HOW WOULD YOU END UP IN A MECHANICAL INDUSTRY?

As mechanical aspirants, the kind of jobs offered in the related industries is a burning question. “Core jobs” is a commonly heard phrase; but little do the students know about it. The idea of the work one may end up in any industry is crucial, as then the person can prepare himself accordingly. The primary explanation for core is a job profile where a person has to incorporate all the principles and concepts he learned in the subjects pertaining to the mechanical engineering domain. But it’s a big domain, and as a result a diverse number of jobs are available under the category of core. Before we delve into the types of job profiles, one must know that there are two types of mechanical industries: Public Sector Undertakings (abbreviated as PSUs) and private sector companies.

Public Sector Undertakings have a detailed form of their job profiles, since they recruit graduates who have achieved a satisfactory score in the GATE examination. These job profiles are available on internet for aspirants. For example, ONGC has mechanical posts labelled as AEE, which are categorized into Cementing, Drilling, Production, Chemical, and Materials management. More light is shed upon their specific roles when a graduate is recruited for training. However, it gives an idea of what you are in for. Similarly BHEL has job profiles (for the mechanical graduates) which are segregated into thermal, production, tooling, industrial, thermal and mechatronics. The labelling of the positions gives a sense of direction where an aspirant should proceed, provided he is interested in pursuing such jobs.

Coming to the private sector firms, the primary sources of recruitments are either campus selections or online applications through platforms such as naukri.com. In such cases, a detailed job profile is provided. The complete form consists of the prerequisites in skills and educational qualification, the job profile, the preference of locations for postings and the CTC offered. Based on this, one can decide if the job would be suitable or not. Due to lots of private sectors, all having varying fields of works, it is difficult to categorize them into a single system. There may be a unique job in a certain industry which is not present in the other private sectors. The department names vary based on industries. Every company has a specialized hierarchy to suit their interests.

Marketing is the first part of any mechanical industry. Marketing and sales people talk to potential customers, make a list of the specifications they want, convey the capabilities of the industry. Marketing department provides the resulting problem statement to the design department. Design and research is often pit together as a single department. And often it is not. This department is responsible for making an entire design of the machine based on the demand specified by the customer. A department termed as Material handling handles the raw materials required for the complete manufacturing, charting out and outsourcing (fully or partially). The raw materials are procured and handed to the manufacturing department, who wait for the process planning department for instructions. Process planning succeeds the design stage. This involves the 2D draughts and drawings being sent to process planning department. For every component and sub assembly, there is a sequence of manufacturing operations are underlined.

Manufacturing is one of the few of them which are not a single department. It is subdivided based on the type of company. For example, a gearbox company has two parts of manufacturing: turning, hobbing and grinding. The manufactured components are sent to the Assembly department. Here the components manufactured by the manufacturing section are first heat treated. It is a whole array of processes including case carburizing, nitriding and more. Post heat treatment, these are sent for final assembly. The concluding step is the Quality Inspection. The final assembly is inspected and tested under loading conditions to see if it is running without any issues.

This is a general sequence of complete operation carried out in an industry. There may be extra added department. There is a special analysis department present in some industries, which are responsible for software simulations and comparing to actual results. There is a material quality inspection department in some industries. The raw materials procured are tested and their mechanical properties, impurities present if any, are seen.

Every department has something unique to offer and demands a person opting for it to have a specific skill set. Having a preliminary knowledge of these jobs helps in understanding where the person should excel in order to bag the role. It is as they said: knowing your opponent is halfway towards winning the war and this is no different. Last but not the least, I urge students to go through job roles offered in private sectors. These profiles are available in any online job portals like Naukri and Glassdoor. It would be a more enlightening experience.