MID-LEVEL MECHANICAL DESIGN ENGINEERING JOBS IN FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES

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

If you are already working for a few years as a mechanical design engineer and you want to change your job, you should consider trying to land a mid-level job in Fortune 500 company. In this blog post, we will show you our research on what hard and soft skills are required to get a mid-level job in Fortune 500 company.

Introduction

We already showed our overall research concerning hard and soft skills in Fortune 500 companies. We went through all 500 companies and found 100 companies hiring mechanical design engineers. From these 100 companies, we looked into 150 job vacancies and grouped them based on experience. In this post, we will share the results from our research on 50 mid-level mechanical design engineering jobs in Fortune 500 companies.

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

Our research has shown that for the mid-level job in Fortune 500, Bachelor’s degree (undergraduate study) was required by 72% job postings, and 26% preferred a Master’s degree (graduate study). 2% of the job openings did not state educational requirements.

Required hard skills

General overview

As expected, each of the 50 job vacancies stated that solid fundamentals in mechanical engineering principles are required, so we did not show it in the diagram below. Let us investigate the required hard skills for mid-level job in Fortune 500 companies.

Knowledge of new product development (NPD) was mentioned in 50% of the job openings. The hands-on experience was noted in 38% of them, with 32% of job openings stating that experience with various assembly techniques is required. In addition, 48% of the jobs require a background in various manufacturing techniques. Only 16% of the companies explicitly stated that they expect candidates to have experience with various materials.

Verification and validation experience was mentioned in 48% of job openings, and 28% expect candidates to have an experience with one of the following: DFMEA, 8D, PPAP, SCAAF, or APQP.

Every job vacancy expects candidates to have knowledge of CAD, 86% explicitly mentioned that drafting skills are required, and 34% expect a knowledge of FEA.

CAD modeling

From 50 job vacancies analyzed, every CAD skill was requested. Surprisingly, 22% did not specify knowledge of which CAD software. However, of 78% that did specify it, 20% mentioned knowledge of more than one software.

From 39 job vacancies that specified CAD software, 54 software were mentioned. The most mentioned one is SolidWorks with 32%, then PTC Creo with 26%, followed by NX at 15%, AutoCAD at 13%, AutoDesk Inventor at 7%, and Catia at 7%.

Drafting requirements

Regarding drafting skills, of 86% that mentioned it in job vacancies, every single one required drawing creation, with 34% of vacancies mentioning tolerance analysis and 38% GD&T proficiency. In addition, 24% of job vacancies mentioned ECO process and ERP data management. Furthermore, 26% mention BOM maintenance.

Soft skills requirements

From soft skills, 14% of job openings required leadership, 42% problem-solving skills, 20% research ability and creativity. Furthermore, 70% of companies mentioned communication skills and 74% teamwork as required soft skills.

Travel and Salary

Of the 50 job vacancies we analyzed, 24% require occasional travel, and only 22% defined the salary range.

Conclusion

For mid-level job in Fortune 500 companies, most companies require Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. As expected, every company requires strong mechanical engineering knowledge backed by CAD and drafting skills. Tolerance analysis, GD&T, and general engineering documentation management are also preferable. CAD software like SolidWorks and PTC Creo are the most popular among these companies.

Furthermore, NPD knowledge, hands-on experience, and experience with manufacturing, assembly, and verification/validation are also in high demand. Moreover, communication skills, teamwork, problem-solving, creativity, and research abilities are the most needed soft skills.

As I said in entry-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

This research gives us insight into what skills are required to find a mid-level job in Fortune 500 companies. Considering that these companies are on the Fortune 500 list for a good reason, an opportunity to work there could boost your career. These companies have the resources to invest in new product development that small companies do not, and you could be working on one of the most interesting NPD projects in the world.

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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