Career in the Automotive Industry

This report outlines what a career in the automotive industry would be like, as well as describing the current scenario of the industry in the UK. The report also outlines the knowledge and skill requirements for a recent engineering graduate to land a job in this field.

Running head: CAREER IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY
Career in the Automotive Industry
Name of Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1CAREER IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY
Executive Summary:
This report outlines what a career in the automotive industry would be like, as well as
describing the current scenario of the industry in the UK. The current scenario of the industry
gives a better idea of what a recent graduate should be expecting if he/she wishes to get a job
in that field. Along with the current update, the report also outlines what are the knowledge
and skill requirements that a student must fulfil by the time they graduate college if they want
to land a job right after. Through the analysis of the skills required, the report finds that it is
most useful for a student to reach out and get some prior practical experience working the job
before they apply for a fulltime position.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction:........................................................................................................................3
2. Analysis and Application:...................................................................................................3
2.1 General Trends in the Automotive Industry................................................................3
2.2 Skills, Knowledge and Experience Required:.............................................................4
3. Evaluation:..........................................................................................................................6
4. Conclusion:.........................................................................................................................7
5. References:..........................................................................................................................8
6. Appendix:............................................................................................................................9

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1. Introduction:
This report will be exploring the different requirements that are in place in pursuing a
career in the automotive industry. This report will assess the skills, knowledge and the
experience that is required for a recent engineering graduate to enter into this industry. The
report findings will help me in assessing my preparedness in entering this industry and will
support me in pursuing a future career in this field. This report will be putting into context the
extent to which a recent engineering graduate will be able to be successfully employed
through an analysis of the relevant labour market information to figure out how I can gain an
opportunity in this field.
2. Analysis and Application:
The purpose of this section is to reflect on the findings from the automotive industry by
using both primary and secondary research. This is to identify which are the key trends in the
industry, what are the skills, knowledge and level of experience that is required for a recent
engineering graduate in order to successfully land a job in this field.
2.1 General Trends in the Automotive Industry:
In the United Kingdom, the automotive industry is considered to be one of the most vital
industries in the region, accounting for almost £82 billion turnover and an added value of
£20.2 billion (SMMT 2019). The industry has almost 200,000 people employed in the
manufacturing sector, with some of the most skilled engineers under its wing. The export of
goods from the automotive industry accounts for 12% of the total goods that are exported out
of the UK. There are over 2500 suppliers, with eight of them being manufacturers of
premium and sports cars (SMMT 2019).

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The first decline in eight years occurred in 2017, where there was a 3% decrease in the
number of car productions that year. Nevertheless, the level of car production in 2017 was
still at the second highest in the last 17 years. One of the reasons for this decline can be due
to the overall confusion concerning the government policy on diesel prices. However, it
remains as the top most priority for UK’s automotive industry and the government to attract
more investment into the industry. The industry was unable to export the required number of
units to China causing almost a 73% drop in the units of vehicles sold making it the first
occurrence of this kind in almost 30 years (Dhingra et al. 2016).
With Brexit looming around the corner, three quarters of the companies in the automative
industry have decided to move their businesses out of the UK so that they can still avail the
free and frictionless trade agreements that exist in the EU (Dhingra et al. 2016). According to
a report by Yahoo Finance, Jaguar Land Rover and Ford have announced thousands of job
cuts ahead of the Brexit that will occur at the end of March (Petroff 2019). A professor at
Aston University reaching industrial strategy has predicted that there will be further job cuts
all across the industry, not only in the big auto manufacturers. With the date of Brexit
approaching, the negative impact from this has been coined as being one of the biggest
threats to the automotive industry and big auto manufacturers are already planning their exit
route from Britain, or further job and production cuts (Bailey and De Propris 2017).
This existing trend in the automotive industry seems very daunting for any recent
engineering graduate who wants to get a job in this field. Even though it is not impossible to
get a job, these trends make the process of hiring more complex, as the big companies in
these industries will make their employee requirement even more rigid. With the constant
development of new technologies, careers in this sector remain a competitive market to be a
part of.

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2.2 Skills, Knowledge and Experience Required:
Some personal skills that is required for a recent graduate is a good grasp on the
knowledge of engineering science and technology accompanied with proficient knowledge in
mathematics and physics (National Careers Service UK 2019). An engineering graduate
looking to land a job in the automotive industry should have a good control on his computing
skills, also he/she needs to be able to know how to draw and design engineering drawings
while being able to pay close attention to detail. It goes to say without a doubt that a recent
engineering graduate will be able to use any computing software confidently as this is a big
part of the job in the industry. Studying to be an engineer, college classes already pay a lot of
attention to building the analytic skills of the students and also make sure that they are
competent with the repairing and the maintaining of various machines and tools and
understand fully the mechanics of it as well.
It is important for an engineering graduate trying to get a job in the automotive industry to
have some prior knowledge working under a licensed professional in the same industry. This
experience while working side by side a professional in the field will give the student
opportunity to apply their academic knowledge in a real scenario. This also gives the student
a chance to develop practical skills that they have learnt in the labs and the various design
projects that the student must have completed during their college tenure (National Careers
Service UK 2019). The engineer that was interviewed for the purpose of this report
highlighted the fact that an engineer in the 21st century will definitely need to have a good
control over his computer skills because most of the work that is given will usually heavily
rely on computer-assisted design making software such as CAD and MATLAB.
Since the job of an engineer in the automotive industry mainly consists of making
technical designs, it is important for the aspiring engineer to also be creative in their
approach. As important it is for the student to be good in his/her academic knowledge, it is

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also just as vital for them to be able to work well with others in a team and have good
listening skills (National Careers Service UK 2019). They must be able to communicate their
messages effectively to their co-workers and also be able to create written reports that will
reflect their communication skills. For example, the interviewee who is a manager in an
automotive factory has said that if an automotive engineer is given the responsibility of
overseeing a manufacturing facility then he/she has to be able to effectively organize and
appoint certain work designations to the group of employees that are under them.
3. Evaluation:
There is a job opening for the position of Manufacturing – Engineer for the Expleo Group
Company, and this is appealing to me because the requirements are matching with what I
have experience with. For example, they require someone who has a niche for vehicle
production and its brand requirements, which are very accurate as I am trying to get into the
automotive industry. This job opening was appealing to me because as I was searching for
job openings in the automotive industry, this was the only one that did not require any prior
internship experience, as I am expecting that most of the training will be done on the job.
This seems very interesting as many industries usually hire people that have experience in the
same field, and not every company is willing to hire a fresh graduate.
Even though the level of experience required for this job opening is not mentioned,
the job requires the applicant to have a complex understanding of the vehicle systems
assembly line, which I will be comfortable with, since I do have prior knowledge of working
in an automotive industry as I had done an internship there when in college.
4. Conclusion:
This report highlights the importance of proper academic knowledge taught in
universities when joining the workforce of the desired industry. In this case, the desired

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industry is the automotive industry, and the report highlights how important it is to know
theoretical knowledge along with practical knowledge to land a successful job in the field.
Interviewing a manufacturing manager gave was very insightful because it gave me a better
idea of what to expect and what they had to deal with when they first got the job and what
was expected of them.
Along with the knowledge of the job position, it is also important to know how the
industry is fairing compared to the economy it is placed in – for this report, it was the status
of the automotive industry in the economy of United Kingdom. A lot of scepticism was found
from the research that was conducted in the future of the industry, as Brexit will be causing
more harm than good to the companies in the UK.

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5. References:
Dhingra, S., Ottaviano, G., Sampson, T. and Van Reenen, J., 2016. The impact of Brexit on
foreign investment in the UK. BREXIT 2016, 24, p.2.
Bailey, D. and De Propris, L., 2017. Brexit and the UK automotive industry.
Petroff, A. (2019). Turmoil as car job losses point to bleak 2019 for auto industry. [online]
Yahoo Finance. Available at: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/turmoil-car-job-losses-point-
bleak-2019-auto-industry-170201702.html [Accessed 14 Mar. 2019].
SMMT. (2019). UK Automotive Industry. [online] Available at:
https://www.smmt.co.uk/industry-topics/uk-automotive/ [Accessed 14 Mar. 2019].
National Careers Service UK. (2019). Automotive engineer. [online] Available at:
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/automotive-engineer [Accessed 14 Mar.
2019].

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6. Appendix: