⚙️ Post 12th Grade: The Indian Engineering Scenario

Monday. March 08, 2021 - 3 mins

The Indian engineering scene is weird. A lot of teens are forced into this line by peer and parental pressure. You may even have chosen it because you felt “this was it”. That was probably due to lack of perspective [ More on this later ]. You enter a typical engineering college and see people frantically working towards makeshift end goals that bring no joy to them in the long run. It is the assignments and the tests and that project your teacher once suggested. The cramming of formulae that are not even used to solve a mathematical question but rather to be put in your paper for that guaranteed 1 mark. The Viva where you duel with your enemy i.e the professor you foulmouthed in class or bunked their lecture in front of them a couple of times. Don’t get me wrong, if This is for you who am I to judge? However, for most students there are better careers in finance, marketing, advertising, accounting, video production, photography, music and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

So you got in an engineering college, what do you do now? Do you try to break free from the paradigm or do you fit in?

Let’s get this straight. You are studying for a higher education degree because you want to learn. Your course will probably give you some sort of exposure regarding the stream you are in. That, in life, is not enough. You need to get the most out of the time you have. Learn life skills. Learning how to communicate with your peers and managing your time are some of the key lessons you learn in the initial years as a college student. Managing money, getting into fitness, learning how to cook are some skills that will drastically improve your overall life.

Interact with people. More experiences will add to your perspective on things which will help form your judgements. Talk to your professors, your juniors, your seniors, that one person that was in the startup that failed or the guy that was in the newspaper for his project. Increasing your perspective is important to your growth.

If you don’t know something, ask about it. If you don’t know you like it, try it. College is all about new experiences and getting to know yourself better. Internships will form your career experience. Intern with core as well as non-core companies [Core are those in your stream, non-core are the others].

Think about ways to solve problems. Form ideas about startups and pitch them amongst a select group of friends that share your ideals. Pick an idea and work on it for 4-6 months. If it doesn’t seem fun or promising then switch ideas. Failure will build you up more than success ever will. Understand it this way, if you have a 1% chance of success that means you are at most going to fail 99 times. This does not means that you will achieve success after 99 tries or that you need to fail 99 times to be successful. Each trial will make the next one easier.

Studying for some exams might end up being memorisation of boring jargon. Do it. Better to pass an exam for a course you don’t like than to give that exam again. In the long run your “KT” won’t really matter much but the toll it takes on your brain will.

Do not follow the herd. The first year would feel pretty chill. By the second year half of your class has some sort of certification and you are running around figuring out what to do. The third year comes and everyone is working towards their career post college. People are taking GRE, GMAT or CAT classes. It is a mess. You need to create your own roadmap. Do it. Make your plan, pivot as you learn and live your life out!

Note: Please make your own judgements regarding your career and otherwise