I take care of the overall design, layout, and expansion of the factory. That involves working with manufacturing engineers who manage the design of production lines to figure out the most optimal way to layout those lines for production. As a senior industrial engineer, I'm in more of a management role. A lot of my time is devoted to leading my team by breaking down barriers and empowering them to do their jobs successfully. I also spend some time working with spreadsheets and writing code.
CAREER
Industrial Engineers
Overview
Salary Median (2020)
$95,300
Projected Job Growth (2019-2029)
+10.2% (faster than the average)
Career
Roadtrip Nation Leaders in This Career
What Industrial Engineers Do
Design, develop, test, and evaluate integrated systems for managing industrial production processes, including human work factors, quality control, inventory control, logistics and material flow, cost analysis, and production coordination.
Other Job Titles Industrial Engineers May Have
Engineer, Industrial Engineer, Process Engineer, Project Engineer
How Leaders Describe a Typical Day at Work
Tasks & Responsibilities May Include
- Estimate production costs, cost saving methods, and the effects of product design changes on expenditures for management review, action, and control.
- Plan and establish sequence of operations to fabricate and assemble parts or products and to promote efficient utilization.
- Analyze statistical data and product specifications to determine standards and establish quality and reliability objectives of finished product.
- Confer with clients, vendors, staff, and management personnel regarding purchases, product and production specifications, manufacturing capabilities, or project status.
- Communicate with management and user personnel to develop production and design standards.
Education
Level of Education Attained by Industrial Engineers
Most common level of education among people in
this career: Bachelor's degree (59%)
Some college, no degree
Bachelor's degree
Master's degree
Majors Related to Career
Additional Skills & Experiences That Can Help You Excel
Communication skills are important in my role because I'm leading a team. I need to be able to listen and understand their barriers and blockers and then figure out ways to break those down and communicate more efficient solutions.
Getting Started
Recommended First Step for:
College Students
Intern at a lot of different places. It's really important to try to figure out what parts of a job or field you like and what parts you don't like. You can only really do that by trying it and gaining that hands-on experience.
This page includes information from theO*NET 26.1 Databaseby the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under theCC BY 4.0license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
