Our buzzword for your engineering career this year is INVESTMENT. The modern world of business centers on the principles of investment. You put something in, and hopefully (with copious amounts of elbow grease) get something out.
When someone looks to invest their hard-earned money, the most important factor they consider is growth potential. The question they ask themselves is: Will my invested money grow?
Pursuing engineering as a career involves just such an investment, investment in your education for your future. Therefore, as a prospective engineer formulating career goals, it is well worth monitoring which engineering disciplines have the most growth potential for the future of your employment.
The Growers
RevPart, an engineering company which specializes in rapid prototyping and 3D printing for several engineering industries, has published their outlook on growing engineering industries with the most attractive starting salaries for the year 2017.
Engineering Employment Outlook from RevPart
RevPart indicates that the starting salary for Mechanical Engineers will be US$83,950 per annum as of this year. (They also say that mechanical engineers will be involved in the building of the next “wave of self-driving cars”.)
Automotive engineering – an industry that utilizes the discipline of Mechanical Engineering – has become a serious bone of contention in the United States as the country approaches Inauguration Day (20 January 2017). President-Elect Donald Trump promised car manufacturers, Ford, Toyota, and General Motors, that if he were to become president, there would be a tariff imposed on any vehicles manufactured in Mexico and sold back into the United States
Ford has since announced that it would drop plans to open a factory in Mexico, and rather opted to expand the Ford plant in Michigan and create 700 American jobs.
Other automobile manufacturers are also doing an about-turn on any foreign plans: Fiat Chrysler has announced an investment of $1 billion into making three new Jeep models in the United States, and plans to revamp factories in Michigan and Ohio. The move is set to add 2,200 jobs, the company confirmed in a statement.
Daimler AG has pledged $1.3 billion to expand production of SUVs in Alabama. And Volkswagen Group has recently announced that a planned expansion in the US will top $7 billion.
Mechanical Engineers will be in the pound seats, but the automotive industry, which is going through profound change and modernization, demands expertise from a number engineering disciplines.
To see how automotive engineering could fit into your career goals, take a look at this video from Jaguar Land Rover:
Jaguar Land Rover sold a record 583,312 vehicles in 2016, according to Reuters.
The other industry showing growth this year is the biomedical industry. It’s expected to grow by 23% over the next 10 years. And it’s easy to see why with engineering endeavors such as this: A flexible, wearable, ‘Star Trek tricorder’ health monitor is here.
Monitoring and improving the health of humans through biomedical engineering technology is just another example of how engineers are continually changing and improving the world.
We focus on industrial, material and aerospace engineering in Part 2 of our series on: Choosing the right Engineering discipline for your future career. Look out for it.
Works Cited
“Ford Scraps Plan for $1.6 Billion Plant in Mexico after Trump Criticism.” Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 03 Jan. 2017. Web. 16 Jan. 2017.
“Jaguar Land Rover Sells Record 583,313 Cars in 2016.” Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 09 Jan. 2017. Web. 16 Jan. 2017.
“Plastic Injection Molding Prototyping Services.” RevPart. Web. 16 Jan. 2017.
“Your Future In Automotive – Rebecca Lees, Jaguar Land Rover.” YouTube. 17 Mar. 2014. Web. 16 Jan. 2017.
