The Misplaced Engineer

Prachie
on 10 May, 2013

India, undoubtedly, generates the largest number of engineers throughout the world with approximately 14.86 lakhs seats available at 3,963 Engineering colleges. Every year, this number keeps increasing as Engineering continues to be a popular vocation for middle-class India.

Let’s dismantle this scenario piece by piece and burst myths that are prevalent amongst the populace.

Studies suggest that at least 70% of these Engineers are unemployable for various reasons:

1. Inefficient Proficiency

They lack basic Mathematics skills and face trouble when asked simple logic based-questions. They have a weak understanding for fundamental concepts like ratio, decimals, fractions etc. Read Article

2. Poor Communication and Comprehension Skills

Employers look for candidates with a pleasing personality that show a promise of leadership, presentation and negotiation skills apart from strong fundamental knowledge of basics, who can communicate effectively in English. Unfortunately, a recent study showcased that the reading and comprehension skills are comparable to a 7^th standard CBSE student. Read Article

3. Weak Core Skills

Despite of 4 years of formal training in the subjects relevant to the field, most engineers are not suited for direct recruitment. Techy giants like Infosys, L&T, and TCS etc. have a dedicated training for 4-6 months to make their employees field-ready. Not every company is ready to invest so much in the re-education of their employees.

Why do Engineering graduates face this problem?

At a tender age of 17, making life changing decisions about your careers can be a daunting task. So, most of the students go with the flow and do what their parents say or what their friends are doing without giving much thought to it. Cracking engineering entrances demands perseverance. In the bid to make it to the merit list, most students fail to introspect and feel satisfied with a sense of achievement. Engineering Entrance Tests like AIEEE (Okay, JEE Main and Advanced now) and CET at state level test individual in their knowledge of elementary Mathematics and Science but NOT for their aptitude.

At College, students again get embroiled in the struggle for marks with or without the aid of their professors. Most colleges are ill-equipped to teach the constantly evolving curriculum to the students. Professors fail to engage students in an intellectually stimulating atmosphere and students scramble for motivation. Most end up resorting to rote learning which gets them through each semester without building a strong foundation of concepts.

These bi-annual semester exams are subjective and test students on their memory retaining skills and hardly exercise their problem solving or application skills. Instead of assessing students on the basis of skills developed over a continuous period of time, they are tested only twice a year over concepts that they barely understand.

Most Engineers from fields other than IT and Computers tend to get employed in IT firms. The technical knowledge that they were trained for is completely different from the company requirements and therefore they start from scratch.

What do unemployed Engineers do?

Most Engineers start feeling a sense of displacement mid-way through their formal education and begin hunting for alternatives to make them more viable for the job market. A large number of students opt for further studies and add to their skill set by pursuing a MBA or a MS abroad.

Pursuing your Master’s involves thorough research and pre-planning. Apart from the heavy investment involved, getting admits to esteemed universities is intensive as students compete with applications from around the world. An education in another country exposes students to competition of another level, gives them the opportunity to study subjects that they like and also, a window to lucrative job offers. However, not everyone is keen on coursing along the Technical path as it doesn’t meet their aspirations.

Here, MBA comes shining through clouds of doubt. 70-80% of students appearing and cracking various MBA entrance exams across the country belong to Engineering. The mandatory Quants section gives the Engineering graduates an edge over the rest of the candidates. The catch is that students compete not only with fellow Engineering graduates but also students and working professionals from other fields from all across the country. The pool of competitors is wider and thus, all the more cut throat. Two years of an intensive course like MBA moulds individuals into more well-rounded personalities. It opens gates to unknown avenues but it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. Then, there are a few who don’t study ahead and give voice to their entrepreneurial dreams or completely shift careers.

These Misplaced Engineers can be spotted everywhere if you know where to look. Event management companies, college staffrooms, advertising, television, films, catering, app developers, free lancing coding groups, music, management, magazines, publishing houses, photo studios, finance, design studios, fashion ramps, etc. they are infiltrating ranks everywhere. Interviewers often feel Engineers are over-qualified and are sceptical to employ them but none the wiser. A small percentage of these Misplaced Engineers are responsible for the spurt in number of start-ups and social NGOs.

What gives The Misplaced Engineer an edge?

They bring a fresh perspective to the table and force you to believe that formal training in a subject does not count as long as you have the aptitude for it. The rigorous engineering curriculum moulds students to think in a particular way. When presented with a problem, they instinctively think of solutions by breaking down the problem into pieces. They can cut through the jargon involved and present clients, seniors and colleagues with viable solutions. Four years of technical education ensures that students have a practical and technical perspective very naturally. This gives The Misplaced Engineer an edge over the rest. Engineers are flexible and ready to take on new challenges as curiosity is also, an inherited property that most of them possess. Scientists dream about things, Engineers make it happen. They are the Doers that keep the cogs spinning.

It is safe to conclude that Engineers (misplaced or not) are like sailors who can find their way to the coastline even if they are left in the middle of the ocean without a map. They tend to do well eventually. If you still cannot place the realities of Engineering students into your angle of perspective, spare a few hours a watch this movie, 3 Idiots (of course it is fiction and Bollywood so you can expect melodrama, song and dance sequences and unbelievable climaxes but Rajkumar Hirani touches the nerve somewhere. If nothing, you’ll have a few good laughs).

All is well. All is well.

References (We would love to call it an Eye-Opener):

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