Another option is private colleges entrance exam like BITSAT, VITEEE & so on.
- Also there are some decent institutions which can also accommodate you for pursuing your courses with your high school marks.
- Apart from these, there are numerous of engineering colleges across the length and breadth of our country where you can get into a graduate programme in mechanical engineering.
- You can also opt for a diploma in engineering from a polytechnic. For obtaining a diploma, the basic eligibility is completion of Class 10 with 50 percent marks. The duration of these diploma courses is three-years for regular and four- years for part-time. You can also go for an associate membership qualification from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, which is considered at equal with the diploma earned from a state run polytechnic or a university degree.
- Another option is to earn a similar qualification offered by the Institution of Engineering (India). Diploma holders can also get direct entry into the second year of a graduate program (lateral entry programme).
After your UG course:
After successful completion of the graduate program, you can go for the two-year masters program in mechanical engineering or ME/MTech. If you are interested in pursuing a PG programme in mechanical engineering from any of the IITs, then you must appear for the Graduate Aptitude Test for Engineers (GATE).
Is this a correct Career for Me?
Like other career paths, the entry into this particular branch of engineering also requires you to possess certain basic skills.
- First and foremost, you must have a knowledge about some basic mechanical components and machineries and how those machineries work.
- You must be good at physics, chemistry and mathematics.
- You must also have skills such as an analytical bent of mind, logical reasoning and problem solving capabilites
- You must have patience, physical strength, and ability to work for more hours and an creative spirit that are important ingredients for becoming a professional mechanical engineer.
Job Prospect:
Since mechanical engineering is the broadest among the all engineering fields, the job prospects on offer for skilled mechanical engineers are a plenty and unending one. Mechanical engineers are required for designing, testing, manufacturing, installing , operating and maintaining a large stream of machines and mechanical systems that are used in numerous industries. Those professionals can find employment in both government and private sector.
Pay Package: Mechanical engineering offers a large variety of career opportunities to job aspirants. The average monthly salary of mechanical engineers who are new to this profession is approximately in the range between Rs.10,000 and Rs.25,000. Good campus placements can fetch even better packages for deserving students. Mechanical engineers who hold a post-graduate degree from a reputed academic institute tend to get better offers than diploma and degree holders. From here on the annual pay package depends on a number of factors such as the skills, set possessed, experience, expertise, nature of roles and responsibilities, etc. Highly skilled mechanical engineers can easily command pay packets as high as Rs 40-45 lacs per annum.
Demand and Supply:
There is great demand for skilled mechanical engineers in different segments of the industry. Their expertise is required in traditional manufacturing industries such as automobiles, aviation, shipping, aerospace, power plants and machinery manufacturing. In recent times, the services of expert mechanical engineers have even been sought in fields such as nanotechnology, biomedical engineering, energy conservation and environmental engineering.
There is also great requirement for mechanical engineer consultants who have management skills along with technical proficiency. The primary role of such professionals is to manage both technology and people and firms that provide engineering consultancy require them. Various engineering colleges and polytechnics across the country are doing their best to meet the burgeoning demand of skilled mechanical engineering professionals.
The job market for mechanical engineers is perennial. Even the vagaries of the global economic crisis could not knock out the demand for these professionals in the Indian job market. Although some branches of mechanical engineering went out of focus during the meltdown period, the overall situation was much better as compared with other careers. On the brighter side, things are getting ackward to normal and this evergreen career path is again gaining coin amongst career aspirants as it did during the pre- meltdown years. In fact, this is a period of resurgence for mechanical engineers. They not only have countless options in the industrial sector but they can also make foray into new realms of technology and even get into management and technical consultancy.
According to a survey, mechanical engineering is amongst the most sought after branches of engineering preferred by students seeking admission to various technical institutes across India in the recent years.
International Focus:
Highly qualified professionals from this field, such as post- graduates from various IITs, often seek suitable employment in foreign countries. It is not that only highly qualified mechanical engineers get opportunity to work abroad. If you are employed in a multinational company, you may also get the chance to work on offshore projects.
Classifications of jobs in mechanical stream:
In broad terms, the job profile of mechanical engineers can be classified into the following functional segments:
- Research and Development (R&D): Engineers whose role is to do research and then plan for new machines and their constituent parts.
- Design: Professionals whose responsibility is to draft technical drawings, manually or with the aid of computers.
- Production: Engineers who supervise the manufacturing of mechanical components and machines.
- Analysis and testing: Engineers who analyse and test different types of machines and their parts to ensure that they function flawlessly.
- Installation: Professionals who install machines and mechanical parts at the client location.
- Maintenance: Engineers whose primary role is to ensure that machinery is working as per specifications.
Top recruiting sectors for Mechanical Engineers:
2. Aerospace industry
3. Various Government sector undertakings
4. Aviation companies
5. Steel plants
6. Thermal plants and gas turbine manufacturers
7. Air conditioning and refrigeration industry
8. Shipping industry
9. Engineering consultancies
10. Armed forces
Tips for Getting Hired:
1. It is advisable to earn a post-graduate degree in this field.
2. Computer proficiency is a must these days.
3. You must have excellent. communication and interpersonal skills.
4. A management degree further brightens your career prospects.
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