OPTIONS SERIES
Options with mechanical engineering
Your skills
Over the course of your degree you develop a good mix of
subject specific and technical skills as well as transferable core
skills. Consider these alongside other achievements, such as
paid work, volunteering, family responsibilities, sport,
membership of societies, leadership roles, etc. Think about how
these can be used as evidence of your skills and personal
attributes. Then you can start to market and sell who you really
are, identify what you may be lacking and consider how to
improve your profile.
Employers who recruit mechanical engineers are expecting new
graduates to start contributing to an organisation straight away.
They believe that completing an accredited degree will equip you
with at least some of the skills a professional engineer will use.
Today’s engineers are expected to leave university not only with
technical expertise in engineering, but also to show a range of
graduate transferable skills such as:
• effective communication (both oral and written);
• time and resource management;
• creativity (particularly in the design process);
• good analytical skills (especially in the formulation and
solution of problems).
Teamwork is an essential skill as most mechanical engineers
work in engineering project teams and liaise with a range of
people in order to achieve effective outcomes.
Employment prospects
Every year, statistics are collected to show what HE students do
immediately after graduation. These can be a useful guide but, in
reality, with the data being collected within just six months of
graduation, many graduates are travelling, waiting to start a
course, paying off debts, getting work experience or still deciding
what they want to do. For further information about some of the
areas of employment commonly entered by graduates of any
degree discipline, check out 'What Do Graduates Do?' and the
AGCAS Special Interest booklet 'Your Degree... What Next?'
In 2006, six months after graduation, 55% of graduate
mechanical engineers surveyed had entered engineering-related
occupations. The Engineering Council UK (ECUK) reports that
engineers as a whole are employed in a wide range of
industries: 38% in manufacturing; 8.5% in construction; and 54%
spread through other sectors like finance and business, transport
and communications, electricity, gas and water supply. The UK
is still facing a skills shortage in engineering, and mechanical
engineers are in demand. With fewer people entering
mechanical engineering courses, this skills gap will widen and so
the demand is predicted to stay high.
You can enter jobs which ask for graduates from any discipline,
as up to 60% of graduate vacancies don’t ask for a specific
subject. These include accountancy and finance, advertising and
marketing.
Job options
Bear in mind that it’s not just your degree discipline that
determines your options. Get hold of the AGCAS Special Interest
booklet 'Your Degree... What Next?' from your careers service.
This looks more generally at the options for today’s graduates
and offers informed advice on career planning. Or try ‘What jobs
would suit me?’, an online career planning tool, at
www.prospects.ac.uk/links/pplanner.
You can choose between jobs that are degree-related or those
that appeal because they use other interests or elements of your
degree.
Jobs directly related to your degree
• Mechanical engineer - uses engineering principles to
provide efficient solutions to the development of processes
and products, ranging from small component designs to
extremely large plant, machinery or vehicles.
• Automotive engineer - designs, tests and develops
vehicles and/or components from concept stage through to
production and, once the vehicle is on the market, is
involved in improving it in response to customer feedback.
• Aeronautical engineer - applies scientific and technological
principles to research, design, maintain, test and develop
the performance of civil and military aircraft, missiles,
weapons systems, satellites and space vehicles.
• Manufacturing engineer - designs, implements, monitors
and maintains manufacturing processes to achieve the
most efficient, cost effective and high quality production
possible.
• Maintenance engineer - plans the routine maintenance of
plant, equipment and machinery, attends breakdowns,
diagnoses faults and oversees time-critical repairs.
• Process engineer - develops economical industrial
processes to make the products on which modern society
depends.
Jobs where your degree would be useful
• Quality assurance manager - co-ordinates the activities
required to ensure that the product or service an
organisation provides is fit for its purpose and meets
customer expectations.
• Production manager - plans, coordinates and operates
manufacturing and allied production processes to ensure
the most efficient use of plant, employees and materials.
• Technical sales engineer - acts as a link between a
company producing technical goods and services and its
customers: negotiating sales, orders, price and quality in
order to meet their technical and commercial
requirements.
• Chartered management accountant - provides the financial
information needed for planning and control of industrial or
commercial companies and establishes and maintains
financial policies and systems. Liaises with management
colleagues on all aspects of finance.
• Management consultant - provides advice on corporate
strategy, organisational development, financial and
administrative systems, human resources and information
technology.
Although for many graduates the jobs listed here might not be
their first, they are among the many realistic possibilities with
your degree, provided you can demonstrate you have the
attributes employers are looking for. It’s worth noting that many
graduate vacancies don’t specify particular degree disciplines.
To find out more about the above options and other jobs, see
AGCAS Occupational Profiles and other sources of occupational
information available in careers services. Occupational Profiles
are also available on www.prospects.ac.uk/links/occupations.
Visit http://www.prospects.ac.uk/links/options
Where are the jobs?
Mechanical engineers are employed in a wide range of
industries. Employers include large oil and petrochemical firms,
where you might be employed in the erection and commissioning
of plant and equipment. Alternatively, you could work in a range
of manufacturing organisations from food manufacturing to
pharmaceuticals to aerospace. You may work in design, involved
in turning plans into new products or revising existing ones, or
within research and development, where engineers try to find
solutions to engineering problems, using new technologies.
Finally, you might work in production and maintenance,
designing new production processes.
What next?
This should have started you thinking about your future.
Whatever stage you are at, your careers service will be able to
help you. A huge number of resources, including most of those
mentioned here, plus a wide range of other services, including
individual careers guidance, employer presentations and
workshops on topics such as successful applications and
interview techniques, are likely to be on offer.
A full list of useful resources plus case studies of graduates in
this subject can also be found on
www.prospects.ac.uk/links/options.

To give you more of an insight into industries where a degree in (c) Content copyright of or licensed to AGCAS (www.agcas.org.uk)
mechanical engineering would be useful, see the following
Written by Naeema Khan, University of Reading, February 2005.
sectors:
Edited by Zoe Speakman, AGCAS, April 2005.
• Engineering - an overview of this vast field, including key Last updated by Sophie Ward, AGCAS, October 2006.
sub-sectors such as aerospace, transport and energy.
• Manufacturing - from companies manufacturing small The work of writers and editors is gratefully acknowledged.
parts, to large high-tech corporations manufacturing To view the terms and conditions for the material provided in this
satellites. There is huge scope for mechanical engineers in publication, please see http://www.prospects.ac.uk/links/disclaimer.
this sector.
• Oil, gas and petroleum - roles for engineers range from
exploration through to production and export.

Career management is an ongoing process, one that you’ll no

doubt develop all your working life. For further information on all
the above employment areas, visit
www.prospects.ac.uk/links/sectorbs or ask to see the AGCAS
Sector Briefings at your careers service.

Further study
Compared to graduates in general, a lower proportion of
mechanical engineering graduates enter further study or training.
In 2006, around 11% had entered further study. This is probably
a reflection of the vocational nature of the course and the need
to follow an approved training and development programme in
industry.
When mechanical engineers do enter further study, it can
include research into specific areas of engineering or taught
courses like information technology (IT). A small percentage
(0.9%) enter teaching following graduation.
These trends show only what previous graduates in your subject
did immediately upon graduating. Over the course of their career
- the first few years in particular - many others will opt for some
form of further study, either part-time or full-time. If further study
interests you, start by taking a look at the AGCAS Special
Interest booklet 'Postgraduate Study and Research' or the
‘Further study’ section of www.prospects.ac.uk. For a
comprehensive list of courses, see 'Prospects Postgraduate
Directory'.
Refer too to the 'Prospects Postgraduate Funding Guide', the
AGCAS Special Interest booklet 'Postgraduate Study and
Research' and AGCAS Vocational Course Surveys for further
details relating to finance and the application process.

Other options
Don’t forget there are alternatives to entering employment or
postgraduate study, such as taking time out, volunteering or
travelling. Longer term, you may want to consider starting your
own business. Check out the AGCAS Special Interest booklets
'Beyond Nine to Five: Flexible Working', 'Self-employment' and
'Working Abroad', all available from your careers service.
Mechanical engineers can be found in all career areas. Some
use the skills gained on their course and start their own
businesses. Others move into consultancy, although usually
having first gained some hands-on experience. If you pursue the
chartered engineering route, opportunities for working abroad
will be increased.

Visit http://www.prospects.ac.uk/links/options