In manufacturing industries that require precision engineering, such as automotive assembly plants (Proton), solar panel production plants (First Solar), semiconductor plants (Intel), milling plants (Perwaja Steel), pharmaceutical plants (UPHA-CCM), canned food processing plants (F&N), and Oil & Gas refineries (PETRONAS), they all apply automation and industrial robots. Mechatronic engineers are also hired to handle the process control in wastewater treatment plants as well as factories that require air scrubbing systems.
Unless the mechanical engineer knows how to operate a variety of programmable logic controllers (PLC) such as ABB, Allen-Bradley, GE, Mitsubishi, Omron, Rockwell, and Siemens, if you apply to work in the automation department which is relevant to your field of study, you should be competitive. Generally, mechatronic engineers are to trained to work in industrial control areas that are commonly associated with instrumentation (sensors), actuation (motors and valves), and control systems.

However, a mechatronic engineer usually cannot compete with the mechanical engineer in Industrial Tribology and Materials Science.