How competitive is it in the car industry as an engineer?

TL;DR: Yes, you can do this.

Long response:

Is it hard? Yes. Is it competitive? Yes. Is it a totally realistic goal anyway? Yes. Can you do it? Absolutely you can... especially if you keep your goal broad enough to encompass enough of the industry and are flexible on things like location. It is certainly competitive, but not competitive in the way that pro sports or entertainment are competitive (which is to say "so competitive as to be almost unattainable without great luck and great persistence").

I recommend you do three things right now to increase your chances of success after college:

1. Don't just limit yourself to vehicle manufacturers. You can think of the vehicle manufacturer (sometimes called an "OEM") as the company that sells the finished product. Ford, GM, and Chrysler are the classic "Big Three" OEMs in the US. Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, BMW, and many others are also OEMs. Altogether these companies hire thousands of engineers of all types each year. We actually have numbers to support this thanks to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that the Motor Vehicle Manufacturing industry employs roughly ten thousand mechanical or industrial engineers if you include engineer technicians and electrical engineers as well. But here's the trick: most of the engineering done in the industry isn't done directly by the vehicle manufacturers -- it's done by automotive parts suppliers. A Ford engineer might come up with the specs for a new transmission, but the mechanical engineering on that transmission may very well end up getting done by a parts supplier with lots of experience making transmissions. Here's why this is important for you: the motor vehicle parts suppliers employ an additional ~thirty eight thousand engineers! (again, the source here is the U.S. BLS) I've also heard that starting off with a supplier can sometimes lead to a great opportunity in the future with an OEM if you continue to perform well and do great work. So I recommend you allow yourself to define success as getting a job in either an OEM or Auto supplier so you can increase the number of available jobs 4-5x. The same goes for not limiting yourself in terms of what types of vehicles you work on. You only want to work on Mustangs? Good luck getting that job. Are you game for all passenger cars? Are you game for commercial vehicles? Are you game to work on heavy machinery? Cranes and planes and giant cruise ships? Obviously you should stick with your interests, but acknowledge that if you scope yourself too narrowly, the number of jobs you'll qualify for will go down.


2. Do extremely well academically. You didn't mention where you are in your education right now (high school? college?), so I'm not sure how you're doing on this, but it goes without saying that your chances will go up as the reputation of your school's engineering department goes up and your grades go up. If you're not a mechanical engineer at MIT or CMU or Stanford or another legendary Mech E school, you're going to be competing against them, so you need to be at your absolute best 24/7/365 for REAL.


3. Start engineering on your own time, so you have something to show for your skills. If you want to get accepted into the big leagues, your degree isn't going to be enough. This point is so important that I'm going to type it out again. Your degree isn't going to be enough. The engineers who will be evaluating you build real products every single day. They want to hire someone who they know can build real products every single day as well. The best way to show them that you are that person is to start putting your engineering skills to work in your spare time, every single day. Have you built your first go-kart yet? How advanced is the tech on it? Have you designed and built a new suspension system for your bike? Are you best friends with your local "maker space" CEO and helping them create the largest stomping DIY hexapod known to mankind? If not, it's time to start that today. Right now.

Know that you can. Believe in your ability to work hard and keep on getting up when you fall. There are thousands of jobs you could qualify for, but you've got to beat the rest of the field to those jobs. And don't stop asking great questions so we can help further. Good luck.

Source: I have some experience working the automotive industry a few years back when I was in consulting, so although I was not an engineer I do feel comfortable sharing a little advice with you on this. If someone chimes in here with first-hand experience, I'm sure that will be even more valuable than what I can share.