I graduated nearly 3 years ago in Product Design BSc, although this wasn’t a traditional engineer course I covered lots of modules which were on the BENG course at the same uni (CAD, materials, design engineering, group projects, manufacturing and operations management, etc).

There are very few opportunities in Product Design, so I have been looking at Design Engineering as an alternative, as I keep hearing there is demand for people in this sector, but I cannot get a look in, even for CAD monkey jobs.

I managed to get a 6 month placement with an electronics manufacturer and worked on a process improvement engineering project (lean etc), with the hope of perhaps getting some experience in their design department, but this was a total no go. Is production or process engineering worth getting into?

Just wondering what I am doing wrong and where to go from here, before I try something else.

PS I am in my early 30s, if that matters

We need product and design engineers ( all engineers actually)my email is in my profile and I will tell you who and where.

“roughly” where are you pete?

There’s a lot of Process Engineer roles out there. These can vary from quite technical through to very consultant type roles. In fact there’s a whole leach industry based around lean etc. I’ve been an Industrial Engineer / Continuous Impriovement Specialist / Process Improvement Engineer for the last 14 years, it’s had it’s ups and downs. Really depends where you work, it’s always hard as you are an internal consultant and rarely have direct control of what you’re trying to improve. You’re usually trying to improve things for people who are managung an area but don’t have the skill or attitude to do themselves. That said I’ve made significant changes to several plants over the years that have stuck. I’ve now finally made the jump across to a management position which is good in some respects but has t’s own draw backs.

Lean experience on a CV is often seen as positive whatever role you’re looking for. If you’ve got an apptitude for it do it, if you find it all a bit tedious and boring don’t because you will need to be self motivated to your job well. If you don’t believe in what your doing yourself you convince anyone else either.

Production engineer here, and thoroughly enjoy it. my role is in a constantly changing/challenging environment so wouldn’t suit everyone, but still plenty of scope to devise and implement changes.

I’m writing this from my phone just now, but will try to give more details later

*Cough*

‘Process’ Engineering is the broader term for Chemical Engineering.

wors, roughly North Wiltshire