There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a mechanical engineering manager. For example, did you know that they make an average of $53.66 an hour? That's $111,616 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 3% and produce 5,400 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many mechanical engineering managers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, communication skills and detail oriented.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a mechanical engineering manager, we found that a lot of resumes listed 10.7% of mechanical engineering managers included engineering design, while 9.5% of resumes included procedures, and 7.3% of resumes included cad. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the mechanical engineering manager job title. But what industry to start with? Most mechanical engineering managers actually find jobs in the manufacturing and technology industries.
If you're interested in becoming a mechanical engineering manager, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 55.6% of mechanical engineering managers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 28.5% of mechanical engineering managers have master's degrees. Even though most mechanical engineering managers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a mechanical engineering manager. When we researched the most common majors for a mechanical engineering manager, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on mechanical engineering manager resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a mechanical engineering manager. In fact, many mechanical engineering manager jobs require experience in a role such as mechanical engineer. Meanwhile, many mechanical engineering managers also have previous career experience in roles such as senior mechanical engineer or design engineer.
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In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of engineering manager you might progress to a role such as plant manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title plant general manager.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
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The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 10.7% of mechanical engineering managers listed engineering design on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a mechanical engineering manager. The best states for people in this position are Washington, California, Alaska, and Louisiana. Mechanical engineering managers make the most in Washington with an average salary of $149,447. Whereas in California and Alaska, they would average $148,967 and $144,804, respectively. While mechanical engineering managers would only make an average of $140,484 in Louisiana, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Washington
$149,447
Avg. Salary
2. California
$148,968
Avg. Salary
3. Colorado
$138,128
Avg. Salary