About Mechanical Engineer Careers

Mechanical engineering refers to the research, development and production of tools, machinery and other mechanical appliances as they relate to the principles of physics. It is one of the oldest and broadest branches of engineering, focusing on power-producing and power-using machines. A solid understanding of mechanics, kinematics (the science of objects in motion), thermodynamics and energy are essential to the profession.

Education

1. Depending on the university, a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering degree can take four or five years to complete, and like all engineering degrees requires concentrated studies in mathematics and physics. The curriculum also emphasizes general engineering, life sciences, social sciences and humanities.

Work

2. Mechanical engineers generally work a standard 40-hour week; much of their time is spent designing, developing, testing and overseeing the production of internal combustion engines, electric generators, and gas- and steam-driven turbines. They also apply their expertise to power-using machines such as cars, aircraft, elevators, refrigerators, and heating and air conditioning systems, as well as robotics. A mechanical engineer's work might involve engineering challenges that range from the deep sea to, perhaps one day, deep space.

Duties

3. Mechanical engineers working in labs employ specially designed 2-D and 3-D computer programs to create inexpensive computer models, testing expected load capabilities, fatigue tolerances and manufacturability of future tools and products. This allows hundreds or perhaps thousands of design modifications to be safely and quickly tested. The use of computersand sophisticated optimization algorithms also allows mechanical engineers to explore new and often better tool designs that could lead to solutions to problems that plague a variety of types of engineers.

Benefits

4. The efforts of other engineers, such as those working in agricultural production or manufacturing, often depend on tools designed and developed by mechanical engineers. Many mechanical engineers, working and merging with other disciplines of engineering, undertake long-term research studies and developmental projects pushing the boundaries of what is physically possible.

Salaries

5. In 2006, there were approximately 1.5 million engineers across the United States; about 227,000 were mechanical engineers. Pay for engineers varies widely, depending on specialty, industry and education. Among college graduates with bachelor's degrees, engineers earn some of the highest average starting wages. The bottom 10 percent of mechanical engineers earned an average of about $45,000 in 2006, the top 10 percent more than $100,000. The median salary for this branch of engineering was about $70,000 a year.