To B.E or not to B.E
When the pesky uncle comes home, “Hello beta! What are you going to do further?” “Um, well I haven’t really thought about it yet, may be I want to be a fashion designer.” He stares at you from top to bottom and says, “Woh toh hobby hai beta!“
Nobody says he or she wants to be an engineer when he or she is young. We barely know what Engineering means. But what happens when we grow up? Reality hits us, that’s for sure. But very few people amongst us pursue the career of their choices. Very rarely do we listen to our inner calling. The insanely competitive world gives us less time to breathe and lesser time to think. It’s like a protocol or something. Great marks – Medicine. Not so great marks – Engineering.
When I grew up I always wanted to be different..hatke. But I ended up in Engineering like the 24 lakh odd Indians (Wow, that’s a lot of Engineers!). Should we say Engineering has lost its charm? How many of us really dreamt of becoming an Engineer when we were young? Have you really thought about the future? How crazy it is going to be? In every odd place an Engineering college pops up. They will always have students. But teachers? Qualified teachers? Let us see, in a class, the bright ones (and who can afford) go abroad for masters. The bright ones but not so rich ones, take up a job (job of their choice you ask? That’s a totally different topic). The others who can’t go for the former or the latter, plan to do their masters in one of the 1500 odd engineering colleges that just popped up and end up as professors! This is just a vicious cycle. No wonder the quality of engineering has hit the rock bottom.
We get into Engineering just because our cousins, neighbors, and seniors did and they have a good life. But are they happy? Something you probably have never asked them. It all boils down to how we feel and how happy we are, doing what we are doing. Many other career options like DJ-ing, modeling, cooking, fashion designing etc. are definitely becoming popular and gaining respect. But there are still people who raise their eyebrows. And those “people” make up 3/4th of India.
With jobs really scarce (understatement of the millennium!) for engineers, most of the non IT engineers also end up in an IT company and others settle for a job which is lesser than their technical qualification. Some engineers who come from a poor family background and haven’t found jobs yet even resort to petty crimes for sake of survival.
So is it too late now? I am already in Engineering/Graduated. It’s not late. Carpe Diem. Just live your life. Soak it in and maybe eventually you might end up liking a specific field of Engineering. And for those who already hate it, look for other options. There are a plenty of offbeat career courses. And don’t worry about your engineering fees going waste. It might help you sometime down the lane, like calligraphy helped Steve Jobs :). So don’t stick to an option just because it’s the least risky one and people around you are doing it. The world will say ‘NO’ to you in a million ways but just go ahead and silence them!
About author – Anusha Murthy, herself, is a recent Engineering graduate from Sri Sairam Engineering College, Anna University and on the path of discovering her inner calling.
Image credit: – http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kbgi7BR_FE0/TXtK2_u1daI/AAAAAAAAAF8/nhOW1t7ufns/s400/Confused_Cartoon_604x600.jpg
