Hello,

I have searched the various job listing sites for Australia for mechanical engineering.

Would like to know opinions from the various contributors of this forum about mechanical engineering jobs, kind of industries in AU that employ mech. engineers and specifically are there industries for mech. designers using CAD / FEA and the likes...

Also, I have read on this forum that hiring international workers is more expensive for companies in AU, is it really true? I mean once a student gets a job, he can get the PR, I dont see where the employer needs to shell out extra money.

Any input would be welcome,

Many thanks.
Ballistic

I used to work in the engineering field, not specifically design work but you have a huge range of industries where mechanical engineering work is involved, various manufacturing industries, services - power, water, transport etc., construction and mining and then a lot of maintenance activities from larger services and mining organisations have been contracted out to companies, they themselves becoming major industries.

Then there are specialist consulting companies that also employ mechanical engineers.

As for CAD and other computer aided design systems, the auto industry would have a few mechanical engineers involved in development work and possibly a few other more minor areas where product design is involved but it could also be more industrial engineers and engineering associate level people [draftspeople] that do some of that.

As for higher cost of employing someone from overseas that type of comment is likely more in reference to where a company may be seeking experienced personnel and obviously a recruitment process conducted locally is going to be less involved than seeking overseas applicants.

If a student has studied in Australia and is eligible for an 885/886 visa then there would be no difference to an application if it was made while in Australia and employers could be looking at huge numbers of graduates, both Australian and students from overseas.

As well as qualifications/academic reults being taken into account, employers would also be looking at language proficiency and any work experience that applicants already had.

Thanks for your input Wanderer,

I am going to start out in a postgraduate degree in mech. engineering from UNSW soon....

your response has buoyed my hopes about finding meaningful employment in Australia after my degree.

"If a student has studied in Australia and is eligible for an 885/886 visa then there would be no difference to an application if it was made while in Australia and employers could be looking at huge numbers of graduates, both Australian and students from overseas."

just a clarification of the last line in the above paragraph, do you mean to say that there are huge number of jobs available in this field or did you mean there are huge number of applicants for not too many jobs?

Also, from my research, the average beginners salary for this field is around AU $ 50,000 per year. Is that a comfortable figure for a single guy to live on?

Thanks again,
Ballisitc

Available jobs will always vary with the economy and right now I'd predict that in next few years it is going to be a tight market even for engineers as not only will you have economies contracting around the planet, you'll have many older experienced engineers delaying retirement.

While that type of environment prevails, you can even have more emphasis placed by governments on the importance of education and yes there could be even now more graduates in many fields than what there are vacancies.

The one exception could be the medical field.