Career options for engineering students
Wondering about career options incase you missed college placements
Few questions which I have come across while working with engineering freshers and students:
How do I get a job if my college has a very poor placement record
What career options are available aside from generic roles like software, sales, Core jobs (Electrical, Mechanical, etc.)?
Should I opt for higher studies or prepare for govt. job
What courses should I get certified to start my career
Engineering is the most popular graduation degree among Indian students and with the rise in startup culture, over the last few years a large avenue of career has opened up for graduates.
Lack of career option understanding among graduates leads to a lower understanding of available career options, engineering students are from in a well with a large set of career available, which students only realize after graduating, highlighting the key importance of Career Assessment (by FuTech Edu). Career Assessment/Counselling helps students identify the right career for them
Best career options available for Engineering students:
1. Higher Studies: Based on your interests be it Technical or Management there are various courses which you can pursue after engineering for higher studies
Technical —
M.Tech (Master of Technology): It is one of the most popular course after engineering which enhances your engineering skills and GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) is the most popular exam. GATE score is accepted by all leading institutes (IIT/NITs) and PSU’s (Public Sector Undertaking)
M.SC (Master of Science): M.Sc is a research-focused course where higher importance is given to research and thesis. M.Sc focus is on doing original work in a specific area. Indian engineering graduates often opt for M.SC in a foreign university in USA, Canada, UK etc.
International: GRE for the technical test along with TOEFL or IELTS for English skill assessment depending on the college or country you are applying
India: IIT JAM is the most popular M.Sc course in India, Leading colleges conducts their test (List of M.Sc Test by CollegeDunia) for MSC Admission
Note: M.Tech(~2 yrs) and M.Sc (2–3 yrs) are equivalent programs (M.Tech more popular in India, M.Sc more popular in foreign universities), M.Tech is more focused on course-based technical learning with a higher focus on courses than projects (Similar to B.Tech), M.Sc is a research-based program with high focus on thesis encouraging original research.
Management (MBA) —
Pursuing an MBA after BE/BTech is a very popular trend among engineering graduates, as MBA provides a perfect management learning opportunity along with better pay, managerial position, and business thinking. CAT in India is the most popular test for MBA to get admission to IIMs and other leading Colleges in India.
GRE/GMAT along with TOEFL and IELTS exam is required for pursuing MBA or M.Sc in Business in Foreign university
2. Get Certified in an Emerging Technology: Skilling in job oriented course will improve the chances of getting job for engineering freshers
While discussing with Engineering freshers, who were actively looking for a job after graduation, We identified a common trend among them:
Didn’t get placed in college → Move to Bangalore/ Other Metro City (IT Hub) → start applying for job → Get certified in a course (Advised by Peers/College seniors/Self research) → Apply for job
Engineering freshers should get skilled in a job-oriented course in emerging technology with growing demand among recruiters. Skilling in these job oriented courses will allow students to start their career in fields with high growth potential, pay scale, and satisfaction, after all, not all engineers are meant to be stuck with IT support role in big IT companies
Currently, there are a lot of online and offline options available that can be used to upskilling i.e UpGrad, SimpliLearn, Unacademy, FuTech Edu, Coursera, EDX, Etc. Students should select a course based on their career interests.
Finding the right career path for you:
- Guidance from peers or college seniors: This is the easiest way to get career advice, but it fails to give a correct career perspective as peers and college seniors often themselves lack the understanding of available career options
- Get Career Counselling: Career counselling will help you understand the best-suited career based on multiple factors like interests, ability, orientation, personality, behavior, etc. You can easily avail free career assessment here (By FuTech Edu) or book counselling sessions with career experts
Top Emerging Technical Courses:
Data Science/Machine Learning: In this new data age, we are generating more data than we can process, this is a perfect time to get skilled in data science as this will open vast opportunities in this sector.
What to expect: You will learn to churn large set of data, using languages like Python, R, etc. and extract useful insights for companies. Data Visualization, Big Data, NLP, ML (Machine Learning), etc. are key topics which are usually covered in this course
Freshers roles that use Data Science: Data Analyst, Business Analyst, Product Analyst, Data Scientist/Engineer, ML Engineer, Decision Scientist, Business Associate, Etc.
Blockchain Technology: Blockchain is the use of decentralized distribution technology which is secure and avoids fraud. Blockchain is an upcoming technology gaining traction across various industries like Payments, Supply Chain, Fashion, etc.
What to expect: You will learn to build your own blockchain with an understanding of the ecosystem, blockchain mining, Security, etc.
Freshers' roles that use blockchain: blockchain.ain developer, blockchain analyst, etc.
Full Stack Software Developer: With the rising need for technology across sectors almost all companies rely on software engineers to build amazing products and with increasing competition among candidates full-stack developers tend to stand apart due to their ability to work frontend and backend
What to expect: For software engineering students this course should take 3–4 months + self training and project competition. For students of other branches with nil to limited programing experience, this course could take 7–8 months
Freshers role that uses Full Stack: Software Developers/Engineers, Web Developer, Full Stack Developers, React/JS developer etc.
Note: Selecting any career should be based on interests and desire as “ If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life — Marc Anthony ”
3. Entrepreneurship: Indian engineers have established many known startpups, resulting a rise in incubation centers across well known universities, and with rise in startup culture students are more than willing to start their own venture, rather than opt for comfortable corporate role
“I strongly believe all students should have a startup during college. Doesn’t matter if successful or how big or small. Worst case scenario it will make them 10x better employee than someone with no exposure to how a business works” — Kunal Shah (Freecharge, Cred- Founder)
Entrepreneurship should be ventured by students based on their interests and passion to solve an existing issue.
The typical process followed by entrepreneurs:
- Identify an existing issue which you want to solve based on your passion
- Research on the solution and issue using secondary sources also if possible talk to people who are working in this field to get a better understanding of the issue, this will help you devise a better solution
- Identify your right partner based on their capability and your requirement
- Research on existing players and market potential, this will give you an idea of the scope of the problem you are solving
- Register your company in MCA (This step can be taken at later stages also as company registration comes with a lot of compliance)
- Once you have started working on the prototype or have MVP (Minimal Viable Product), you can apply to various university incubation they will help you nurture, provide mentorship and help grow your startup
Note: Budding entrepreneurs need support from mentors, mentors can be found through personal contacts, incubators etc. FuTech Edu has a large set of mentors and you can contact them here (Futech Edu), they typically take 24hrs to identify the right mentor for you
Please do note that life ahead of engineering is long with many ups and downs, just placement results will not define your career, Continuous learning, growing, and dedication are key elements of success
About the Author:
Sumit Kumar graduated in 2015 and have since then worked with leading companies across technical and management roles, eventually leading to founding FuTech Edu with the aim to create an ecosystem in colleges which enables students to gain an understanding of career options available and provide them with the best insights which will help them get the job they truly desire.
He loves helping students and can be reached out at sumit@futechedu.com to get career and placement advice
