There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a mechanical engineering professor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $33.65 an hour? That's $69,997 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 11% and produce 155,000 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many mechanical engineering professors 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 speaking skills, writing skills and critical-thinking skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a mechanical engineering professor, we found that a lot of resumes listed 18.6% of mechanical engineering professors included undergraduate courses, while 16.2% of resumes included engineering technology, and 13.5% of resumes included fluid mechanics. 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 professor job title. But what industry to start with? Most mechanical engineering professors actually find jobs in the education and manufacturing industries.
If you're interested in becoming a mechanical engineering professor, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 29.2% of mechanical engineering professors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 41.5% of mechanical engineering professors have master's degrees. Even though most mechanical engineering professors 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 professor. When we researched the most common majors for a mechanical engineering professor, we found that they most commonly earn master's degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on mechanical engineering professor resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a mechanical engineering professor. In fact, many mechanical engineering professor jobs require experience in a role such as engineering internship. Meanwhile, many mechanical engineering professors also have previous career experience in roles such as research assistant or design engineer.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
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 mechanical engineer you might progress to a role such as project manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title education director.
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.
Ann Arbor, MI
Atlanta, GA
Evanston, IL
Ithaca, NY
University Park, PA
Cambridge, MA
Stanford, CA
Los Angeles, CA
New York, NY
Pittsburgh, PA
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, 18.6% of mechanical engineering professors listed undergraduate courses on their resume, but soft skills such as speaking skills and writing skills are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a mechanical engineering professor. The best states for people in this position are Alaska, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and California. Mechanical engineering professors make the most in Alaska with an average salary of $110,077. Whereas in Connecticut and Rhode Island, they would average $96,291 and $92,447, respectively. While mechanical engineering professors would only make an average of $87,508 in California, 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. Alaska
$110,077
Avg. Salary
2. Rhode Island
$92,448
Avg. Salary
3. Connecticut
$96,291
Avg. Salary