Engineering Colleges: Colleges::Cricket: Sports in India
This corollary unfortunately is no longer a joke (apologies if you did not find it funny the first place). It is quite sad actually. To kids after their to their 12th and parents alike, nothing seems more glamorous than an engineering degree.
After the results of entrance exams are out. There would be discussions and opinions over the so called “Trending courses” such as biotechnology, mechnatronics, ECE, EEE and a few more… I wish if more and more students chose course over college. Many of them don’t have to sell out their dreams even before they give it a shot.
Parents ask their relatives who always have “That cousin who did that degree and is in a good job”- advice. They assume that it is the god-signed doctrine that anyone who completes that degree will get a similar career.
Three years into the degree, the hallowed season of placements begin. And what you see is a dog-eat-dog competition. It is a time when IT/computer students dread the most and are mighty upset with students from other streams. For the uninitiated this fear and hate might seem uncanny. How could two streams of engineering compete with each other for jobs? Aren’t the domains entirely different?
Welcome to India. We are like that only.
The fleecing market (IT industry) in India doesn’t think so. Their Human resources are so insipid that their criteria for selection goes like this “60% in every semester, no back logs”. What about knowledge you ask? They are hiring for “resources” an euphemism for labour. They are looking for lab rats on a wheel, presented as “hard workers”. They want someone who would scoot when said fetch and coin this quality as “adaptable and dynamic”.
Students from other stream directly eat into the living of IT students because of a certain corporate behavior. And there are two sides to it. So I suggest you read along for a few more minutes before you call me a high browed asshole.
One: Amount of work which is put into by the students of electronics, mechanics and other streams go into waste. So many hours of hard work, project, knowledge and enthusiasm for their stream is lost in the annals of IT when they switch careers before they even graduate. What is the point in having other streams of engineering if you channel all your students to a particular field of work?
Two: Students who genuinely liked their streams are forced not to continue or excel in their field. The only options left are degrees from IIT or a few reputed universities. Otherwise the only option left is a master’s degree from Universities abroad. Not everyone is as smart as to get into IIT nor as well heeled to go abroad.
So you are essentially killing an entire generation of genuinely enthusiastic engineers just because their interest lies outside IT.
Very few non-IT students who get into IT retain the enthusiasm to strive for longer periods in the industry. They turn towards MBA. A vision for a career in electrical engineer veers off its path by first getting into IT and then working as an investment banker. Is this trend really healthy?
High school(biology)->College(Electrical Engineering)->Work(IT-Infosys)->MBA(Finance-IIM)->Now investment banker(ICICI).
This is not a delusion of a schizophrenic lunatic in a straight jacket; it is the dream career path of an average Indian student.
Because
Dogma is the sacrifice of wisdom to consistency
Dhaneshspeaks 
The second last line sort of sounds like Chetan Bhagat’s career path :p
Ah… The engineering disease! The problem with engineering now is that many take it due to its “created reputation” and if anyone does want it seriously is also considered blind…. The problem is two sided actually when it comes to work. The non-ITs get into IT and ruin their career and ITs with not so “starstruck” marks are left out ’cause of the non ITs and then the notion(which is kind of true) that if no placements, then getting a job is like flying without wings!
after I was done reading this,the guy sitting next to me at work asked me why i was nodding so much
I agree with every single word written in this article
i graduated last year and its not even been a year since I saw this drama right before my eyes…..if we dream of becoming a super power,these are the basic issues that need to be sorted out first
I totally agree with you and when ever i read anything about the education(particularly engineering) all the anger inside me starts moving.It frustrates me to see students going like this.Even i might be going like this.
I don’t know why there is this sort of mindset in the students & the parents.
When i got into enginnering i wanted to be a MECHy but just because of this overhiped IT industry ended up in CSE.:(((
Now, if i want to go in a job which doesn’t require a IT degree but someother degree, i have to press hard on those jobs & pray for luck.
I have stopped making career decisions on the golden path and trying to create my own rugged path.
hmm…I can see there are so many out there just like me..They dream of something, they get into something else…and they end up doing something entirely different.
Well I never wanted to do anything but LAW. But as you said parents can’s see anything more glorious than IT,computers bla bla bla..and plus there is always some cousin or some known person’s son or daughter who already have a good job in IT and had proved that IT is BEST..We never even get chance to do something other than IT and prove that “This is also good”
May god bless everyone who took up their parents dreams as their own and are working on it…