SKILL PROGRESSION IN FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES FOR MECHANICAL DESIGN ENGINEERS

Audio: Skill progression in fortune 500 companies for mechanical design engineers

As in any other career path, the mechanical design engineer career path also progresses from entry-level to expert-level jobs. What is interesting is to see how skills requirements change as we progress through our careers. In this blog post, we will show you skill progression in Fortune 500 companies regarding what hard and soft skills are required from entry to an expert-level job in Fortune 500 company.

Introduction

We analyzed 150 mechanical design engineering job vacancies from 100 Fortune 500 companies, with 50 jobs for each experience level (entry, mid, and expert). We showed you the overall analysis and individual analysis for each level. Now we will show you a direct comparison between each experience level. We will give you an idea of skill progression in Fortune 500 companies. We will show you a comparison between the skill requirements of 50 job vacancies for entry, mid, and expert-level jobs.

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

From our research, it is visible that most companies require Bachelor’s degree (undergraduate study). However, as we move from entry to expert-level jobs, we can see an increase in companies that prefer a Master’s degree (graduate study). Furthermore, we can see a significant drop in not defined educational requirements as we move from entry-level jobs.

Required hard skills

General overview

Job postings for all experience levels require strong mechanical engineering fundamentals; we will not show them in the diagram below. Let us now look into skill progression in Fortune 500 companies regarding hard skills. Let us now look into the skill progression in Fortune 500 companies.

Requirements for knowledge of new product development (NPD), hands-on experience, and FEA are increasing from entry to expert-level jobs. CAD modeling and drafting are high-demand requirements without significant changes for any of the experience levels mentioned.

Regarding the knowledge of various materials, manufacturing and assembly techniques, and verification/validation activities, we can see no significant differences between the entry and mid-level jobs. However, there are significant differences when we reach expert-level jobs; expectations are much higher than for previously stated ones.

CAD modeling

When we look into the CAD software requirements, we can see that more companies specify expectations as we move to more experienced jobs. Also, we can see a slight increase in expectations in the knowledge of more than one CAD software.

While specified software varies based on the experience level, we can see that SolidWorks and PTC Creo are in the most demand at any experience level.

Drafting requirements

The drawing creation skills are constant on all experience levels. However, there are slight increases in knowledge of ECO process, ERP data and BOM maintenance as we progress through our careers. Tolerance analysis and GD&T do increase from entry-level to expert level but are most noted in mid-level jobs.

Soft skills requirements

Considering the soft skills, we can see a lot of fluctuation between the different levels of jobs. What is worth noting is that as we progress through our careers, leadership skills, problem-solving skills, and teamwork are becoming more significant. However, good communication skills are a standard requirement for any experience level.

Job vacancies overview

Based on the most occurring skills in job vacancies that we mentioned before, we looked into the number of mentioned skills in each job vacancy. On average, entry-level jobs had 9 requirements listed, mid-level jobs had 11- requirements listed, and expert-level jobs had 13 requirements listed. However, the minimum and maximum number of skill requirements in job postings are worth mentioning. We can see that the difference between them is significant, going from 4 to maximum 21.

Travel requirements increase as we reach the expert level, and so is the number of defined salary ranges in the job postings.

Conclusion

When looking at education, companies mostly ask for Bachelor’s degrees through all experience levels. However, having a Master’s degree can improve the chances of getting a job as one progresses through a career.

Looking into the new product development (NPD) requirements, there is a significant increase as one progresses through one career. Understanding the NPD process is important in more senior roles, as the responsibilities are higher.

Considering that mechanical design engineers develop physical products, an increase in requirements like hands-on experience, knowledge of various materials, and manufacturing and assembly techniques make sense. In addition, experience in verification/validation activities is also increasing as one progresses through one career. Furthermore, the FEA knowledge requirement is increasing with experience, which I would say is also understandable.

CAD modeling and drafting are standard requirements for any level of experience. We can see some dispersion in the required percentage, but I would still label this as a standard requirement. In general, if you would look into the specified CAD software, knowledge of SolidWorks and PTC Creo are most in demand, and knowledge of one would give you a big advantage in finding a new job.

Analyzing the soft skills, we can see that leadership and teamwork requirements are increasing with experience. Companies expect that as we get more experience, we will take more initiative in attacking challenges and steer others in that direction. Furthermore, we can also see that problem-solving skills are more in demand as you progress through your career.

Good communication skills are highly required at any level of experience, and it does make sense to invest in these skills as soon as possible. In addition, we can see that creativity and research abilities are also required, but based on experience, they are differently needed. However, I would add that these are in mechanical design engineering job standard requirements and often goes without saying.

Analyzing these 150 different job postings gave us a great insight into skill progression in Fortune 500 companies. However, as I was looking through all these job openings, I noticed that many companies wrote job descriptions so vague and general that it seemed to me like they are posting jobs just for the sake of posting them. Literally, things like “good communication skills “or “ability to work in teams “are copy-paste actions.

Furthermore, how it is expected to get the right people for the job when the expectations are not set properly from the start. For example, some people do not want to present anything in front of a large group of people, and if they see it in the job posting, they might not apply. But if it is not adequately communicated, and they get the job and have to present something, they will get stressed and anxious and will hate their job. And it could have been avoided.

On the salary side, I already commented this in other blog posts. Defining it for entry-level in 16% of cases to a maximum of 40% for expert-level jobs is shameful. As I said, I understand why the companies are not putting the salary ranges, which makes me even more mad. It is just disrespectful to the people who literally pay money to keep themselves alive and do not know how much they can expect from this job. The best ones I saw had a simple statement: “Expected salary in the range from ab – cd, depending on the experience and skills. “For me, that is enough.

From my perspective, companies should spend more effort on job postings and set the right expectations from the start. They should manage the expectations both skill- and money-wise.

Closing words

In this blog post, we showed you how skills progress in Fortune 500 companies with experience. As you saw from the analysis of the job postings, some of them are more relevant than others. We wanted to show you the current status of job vacancies in Fortune 500 companies so that you can use it as a framework to develop your skills based on the career path that you are looking into next. Hopefully, this blog post series gave you more insight into the job opportunities and skills progress in Fortune 500 companies. Now, go out there, and get that job!

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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