[Fresher Jobs] Challenges of a Mechanical engineer

[Blogger]

"Mechanical Engineers mein eek fire hoti hai"  You all might remember this famous dialogue from the movie Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein (RHTDM), but is this statement true?

Many of the students from Mechanical Engineering choose this career stream because they think its an ever-green branch of engineering. Their parents thought that even at the time of IT bubble burst the core engineering jobs would be secure.

Are the above statements true about the Mechanical Engineering course? Well, it was never a doubt that Mechanical Engineering would take a back seat in the industry but its a big myth that a bubble burst in any sector be it IT or real-estate or banking would spare Mechanical Engineers. Its because today every-thing in the market is virtually connected with simple economics of Demand and Supply.

When the choice of a course is made, above considerations and micro facts tend to give sheer bad results in the long run. One should be very carefully while making a career choice for higher studies, especially engineering.

It should be based on the students like and willingness to study a specialization. It should be done after proper evaluation of students capabilities.

Challenges faced by Mechanical Engineers 

I have been lucky to study engineering and I also got a lot of opportunities to visit various engineering colleges and interact with students. My invasion with Mechanical Engineering students can summarize the problems stated below

1.  Mech students complain that most of the companies visiting the campus are interested  in IT, CS and Elex students. There are very less opportunities for the Mech students.
2. Salaries offered by the core companies looking for the Mechanical students are very less, sometimes its as less as ₹ 4000.
3. Working condition for Mechanical engineers are far more tough then IT/Telecom companies.
4. Due to lack of opportunities in their own fields they try to get job in campus from bulk recruiters like TCS and Infosys which again becomes very difficult for them because of lack of IT computer knowledge.
5. Its very easy for IT/CS guys to learn programming in Java and C++, there are abundant of people teaching and free availability of these software.
6. For a Mechanical Engineer to learn Katia or ProE or any other CAD/CAM software is tough and a costly affair.

Are these a valid challenge for Mechanical engineers or these are a simple excuse to hide their failure?

Opportunities for Mechanical Engineers

A Mechanical Engineer even before taking admission into an Engineering college knows that he has chosen a career where extreme hardship is required. It would be a field where he would be using high-end mathematics to solve day to day challenges. It would be a profession where highest level of accuracy would be required.

There should never be a comparison with the work done in any field of engineering, students should focus and understand about the career path they have chosen.  A Mechanical Engineer should not fear imagining him-self on a boiler floor or a near a blast furnace or on a turbine floor nor should he compare himself with his friend working in TCS inside a nice air-conditioned building.

If you are from an average ranked engineering college a salary of  ₹4000 could be a reality for any student no matter what branch he or she has chosen. It's never important what salary you start your career with, what becomes more important is how you visualize and carry your career after 5 years down the line.

Opportunities in Defense and Public Sector organizations

Mechanical Engineering students have always been the favorite of the Public sector companies, Defense organizations like DRDO, ISRO, Navy, Air Force and the Armed forces are always hunting for good Mechanical engineering students. These organizations run huge machines which  requires absolute precision and use in extreme conditions. These organizations are always looking for skillful and sharp Mechanical Engineers. 

Even the public services job in IES and IAS have Mechanical Engineering as a qualifying subject (IT/CS brances are missing). Opportunities in the Private sector organizations are also tremendous, salaries of Natural Gas/ Crude oil excavators in companies like BP, Shell, RIL etc. are so high that an expert engineer at Google or Facebook cant even imagine. 

Its all about attitude and hard-work which is important for an engineering student. Mechanical engineers are not from mars who need to work extra to get paid less. Its an equivalent as rest of specializations so enjoy it.

• I suggest to all those people who choose Mechanical engineering because its ever-green and provides job security, please re-think your decision as your are taking wrong parameter to make your decision.
• I suggest all those Mechanical Engineers who join Java and C++ classes to get an easy job at a software company just because there are abundant jobs to re-think their decisions. Its some thing same as a student of Neuro Science selling SIM card for Airtel after graduation just because he thinks selection in a Hospital's Neuro department is tough.

Please comment how you liked the post and also share your views on the subject.

"Readers discretion is required while taking admission in  any profession course, the writer is suggesting based on his experience and understanding." 

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Posted By Blogger to Fresher Jobs at 2/17/2013 01:05:00 AM