Why our obsession with engineering as a career must end?
Sample the following news:
· 800 engineering colleges have recently been closed down for lack of admissions and poor quality
· A McKinsey study estimated that only about 25% of Indian engineers are employable
· Studies indicated that less than 6% of the mechanical engineers end up doing anything with mechanical engineering
There is something deeply wrong with our society’s curious obsession with the engineering profession.
Each year, we see full-page ads by numerous coaching agencies, proclaiming most engineering toppers as their own. The coaching for engineering entrance exams sometimes begin as early as class VI, with relentless teaching of physics, chemistry and mathematics at the expense of social science and language subjects.
Given that many engineering colleges are unable to place their students and hence unable to garner enough admissions – why is our society still so obsessed with this career?
To get the answer, we have to go back a few decades, to the days of license-quota raj.
In the 1970s, when the economy stagnated, there were only a few jobs.
With India’s socialist focus on building state-owned factories, engineering was one profession which guaranteed a job.
Those days there were scant opportunities for languages or humanities graduates.
However, after economic liberalization, the situation changed radically.
Many new companies, particularly in the service industry, set shop. Private companies offered unprecedented opportunities for jobs and career growth.
Suddenly, one could become a journalist in one of the numerous media outfits, a banker in one of the new banks, a telecom professional in the sunrise industry of mobile telephony or a software professional in the booming IT industry.
None of these career options require you to study engineering. Contrary to popular belief, IT companies do not only hire from engineering campuses. Even when they do go to engineering colleges, they test for aptitude, logical reasoning skills and articulation.
But the minds of the parents, who double up as career counselors for our children, have remained stuck in the 1970s.
There is still the mistaken belief that engineering is the only profession that guarantees a job.
The statement is wrong on two counts: one, engineering does not guarantee a job – as the placement records of many engineering colleges will tell you. Two, there are many, many more job outside the engineering profession which are open to normal graduates and postgraduates.
Because of this obsession, many students are pushed towards careers they do not want to pursue.