Content
Career prospects
Mechanical engineering
Technology has a growing influence on your everyday life. No technology means no bikes, no cars, no environmental protection, no internet, no bread, no T-shirt and and and ….
- Containerbrücke
We couldn’t manage without technology and particularly without the people who create, master, understand and look after this technology.
The key role which mechanical engineering plays in the major site of industries called Germany is mirrored by significant quantitative data: with about 6000 enterprises and some 890,000 employees the mechanical engineering branch provides nearly 15 % of all jobs in the industry which is a lot more than any other industrial branch does. And when looking at the net product, mechanical engineering again ranks among the top scorers. For many years it has been one of Germany’s leading export industries with exports recently climbing to nearly 70 percent.
Form the point of view of products, the German mechanical engineering branch is an extremely heterogeneous industrial segment. Products start with very small components such as miniature ball bearings or miniature gearboxes which can only be examined using a magnifying glass. This is what is generally called microtechnology, a topic also receiving a lot of attention in the department of mechanical engineering and mechatronics. On the other hand extremely large and heavy machines are produced such as large presses, giant container cranes or heavily branched automatic material flow systems.
The classical picture in the mechanical industry as mirrored by the English term “Mechanical Engineering” is presently no longer up-to-date. The terrific speed at which developments take place in the electronics, information technology and communication technology branches has prompted completely new solutions. Mechanical and electronic components are partly interwoven to such extent that an entirely new field of activity called mechatronics was born.
Nearly 15 % of the people employed in the mechanical engineering branch are engineers and their number is increasing: in 1988 they represented merely 8 %, in 1998 this figure had already increased to 12 %. In the period between 1998 and 2003 the number of engineers climbed by 14 % despite a recession in the overall number of people employed in the mechanical engineering segment and an increase in productivity. And the trend is continuing.
Mechanical engineering is of course not the only branch in which mechanical engineers are employed. Another branch is the automobile industry with its numerous suppliers. And a lot of mechanical engineers are for instance working for insurance companies, in the public service, for telecommunication enterprises and even for banks.
Mechanical engineers plan and design technical plants, machines and processes and keep on developing them. They are technology specialists backed by a profound knowledge of scientific issues and guided by a good deal of intuition, inspiration and a creative power of imagination. Economic parameters such as costs and lifetime are part of their work, too. And today mechanical engineers have to deal with issues such as automation technology, electronics and environmental protection.
Fields of activity of engineers working in mechanical engineering companies
Upon completion of the studies, graduates can choose a job that accords with their inclination. The fields of activity of engineers working in mechanical engineering companies are listed in the following table.
| Fields of activity | |
| Research, development and design | 48 |
| Sales and marketing | 16 |
| Production | 10 |
| Management | 8 |
| Service | 8 |
| Assembly | 3 |
| Administration | 3 |
| Others | 4 |
|   |
Most engineers are still working in research, development and design departments. Nearly half of the total number of mechanical engineers is employed there since innovation cycles are constantly becoming shorter and the market is marked by constant machine and plant development efforts. Since these high-quality products also need to be sold, the engineer’s know how is required whenever customers need advice and solutions to customer problems need to be found. 16 % of engineers are active in this particular field. The other fields span from production (10 %) over service, assembly up to administrative activities.
Rising to be a member of the management in the mechanical engineering branch with its predominantly medium-sized businesses is much easier for junior members of staff and is usually something that happens much faster than in many large enterprises in other branches. An engineering course of studies is worth the effort because more than half of the executive staff in the mechanical engineering branch are engineers. A growing number of executive posts in technology-oriented large enterprises is being held by engineers.
The annual income of beginners with a higher education is 35,500 Euros on average, which is on a high level and only insignificantly lower than that of university graduates earning some 38,400 Euros (source: CHE university ranking 2007). In 2007 skilled specialists have earned an average annual income of 59,000 Euros whereas engineers on executive level earn 95,000 Euros in the same period (Salary study “engineers in executive and specialist positions 2007”, Managementberatung Kienbaum). After only a few years one in eight mechanical engineers succeeds to be promoted to the position of a technically trained executive which is remunerated with an annual income of 200,000 Euros and more (source: CHE university ranking 2007).
Compared to the mechanical engineering studies, the mechatronics course of studies is a fairly young course so that long-term figures are not yet available. But it can be assumed that the conditions will not be all that different.
Your career prospects
For many years students completing a mechanical engineering course of studies have excellent career prospects. And this will remain so in the foreseeable future as the number of graduates is still slightly declining to 11,000 each year. Only in 2010 the number of graduates will probably rise to 16,000. At the same time some 65,000 mechanical engineers will have reached the retirement age and will leave the labour market. In 2007 the unemployment figures for engineers under the age of 35 were constantly low (source: Stern magazine 17/2004 and HCE university ranking 2007). The German ministry of research, the VDMA (Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau e.V.) and many companies such as Porsche, DASA, Benteler are looking for engineers. Regional industrial companies such as Isringhausen (ISRI) or Phoenix Contact are preferably recruiting people with a higher education.
The consequences which the present economical crisis will have on the career prospects are not yet forseeable.But up to now nearly all our graduates have found a good job despite difficult economical times, as last seen in the mid-nineties of the last century.
Your chances of getting a job and your career prospects can thus be regarded as being good. The Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe provides the foundation in form of a competent theoretical and practical education. Most of the project and bachelor theses are for example realized in industrial companies.
Almost two thirds of the mechanical engineers in Germany are educated in higher education institutions (Fachhochschulen, FH). Compared to universities, the course of studies provided by the higher education institutions is marked by a particularly strong orientation of the educational contents to professional practice.
