Engineers are in great demand, and those seeking engineering employment will have very little trouble finding a job if they simply take the time to look in the right place. Engineering is a widely varied field of expertise, and the jobs within the field take on any number of incarnations. There are electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, and dozens of other types, all of which require extensive education and experience in order to master. Continuing education is vitally important, and anyone who obtains a respectable level of expertise in any engineering field can be assured of finding a position within their industry quickly.
Engineers are, without exception, highly qualified and specialized individuals. An engineer can boast an extremely in-depth knowledge of a single topic such as how electricity works, how physics effects buildings, or even how chemical reactions can affect one another on a grand scale. For that reason, engineers are required to get degrees in their respective disciplines. While many employers will gladly hire an engineer with a bachelor’s degree, for unsupervised work or for faster advancement with more responsibility, an advanced degree is often required. Post-graduate education and degree work is often deemed necessary to allow someone in engineering employment fields to supervise large projects. An engineer must be able to think logically when troubleshooting problems, and must be able to think on their feet. Situations change and conditions which may alter the engineer’s calculations can easily require on-the-fly adjustment. Engineers must be able to communicate effectively, since they’ll be required to instruct groups of people in how to best follow the engineer’s plans. Anyone seeking engineering employment should also be able to write and draw legibly. Since drawings are the backbone of any engineer’s plans, knowing how to present that information to a work crew can mean the difference between success and failure of an entire project.
Those who are interested in engineering employment often take a widely varying career path throughout their experience in the field. While many may start as an assistant to a more experienced engineer, occasionally an engineer will get thrown right into the deep end of a project and be expected to keep up. Those who do start as an assistant have long-term advantages, though, over those who start at the top. By starting under the mentorship of a more experienced engineer, the newly-minted engineer will have the ability to give input and opinions on projects which may very well be outside their knowledge base. This allows the younger engineer to gain a wider range of knowledge and experience that will become very useful when they’re finally out from under the tutelage of their mentor. Engineers will typically specialize in one of dozens of fields, and that specialization during their educational years will ultimately determine which field they enter. A mechanical engineer, for example, is responsible for understanding and designing how interconnected systems work. Engines, Turbines, and other integrated systems are the specialization of mechanical engineers. A chemical engineer, by comparison, is responsible for the use of chemical processes and interactions to create new products and substances. Chemical engineers are heavily used by oil and gas companies, as well as large-scale companies such as DOW Chemical and Aristech. Many chemical engineers are now being hired by automotive companies in order to work heavily on their new fuel cell technology.
With the increasing demand for engineers across all of the engineering employment disciplines, those seeking engineering employment are almost certain to find a job quickly after graduation. While the most prestigious spots are highly sought after, internships and entry-level engineering employment jobs are easy to find. Aerospace engineers, who work with airplanes and other flight-capable vehicles, are expected to grow by more than 10 percent through 2016. That equates to more than 160,000 new jobs for aerospace engineers alone. The fastest growing segment is the Environment Engineer, which is expected to add 25 percent more new positions by 2016. Pay varies widely between engineering employment disciplines. While a petroleum engineer will make an average of $98,000 per year, an agricultural engineer will average only $66,000. While the salaries are increasing each year, there is still a massive disparity between the engineering employment disciplines when looking at salary figures.
Engineers are employed by dozens of different industries. The music industry employs sound engineers, while the petroleum industry focuses primarily on chemical and petroleum engineers. Using engineers to work on new clean-fuel technology, the major utilities around the world are bringing in electrical and chemical engineers, as well. Nuclear engineers are seeing a resurgence since nuclear power is less demonized than in previous decades, and they’re being consulted on a much more frequent basis than ever before in order to get their expertise on new projects and power plants. Of course, the world’s nuclear-capable navies are also heavily invested in nuclear engineers to run their shipboard power plants.
Finding an engineering employment job doesn’t have to be difficult. There are companies out there who specialize in working with engineers to find the perfect job to fit their skillset. Like most other industries, engineering employment has its own headhunting firms who can find jobs for nearly any qualified candidate with ease. The Avery Group (http://www.theaverygroupinc.com/) is one of the top engineering employment headhunters in the United States, and they work with clients from start to finish. They’ll schedule interviews and even broker employment offers. They conduct in-depth interviews with both job-seekers and the companies that are looking for engineers to ensure that each position is staffed by the best personnel possible. The Avery Group, while located in Lafayette, Indiana, can handle clients worldwide, and they specialize in engineering employment placements. Many of their employees hold degrees in engineering, and speak the language of those they serve. Yet another engineering placement firm, InTech, (http://www.intech.net/About_Us.html) serves engineers and other professionals, and has done for more than 30 years. The owner himself is a Registered Professional Engineer who was employed as an engineer for more than 20 years before starting his placement business. All of InTech’s recruitment staff hold degrees in engineering, so finding a candidate a job in engineering employment is their specialty.
Engineering employment opportunities are due to grow by leaps and bounds over the next few years, and because of the intensive training required, the number of graduates isn’t able to keep up with demand. This may change as more students realize how lucrative an engineering job can be, but with new environmentally friendly jobs expected to enter the marketplace as a result of new government legislation, engineering employment is poised to remain one of the fastest-growing industries in the world.
