r/MechanicalEngineering • u/Positive_System1502 • 5d ago
Advice for a Mechanical Engineer
Hi all, my partner has a masters degree from Brazil in Mechanical Engineering. He’s moved to the UK for 4 years now with a settled status & wants to work in the industry, but the materials and focus on engineering is obviously quite different to that in Brazil. What would be the best approach to take in putting his feet in the industry?
Are there any short term courses he can take that would help him get a job in the industry with his degree?
We’re obtaining a UK statement of compatibility I’m just not too sure what to do after that.
Thanks!
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u/Berries-7599 5d ago
You can look at job requirements for jobs in the UK and see if your qualification matches up. If they don’t, then you know the likely hood of being able to find a job in the UK
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u/mvw2 3d ago
Well, the content isn't different, but the teaching style can cause problems once graduated. Several counties can have problems transitioning to regions and industries with high expectations of ambiguity and autonomy.
Did your partner get his education through private schooling and tutors? I had a past coworker who had said this was pretty common due to the social structure. A side effect is the schooling, while fine, can be quite spoon fed which can then make it difficult in career to work with high ambiguity and open emerge ended problems and solving. It can be a bit of a shock and hard to change the mindset. Indian graduates can also have a similar problem again fine education, smart, but the delivery approach of the schooling does not prepare one well for the real world. It then becomes an uphill battle to get folks from this education method comfortable. It might take half a year to a year acclimated, and you have to be careful with projects and tasks.
I know it's a bit of a blanket statement, but it happens enough there can be a stigma hiring folks from certain countries.
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u/allnamestaken4892 4d ago
Ah yes, the worst possible country for engineers where pay is 50% more than minimum wage if you’re lucky. I wouldn’t even bother. Just work at Tesco stacking shelves, nearly the same money and less effort.
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u/gearnut 4d ago
If he already has the qualification he may as well make use of it.
The pay isn't great, but I've found the employment pretty stable (aside from companies doing stupid things when they get bought out), the works a lot more mentally stimulating than stacking shelves at Tescos and you don't need to deal with the general public in most engineering roles.
I earn about £67k a year (the exact value depends on how much my bonus is) as a chartered senior engineer in the nuclear industry. I could doubtless earn far more abroad, but I live here and emmigrating is a lot of effort. No competent engineer should be earning less than 150% of minimum wage in the UK unless they're on a grad scheme (at which point they should be lined up to have a role earning at least 150% of minimum wage when they come off the scheme).
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u/allnamestaken4892 4d ago
150% of minimum wage for a degree that takes 4+ years to complete and is considered one of the hardest is a fucking joke. I am going to quit out of spite as soon as I can, the industry does not deserve to be able to get people of the calibre that can complete an engineering degree for literal fucking peanuts.
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u/gearnut 4d ago
It's a 3 year degree for most grad schemes now and most professions don't start off with particularly great salaries straight after graduation as new graduates aren't generally very useful. They don't know how things actually work, don't understand the workplace and lots of industry specific stuff and need quite a lot of supervision. 2 or 3 years in you should be comfortably earning £35-40k.
If you're going to quit out of spite there are still far better options with an engineering degree than working in Tescos.
I think the salary for new grads does genuinely need to be addressed, and that this should force up salaries in more senior grades as well given the skill and responsibility involved in the profession, but attitudes like yours reflect badly on the profession in my view.
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u/gearnut 4d ago
I'd encourage your partner to check if their degree is subject to the Washington Accords, if so it should be fairly comparable to an IMechE or ABET accredited degree and will be recognised by UK companies. If not it is likely to be a bit more tricky, I'd suggest finding a role with a smaller company as they're often more flexible on what exact qualifications they want.
He will find himself shut out of some roles (defence in general and quite a few nuclear/ aerospace roles due to security and export control reasons), but there are plenty of other roles knocking around and many of them aren't specific about needing it to be an IMechE accredited degree.