My advise to would be fellow mechanical engineers will be:
Hi Guys ! Welcome to Mechanical Engineering.
You will be spending your next 4 years learning one of the finest discipline of Engineering. You will be covering wide array of subjects like : Engineering Mechanics, Strength of Materials, fluid mechanics, Basics of Metallurgy, Thermo dynamics, Design, kinematics, heat transfer, operations research, industrial engineering, basics of programming, electronics, circuit theory in addition to Mathematics. If you want to pursue your career as a core mechanical engineer, then focus on your core subjects well.
As per the recent employ-ability survey, when you pass out after 4 years of course study, only less than 10% of you will have the desired domain, analytical, communication and cognitive skills as required by the industry.
So keep your focus on the study in addition to the enjoyment of student life. Develop the skill to connect various subjects. This is very essential.
Take an example, I am an Mechanical engineer and our company is presently working on design of high temperature valve. Our engineers should have basic understanding of the following:
- Metallurgy to select the basic materials
- Strength of Materials for understanding the material characteristics
- Fluid mechanics for design of flows and valve
- Heat Transfer and Thermal Engineering for understanding the heat flow / losses
- Manufacturing as the valve body needs to be cast and machined
- Basic electronics and electrical as the valve is a control valve and works on solenoid