How to Get an Injection Molding Job

Welcome to Thomas Insights — every day, we publish the latest news and analysis to keep our readers up to date on what's happening in industry. Sign up here to get the day's top stories delivered straight to your inbox.

"There's a lot of opportunity in the injection molding world," says Kyra Stawson, a technical sales engineer at Xometry, a business that provides manufacturing on-demand through its network of more than 5,000 suppliers.

Injection molding has existed since 1872, making it a tried and true profession. And yet it's a manufacturing process that's still innovating to incorporate the latest technologies.

For the uninitiated, injection molding is essentially a manufacturing method for engineering plastics. Molten plastic gets injected into a mold tool and, once it's become a solidified part, it's then ejected from the mold.

The growing field is so diverse that opportunities abound for jobseekers no matter your level of experience, skill set, and interest. This is also good news for manufacturers who have had difficulties filling jobs due to the skills gap, since expertise in injection molding can oftentimes be learned on the factory floor instead of requiring specialized degrees. Jobs in the field include machine operators, molding line operators, fabricators, and technicians, among others.

Stawson, who earned a degree in plastics engineering from Penn State Behrend, shares what job seekers considering a career in injection molding should know and provides tips for how to continue growing your career.

Kyra Stawson (KS): When I first started school there were only four colleges that were ABET-accredited to have the Plastics Engineering Technology program. By the time I graduated, just four years later, there were already six schools that had that ABET-credited program. It is a rapidly growing industry.

KS: How to land a job in this field is to really dive into those STEM programs — science, technology, engineering, mathematics. That gives you a good background.

I don't think it's required to have a degree in engineering. It depends on what position you are going for. I'm very grateful I get to use what I learned in school daily here at Xometry, but I don't think it's absolutely required. There were people that I worked with previously who didn't have a degree and I still learned things from them that I didn't learn in school. I think that hands-on experience goes a very long way.

KS: By the time I graduated with my undergrad degree, I had done five working internships. That experience was almost more valuable than my degree. My degree is very useful, and I'm grateful for it, but I do think that there's a lot of opportunity to get actual hands-on experience.

KS: As we all know, technology is growing day in and day out, and there are always new things to learn. I have personally about 10 years of experience, and I'm still learning something new every day. It's definitely a rapidly growing industry.

KS: I personally attend all the trade shows or any training I can. There are a lot of resources out there where you can learn a lot about this industry.

KS: Most of the people now that you see in the field have a background in mechanical engineering. But with injection molding, specifically, there are three different areas you can go into: You can go into materials or material sciences, developing the actual plastic material. You can go into manufacturing, where you're working on the floor — you're actually working with the equipment to produce and process the injection molded parts. Or you can go into design — designing the parts and/or designing the mold.

KS: Injection molded parts are truly all around us. Every 30 minutes, I'm working on a different project anywhere from aerospace and defense to your consumables. Within arm's reach, on average, I could probably touch at least 12 injection molded items. It is just fascinating how present the process is, yet not everyone knows about it.

Image Credit: yohaken surasak / Shutterstock.com