It is a make or break time for Class 12 students and JEE aspirants. According to statistics, more than 14 lakh students appear for engineering exams every year. That means our country produces 10-12 lakhs engineers every year, but not everyone gets a decent placement or job or gets a job matching his or hers expectations. But why is this problem arising?

The cause is a lack of awareness among people about this profession. People don’t know what engineering is all about. If you ask or conduct a poll among engineering aspirants, 90 per cent of them will opt for it as a career, but when asked the reasons for choosing it, only a few would be able to give a satisfactory answer.

Ignorance is certainly not bliss when it comes to making a career choice. If we are unaware of what we are opting for as our career, then how can we be certain about our success? Only knowing about engineering will not get the job done. Engineering has many streams – Computer Science, Electronics and Communication, Mechanical, Textile and much more. We should know about each and every stream and then choose the appropriate one according to our interest and aptitude. Most of the students opt for either computer or electronics engineering as these two streams guarantee ample job opportunities and high packages. But are they even interested in these streams? Just because others are opting for it, they choose them as well. As a result of lop-sided choice, they end up becoming engineers sans knowledge.

Our problems arise from this point. Armed with an engineering degree, he/she will neither accept jobs which are not up to one’s expectations nor sit at home. They decide to go for higher studies.

In a recent interview, our Human Resources Development minister spoke about the deteriorating quality of engineers – only two per cent of total engineers produced by our technical institutes are employable. One should have ample knowledge about the profession before choosing it. They should also know enough about the stream and then choose it.

I would advise JEE aspirants to choose engineering as a career only if they are seriously interested in pursuing it and choose streams only after properly researching about it. Use the internet and gather as much information as you possibly can. Consult your elders. Go for career counsellings. This will help you make your future better, rewarding and interesting. The chances of success will be higher. The quality of engineers produced by our prestigious institutes will also improve.

All the best!

This article is part of PaGaLGuY’s innovative internship certification programme for engineering students. Currently, two such programmes are on – one is an Internship in Creative Writing, and the other is a Certification in Digital Media. If you are interested in partaking and bagging a certificate, besides learning the nuances of effective writing, write to us [email protected]