You Cannot Become a Good Design Engineer with Just Your Engineering Degree!

What kind of job will provide me with excellent growth opportunities, challenging work, and a good wage? To all young engineers, this is an obvious question. You are smarter than everyone else if you are trying to find an answer to this question while you are pursuing your degree. You can develop the necessary skills early on and work towards your ideal career. For many aspiring engineers taking graduation courses, this isn't the case, though. It's not the end of the world if you come to this realisation after graduating or after failing a few job interviews. You have to admit that your response time to taking action was a little slow. Nevermind! The bus is still available to you.

Getting good grades was your top priority when you were a graduate. You have had to give up on learning some essential job skills as a result. Now begin to comprehend the gap and address it. The first, crucial step in pursuing a successful career is "developing detail understanding about the career and industry." Now let's get started on its development.

Growth of the Indian engineering industry

Engineering exports for the period of FY19 were US$ 81.02 billion as against US$ 76.20 million in the same period previous year. Exports of electrical machinery and equipment grew at a CAGR of 7.00 per cent during FY10-18 to reach US$ 6.7 billion in FY18.

The infographic on key trends published by IBEF above makes it easy to understand that both Indian engineering exports and R&D are growing at a respectable rate.

Responsibilities of a Design Engineer

We are aware that the foundation of the engineering and manufacturing sectors is engineering design. Let's attempt to comprehend the functions and duties of a design engineer. The following is a summary of the main duties for a design engineer with 0–4 years of experience, compiled from different job profiles.

• To develop concepts based on product specifications and create detailed drawings.
• To develops the models/drawings using appropriate CAD tools like SolidWorks, AutoCAD, SolidEdge, CATIA, NX, Creo, etc.
• Prepare fabrication drawing and support fabricator for making Prototypes.
• To test and validate prototypes.
• Tolerance stack as per function and assembly.
• Modularizing the product for various models & standardization.
• To use a design change process to ensure that proposed changes are analyzed in a systematic way before beginning the change process.
• To releases mechanical design to production through ECN (Engineering Change Notice/Notification).
• To conduct GD&T and Tolerance Analysis as per project requirement.
• To perform troubleshooting of problems related to design material or process.
• To design mechanical parts with consideration of DFM DFA.
• To work collaboratively with manufacturing to reduce product costs through design improvements.
• To support mechanical design verification tests according to product specifications and applicable standards.
• To evaluate and document design analysis results from simulation calculation verification tests.

Design Engineer Technical skills

• Here is a list of technical skills highlighted as a part of the job profile of a design engineer.
• proficient in 3D modeling, 2D drafting and Assembly in SolidWorks, AutoCAD, SolidEdge, CATIA, NX, Creo, etc.
• Good knowledge of Drafting standards and Part & Assembly Modeling Practices.
• Good knowledge of Tolerance Stack up & GD&T (Geometrical Dimensioning and Tolerances).
• Knowledge of material specifications, design standards for Casting, Forged Parts & Assemblies.
• Understanding of manufacturing process of metal/plastic Parts.
• Perform engineering calculations to verify the design.
• Knowledge of creating and releasing new part numbers in any ERP system.
• Knowledge of the Bill of Material.

How to Prepare yourself for the role of Design engineer

From numerous design engineer job descriptions, we have highlighted a number of critical competencies and knowledge areas, such as an engineering drawing, GD&T, tolerance stack, etc. When pursuing an engineering degree, it is common for the very fundamental building blocks—like "reading engineering drawing" or "applying GD&T"—to receive insufficient attention. This must change, and you must begin acquiring the knowledge and abilities that the industry demands.

You now know what abilities, in the context of engineering design, set men apart from boys. Thus, you must refine the critical abilities covered above if you wish to become an engineering design expert. Here, advice from a qualified coach can really help. Why not search for someone with over ten years of experience producing design engineers who are ready for the workforce, like G2G INNOVATION?