How to get into a core Mechanical Engineering role as a fresher using LinkedIn – Part 1

If you are a Mechanical Engineer, you might have said or heard these statements

1. “It is tough to get into a Mechanical Engineering core company as a Fresher if not for a campus placement”
2. “Very little companies come to recruit Mechanical Engineers during a campus interview”

As a mechanical engineer, I too have heard these statements over the last decade. But over the last 7 years from personal experiences, I have realized that these statements hold true only for students who lack the technical skill-sets.

 

Here are couple points that make me think that the above statements do not hold true in general.

 

1. Almost 17% of India’s GDP is from the Manufacturing Sector, compared to financial, real estate & professional services which together constitute ~22% of our GDP. While I agree the whole of Manufacturing sector does not constitute Mechanical Engineers, but this number does provide us an indication of the quantum of Mechanical engineers needed in India compared to other fields. So this should bash the idea that there are not enough Mechanical Engineering jobs.
2. I wanted to see how Mechanical Engineers with good skill sets fare in the job market. I assumed that taking a look at the number of Mechanical Engineers placed in a core company at IIT-Madras would give us an idea of the job scenario. In 2016, out of 50 B.E. Mech graduates who attended the interview, 45 of them got placed in a core engineering company. (2)
   • Below I have provided the companies that recruited them. If you are currently pursuing undergrad or looking out for a job change, taking a look at the skills that these companies recruit for will provide you a chance to get into these companies as well. Make sure you have the right skill sets.

 

Now that I have given my 2 points on why I do not believe the “there aren’t enough Mechanical Engineering jobs” statement, I wanted to show how you can search for the latest job opening in Mechanical Engineering.

While there are multiple ways you can search for the jobs available, I wanted to start with 2 simple methods.

1. How to use LinkedIn for your job search
2. How to use placements at other top universities to understand the demand and prepare yourself.

 

Let’s start with LinkedIn.

Here is a step by step approach:

 

1. Start with a simple search on LinkedIn i.e. “Mechanical Engineer”. You will get to a window as shown below, on that click on the “Job”  tab
2. Clicking on the Jobs will show you the Mechanical Engineering jobs in your country. If you are in India, it will mostly show jobs in India. 
3. One thing to note is the number “1512”. This is too much of information to browse through and it might be irrelevant posts for you as well. So make sure to add appropriate filters. Here are some of the filters I would recommend. 
4. Once I filtered it, I got 134 results, now that is something that I can work with. Once I got a list of jobs, I started to take a look at the ones that require core Mechanical Engineering skill sets. Here are few factors that you can take a look at
   • Keywords: what skill sets that job profile is looking for. You need to be very well versed in those skill sets. i.e. at least 2-4 projects of the highest quality
   • Is the job profile an engineering role or is it a manual Quality, production, shift based job. Most engineers want to implement their technical skill sets, in that case, I would recommend looking for an engineering role. If the job description asks for a Diploma or a BE Mech Engineer, then most often that role is not very technical.
   • Also, take a look at the right side of the page, it shows the jobs that people recently took a look at, these jobs might suit you as well. This will help you navigate to the right jobs that you are interested in without wasting a lot of time.
   • Use the “Send me jobs like this” button if you want notifications when new jobs come up.
   • 
5. Out of the 134 job listing, the jobs that suited a Mechanical Engineer for CAE, Design & Simulations oriented profile where 28. You can take a look at the Google sheet here for the job profiles and the skillsets they are looking for. These are job posting for the week of April 26th. Fill this form to get access to this sheet – https://goo.gl/forms/BeP26xdcbT3mJ1wU2
6. 
7. Here is a mini-trend that we noticed, these are the most common skill sets that recruiters are looking out for in Design & Analysis
   1. 2D & 3D Modeling. Major companies ask fo CREO, SolidWorks, CATIA & NX-CAD
   2. GD&T, BIW design is something top companies look for.
   3. In Analysis CFD, MBD, FEA & Meshing Techniques are much sought after.
8. One of the things you will see is that these companies request for 2 years of experience. Speaking with HR’s from different companies, what they mean by 2 years of experience is “GOOD THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE AND TOOL BASED APPLICATION KNOWLEDGE”.  In my next post, I will write how to work on your resume to highlight this application knowledge. 

Now that we know how to use LinkedIn to search for jobs, we will see how to use top colleges like IIT Madras and understand which companies are recruiting.

1. First, take a look at the companies that recruit Mechanical Engineers at IIT Madras, you can do that by filling up this form – https://goo.gl/forms/BeP26xdcbT3mJ1wU2. Below is a snapshot of the companies that recruit from IIT-M.
2. Next – Take a look at the vacancies in that particular company right now. For egs: I searched for “Airbus jobs in India” and got this link – http://company.airbus.com/careers/jobs-and-applications/vacancies-in-india.html. I was surprised to see the number of openings. This is why some basic research always helps.
3. Understand the skill sets that they require. Do not be bogged down by the years of experience they ask. Nobody matches the experience specified. So if you have the skill sets to apply for it, if not acquire those skill sets.
4. Once you see the position go back to Google and search more for the position. Look who is working in the same role in that particular company. See their profile and the projects that they have done. If you have worked on similar projects, reach out to them through a cold call. Explain your work and ask how to approach the company
   1. While all this looks like hard work, well remember the quote “EFFORTS NEVER FAIL”

 

NOTE: The most important thing while searching for a job is to have the skill set that the company is looking out for. If you do not have those skill sets be open to learning them. Spend some money on yourself to get equipped with these skills. Structured learning with a mentor is way better and helps you gain industry knowledge as well.

The idea of this post is to give you a glimpse of how to use LinkedIn and top university recruitments to find your next core engineering job. In my next post, I will explain how the ideal resume should look like.

See you till next time !

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