Your CV and cover letter is your first impression on your potential employer, so it’s vital that you are showcasing the right talents to ensure that you are selected for an interview. Relevant skills are essential to impress the hiring manager who reads it. Put your best foot forwards by including our top 5 skills that we believe are vital for a career in mechanical engineering.
What does a Mechanical Engineer do?
Mechanical engineers design, build, and test machines and products related to power, such as tools, engines and generators. Mechanical engineering is a very broad sector that focuses on research facilities, manufacturing industries, governmental operations.
If you are looking to pursue a career in mechanical engineering, you should have particular hard skills, including engineering qualifications, an understanding of industry standards as well as excellent computer and mathematical skills. Mechanical engineers spend a large portion of their day designing and testing products, however, a lot of client communication is also needed in order to make a successful product. For this reason, mechanical engineers should have a good variety of soft skills, such as strong communication and great attention to detail.
We have decided on the top 5 skills that you need in order to pursue a career in mechanical engineering:
Top 5 Skills to put on your Mechanical Engineering CV
Technical skills
Using maths and computer skills to solve problems is mechanical engineering at its foundation. Besides this core knowledge, it is important that you have certain technical skills under your belt to help you stand out from other candidates.
In addition to understanding engineering and mechanical concepts, mathematics is another important technical skill to possess. The importance of mathematical aptitude cannot be understated when it comes to excelling at this job.
Problem solving is another technical skill that is included in a portion of every mechanical engineer’s day. Whether it’s solving client problems, or making mechanical or thermal devices work more efficiently, you need a strong analytical ability to become a mechanical engineer.
Above all though, you need to be able to demonstrate that you can, infact, design products.
Interpersonal skills
Contrary to popular belief, verbal communication is a huge part of life as an engineer. Mechanical engineers don’t simply sit at a desk doing design work, much of the role is dedicated to discussing requirements with clients and liaising with your team to ensure that work gets done. Having good interpersonal skills will ensure that you are able to build relationships with clients and colleagues, which is an incredibly important skill to possess in mechanical engineering.
What’s more, being able to communicate effectively will ensure that you are able listen and ask questions when needed when speaking to clients, making the planning process much easier.
Working as a Team
A lot of teamwork is needed to see a mechanical engineering project from start to finish. In most circumstances, a diverse team of people with varying skillsets are needed in order to solve problems, so a mechanical engineer will need to be able to work with a team in order to assemble project deliverables.
Engineers often work in groups to invent technology and solve problems, so it’s important that you are confident working with a wide range of people with different skillsets. Having the ability to support your colleagues goes a long way when it comes to mechanical engineering.
Creativity
At its foundation, mechanical engineering is developing and designing all kinds of electrical products, which requires a certain level of creativity. When working under pressure, it certainly helps to use a streak of creativity to push a project through to completion. Conceptualising and inventing new products calls for an enormous amount of creativity.
Mechanical engineers will often need to imagine a concept in their head before it gets finalised and created.
Attention to detail
Precision is highly important when it comes to mechanical engineering, which is why we maintain that attention to detail is one of the most important skills you can possess as a mechanical engineer. Errors in design or production will often be detrimental to the functionality of the product, and may lead to financial losses or potentially dangerous situations. Employers will be looking for candidates who will not overlook small errors and details in the design stage.
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