ENTRY-LEVEL MECHANICAL DESIGN ENGINEERING JOBS IN FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES

Audio: Entry-level mechanical design engineering jobs in fortune 500 companies

Landing an entry-level job in Fortune 500 company can be a game changer for a young mechanical design engineer. In this blog post, we will show what experience and hard and soft skills are required to land an entry-level job in Fortune 500 company.

Introduction

In my previous blog post, we showed you our research conducted on 100 Fortune 500 companies. We analyzed 150 mechanical design engineering jobs based on experience level. We shared with you data for all 150 jobs analyzed together, and in this post, if you are interested in entry-level job in Fortune 500, we will share our analysis of 50 job vacancies with you.

The quality of this research depends on the quality of job postings, so we will only focus on the skills explicitly stated in them. This research was done in April – May 2023.

Educational requirements

Analyzing collected data, we can see that 66% of job vacancies require a Bachelor’s degree (undergraduate study), and 16% would prefer a Master’s degree (graduate study). Furthermore, 18% did not define educational requirements for entry-level jobs.

Required hard skills

General overview

Generally speaking, every company stated that the fundamental knowledge of mechanical engineering is required, which was expected, and we did not put it in the diagram below. Let us look in more details required skills for entry-level job in Fortune 500 companies.

In every job posting that we looked into, companies stated that computer-aided design (CAD) skills are required. Drafting skills are also highly desirable, with 78% of the companies explicitly mentioning it in the job posting. Experience with the finite element method was noted in 28% of job postings.

Furthermore, 32% of jobs mentioned that candidates should be familiarized with new product development (NPD), and 30% should have hands-on experience and experience with various assembly techniques. Having experience with various materials was mentioned by 18% of job openings, and having experience with various manufacturing techniques by 44% of them.

Finally, 48% of jobs requested experience with validation/verification, and 20% of the companies with one of the following: DFMEA, 8D, PPAP, SCAAF, or APQP.

CAD modeling

As previously mentioned, all companies require knowledge of CAD. However, only 62% of the job openings specified which CAD software is required. Of this 62% that did specify it, 16% of them specified that knowledge of more than one CAD software is required.

From 31 job openings that specified which software is required, 38 software were mentioned. 32% mentioned SolidWorks, followed by PCT Creo 20%, NX 18%, CATIA 13%, AutoCAD 8%, and AutoDesk Inventor 3%.

Drafting requirements

78% of the job openings mentioned drafting as a required skill. Amongst them, the common theme was drawing creation with 100%. Regarding the drawing creation, it is also worth noting that 20% of job vacancies required experience in tolerance analysis, and 22% in GD&T. Other engineering documentation requirements were stated; 14% requested experience in ECO process, 18% in ERP data management, and 24% in BOM maintenance.

Soft skills requirements

In addition to the hard skills, companies also listed soft skill requirements. 5% of the openings mentioned leadership skills, 14% research abilities, 33% creative and innovative skills, and 44% problem-solving skills. Furthermore, 49% of jobs expect that you perform well in teams, and 67% expect good communication skills.

Travel and Salary

In the job postings, 26% of the companies mentioned that travel is required. However, of the 50 jobs we looked into, only 16% have stated the salary range the candidate can expect.

Conclusion

From the data above, we can see that an entry-level job in Fortune 500 company, in most cases, requires Bachelor’s degree. In addition to the strong fundamentals of mechanical engineering, from a hard skills point of view, knowledge of CAD, drafting (drawing creation), manufacturing, and verification/validation are taking place as most often requested skills. Furthermore, I would say that knowing SolidWorks, PTC Creo, and/or NX would give you a wide range of companies to apply to. From the point of soft skills, creativity, problem-solving, teamwork, and communication skills are most in demand. Furthermore, some companies expect you to be able to travel occasionally.

As I said in mid-level, expert-level, and comparison blog posts, I will also say it here. It is shameful for companies not to put the salary range in their job vacancies. I understand why they are not putting the salary range in the job vacancy, but I still found it disrespectful to the potential applicants. I will not turn this blog post into me ranting about it; we might discuss this some other time.

Closing words

Finding a job can be stressful for many young people stepping into the workforce. Lots of them are anxious and afraid and often discouraged after receiving a few rejections. However, applying and rejections are entirely normal parts of work life, and one should not look at them as a burden but as an opportunity to learn and grow from them.

If you aspire to build your career in a big company, I would encourage you to try to land an entry-level job in Fortune 500. Some companies require more, and some less from entry-level applicants. You can use this blog post to better understand what is expected from you to get a positive outcome for your application.

To make it easier for you to find related posts, check the “Further reading” chapter below. Do you have any questions or need something to be clarified better? Leave the comment below, and I will give my best to adjust the post accordingly.

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