- Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Professional fields

There is hardly any area of daily life that does not involve mechanical engineering in some way. Whether in traffic engineering (cars, trains, planes, ships), in domestic engineering (household appliances, heating), in medical engineering (medical devices, prostheses, skull implants), in sports and hobbies (sports equipment, cameras) or in large-scale scientific projects (aerospace) and in energy engineering (power plants, offshore technology).

Whether you decide to start your professional life after your Bachelor’s or Master’s degree, the career fields of scientifically trained graduates in mechanical engineering are very diverse. They can be employed in all technical areas of industry in research and development as well as in production, maintenance, quality assurance, sales, leadership and management, consulting, service and as consultants, experts, test and inspection engineers.

Excellent prospects
While the bachelor’s program qualifies students primarily for jobs as technical administrators in construction, manufacturing and design, the master’s program prepares students more intensively for jobs in development and research as well as for taking on management positions. The demand for well-trained mechanical engineers is high. This is shown by surveys, for example by the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) or the employment authorities.

Income opportunities

Not only are the job prospects in engineering attractive, so are the earnings prospects for engineering graduates. Nevertheless, there are sometimes significant differences in wages – regional, experience-related and industry-specific.

And: Especially at the beginning of an engineering career, income is still largely dependent on the degree obtained.

The VDI Publishing House regularly publishes salary studies that present the prospects for various industries, states and career levels on the basis of reader surveys.