Job Market
Work in the area of Automotive Engineering can be carried out in offices, testing laboratories, mechanical workshops, or assembly lines. Depending on your activity, you will spend more time at the office using a computer, or intersperse it with field work. Despite the large concentration of automotive companies in Greater São Paulo, Porto Alegre and Belo Horizonte, there are several companies (assembly companies and suppliers) distributed in the most diverse regions of the country, including test fields responsible for carrying out vehicle tests. The Automotive Engineer’s day-to-day can include traveling frequently between factories or serving customers, if they work at a supplier.
The job market in the automotive area comprises industries that assemble cars, commercial vehicles (trucks and buses), special/specific vehicles (tractors, concrete mixers, military vehicles, etc.) and motorcycles; specialized companies, such as fleet owners; laboratories and product development centers; suppliers of automotive components; the oil and gas industry; consulting agencies in the field; among other job possibilities. Due to the correlation between the program and mechanical engineering, many of the professionals also work in the mechanical industries in general. Therefore, training in Automotive Engineering provides a wide range of career opportunities, whether technical, academic or managerial. The market demand for new vehicle products with electric or hybrid motorization and autonomous vehicles brings, more and more, a huge need for these professionals, who are “experts” and innovators of automotive subsystems.
Graduate Profile (Alumni)
The Automotive Engineering program allows you to develop and improve skills and competencies to work as an engineer. They are:
- Competency in the technical and numerical area with an understanding of its application to the design and production of a vehicle product;
- Skill to analyze and interpret data in problem solving;
- Skill to communicate and work as a team with colleagues and clients, but gaining responsibility for your specific activity;
- Skill in time management and organization to ensure compliance with design and implementation schedules;
- Skill to work with constraints such as cost;
- Commitment to engineering and product technological updates;
- Knowledge of industries and the commercial area of the automotive sector.
The list of skills/competencies can be significantly longer with experiences taken outside the classroom, such as internships in the industry, exchange to other countries, extracurricular activities, such as participation in the Formula CEM competition team or in a Scientific Initiation project. These are some of the opportunities for growth and better preparation for the job market available to students motivated to work in Automotive Engineering!
