There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a vehicle controls engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $40.78 an hour? That's $84,819 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 12,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many vehicle controls engineers 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 math skills, mechanical skills and writing skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a vehicle controls engineer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 19.1% of vehicle controls engineers included hardware, while 15.3% of resumes included vehicle dynamics, and 11.3% of resumes included control systems. 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 vehicle controls engineer job title. But what industry to start with? Most vehicle controls engineers actually find jobs in the automotive and retail industries.
If you're interested in becoming a vehicle controls engineer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 32.3% of vehicle controls engineers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 51.0% of vehicle controls engineers have master's degrees. Even though most vehicle controls engineers 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 vehicle controls engineer. When we researched the most common majors for a vehicle controls engineer, we found that they most commonly earn master's degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on vehicle controls engineer resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a vehicle controls engineer. In fact, many vehicle controls engineer jobs require experience in a role such as engineer. Meanwhile, many vehicle controls engineers also have previous career experience in roles such as engineering internship or project engineer.
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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, 19.1% of vehicle controls engineers listed hardware on their resume, but soft skills such as math skills and mechanical skills are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a vehicle controls engineer. The best states for people in this position are Alaska, California, Texas, and Massachusetts. Vehicle controls engineers make the most in Alaska with an average salary of $134,476. Whereas in California and Texas, they would average $113,525 and $99,417, respectively. While vehicle controls engineers would only make an average of $94,370 in Massachusetts, 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. California
$113,526
Avg. Salary
2. Alaska
$134,477
Avg. Salary
3. Texas
$99,418
Avg. Salary