Guide To Become a Freelance Mechanical Engineer

Words and job duties like instrumentation, automation, implementation, and design, play an important

part in the life of a mechanical engineer. It is probably, the most pursued engineering field in

developing countries like India. With the advent of newer machinery, the need for mechanical engineers

only increases. Whether you are a fulltime employee, looking to earn a few extra bucks by the side, or

you are a self-employed engineer simply trying to get your business up and running, there is much scope

in freelance mechanical engineer.

You can opt for freelance for many different reasons. Extra income, work from home, be able to take on

multiple tasks, independence; the list continues. Whatever your preferences, you can be assured that

freelance mechanical engineer is a career that will give you a comfortable life, and a low pressure, low

stress working environment.

Job Duties:

Your duties as a mechanical engineer would revolve around building mechanical equipment. For

instance, an organization that makes mechanical products may contract you to design a product, or

even test and provide specifics for the product. Let us have an in-depth look at some of the duties that

will fall under your purview, as a freelance mechanical engineer:

Read and interpret blueprints, technical drawings, schematics, and computer-generated reports.

Liaise and confer with engineers and other personnel to implement operating procedures,

resolve system malfunctions, and provide technical information.

Research and analyze customer design proposals, specifications, manuals, and other data to

evaluate the feasibility, cost, and maintenance requirements of designs or applications.

Specify system components or direct modification of products to ensure conformance with

engineering design and performance specifications.

Research, design, evaluate, install, operate, and maintain mechanical products, equipment,

systems, and processes to meet requirements, applying knowledge of engineering principles.

Investigate equipment failures and difficulties to diagnose faulty operation, and to make

recommendations to maintenance crew.

Liaise with drafters and monitor them in developing the structural design of products, using

drafting tools or computer-assisted design/drafting equipment and software.

Provide feedback to design engineers on customer problems and needs.

Oversee installation, operation, maintenance, and repair to ensure that machines and

equipment comply with specifications.

Supervise and conduct research that tests and analyzes the feasibility, design, operation, and

performance of equipment, components, and systems.

Recommend design modifications to eliminate machine or system malfunctions.

Develop and test models of alternate designs and processing methods to assess feasibility,

operating condition effects, possible new applications, and necessity of modification.

Develop, coordinate, and monitor all aspects of production, including selection of manufacturing

methods, fabrication, and operation of product designs.

Estimate costs and submit bids for engineering, construction, or extraction projects, and prepare

contract documents.

Perform personnel functions, such as supervision of production workers, technicians,

technologists, and other engineers, and design of evaluation programs.

Establish and coordinate the maintenance and safety procedures, service schedule, and supply

of materials required to maintain machines and equipment in the prescribed condition.

Study industrial processes to determine application areas of the equipment.

Write performance requirements for product development or engineering projects.

Skills :

What sets you apart from other engineers is skill. You need to be skilful to hold a candle to competition.

Although, you shall generally be required to design, implement, and even test mechanical equipment,

the job role will often demand more from you than an implementation and design process. You need to

develop skills to do well; some of them include:

Mathematical skills

Complex Problem Solving

Critical Thinking

Scientific Skills

Decision Making

Operations Research

Operations Analysis

Co-ordination

Active Learning

Self-motivated

Able to work remotely

Systems Analysis

Equipment selection

Many websites will help you develop the above-mentioned skills. However, you must remember that

mechanical engineering is a graduate level course and any skills you learn here should be supplemented

with a degree. MIT Open Courseware, Udacity, Coursera, Freestudy and Brighthubengineering offer

many options to learn mechanical engineering online.

Being Successful as a Freelance Mechanical Engineer:

More often than not, talent is not a determinant of success in any sphere. It is possibly truer for

engineers, with the freelance market insisting that talent combined with the relevant experience

attracts generous prospective employers.

Hence, to be successful initially, you could

Offer to do projects for minimum fees, sometimes for free

Bid the lowest for a project on freelancer portals

Get good testimonials for guest blogs, recommendations for work

Start a blog, back link it to more visible blogs

Create a website, or at the very least, a web page

Advertise your services on social media platforms

Understand the product or service intimately

Sharpen your Communication skills, as it would help you get more jobs

Master Engineering Basics

Average Remunerations

Most of the revenue generated by you will depend solely on your ability to market your services and

your credibility with previous employees.

Usually freelance portals offer various kinds of payment models. In the fixed-price model, the price is

usually pre-determined. The hourly model is the most popular and employers usually pay a

predetermined sum per hour. Finally, in the project-budget based model, you often need to auction for

such projects. Usually a fixed price model may range from $20- $200 and upwards, while you have to

pitch for hourly projects, and budget payments, which usually range from $5- $35 an hour, with average

payments at $23 per hour.

Finding Work:

Many websites, forums, and portals offer hundreds of jobs to freelance mechanical engineer like you.

Elance, Odesk, Peopleperhour and Guru offer many opportunities to freelance mechanical engineers

around the globe.

Resources:

However, you must remember that mechanical engineering is a graduate level course and any skills you

learn here should be supplemented with a degree. MIT Open Courseware, Udacity, Coursera, Freestudy

and Brighthubengineering offer many options to learn mechanical engineering online.

For more information on Freelance Resource please visit www.careerlancer.net