Are Engineers Choosing Unconventional Paths to Advance their Career?

Engineers’ fundamental skills like that of problem solving, logical thinking and strong numeracy are not just restricted to their respective field and hence are desirable in various other sectors like banking, IT, finance, management to name a few. With almost 90% of the engineers stepping into alternate fields after having completed their graduation leaves us pondering upon the different areas being chosen by engineering graduates to advance their career.

Undoubtedly, Engineering is one of the most lucrative and widely chosen career options in India and every year, lakhs of candidates appear for the national level engineering entrance exam and this number is increasing to manifold. This is quite evident from the fact that more than 10 lakh students appeared for JEE Main this year and if similar trend is followed, this number is certainly going to soar up for JEE Main 2019. But, after pursuing B.Tech, candidates are either not interested or are unable to secure a job in the core technical areas and opt for different career paths ahead. Let us have a look at some of those mentioned below.

Marketing and sales: Many engineers step into this field and with their good presentation and communication skills and make a satisfying career for themselves. For a particular time, they work in this field to get a good hold and some also pursue MBA to have an edge in this field. This field provides a pool of huge available opportunities and all it requires is a manipulative mind and set of powerful words.

Civil Services: Popularly known as Indian Administrative services that plays a vital role in the government and all public sectors. IAS is one of the three services provided by the Union Public Service Commission including IPS and IFS. It is quite difficult to get into this sector as you have to go through series of exams and interview but with a strong determination you can crack it.

Start-up: Start-ups are widely in trend these days. A person with a creative bent of mind and interest may choose to start something of his/her own. There are many examples of start-up that have been proven to be successful with a short span of time and are growing day by day till date. Also, start-ups help in creating job opportunities and provide a living to people.

Teacher or Lecturer: After completing Engineering, most of the people also choose to advance their career as a teacher or lecturer. They further go for higher studies like M. Tech and Ph.D. and become a master of their field. After having a good hand in this field, they take up teaching as a career option. It is a noble profession with good salary and an ample amount of respect. They start their career with private institutions but aim for being a government teacher or lecturer. With their teaching career, they can also opt for studying more and deeper and start publishing their research papers and technical papers and can win appreciation for their amazing piece of work.

Social Worker: Being a social worker gives you an opportunity of adding values to someone’s life. Not everyone goes for a social field but those who do they get intense satisfaction from the work they do. Also, social field does not pay much but a sufficient amount can be earned with the amount of work and energy you put in. While working in this field, you get to learn many file skills and help you make better as a human being and is an add-on to your personality.

Reasons for choosing unconventional career options
After having knowledge about the different career options engineers choose, one must also be aware of the reasons for same. Some of these include lack of practical exposure in their branch of engineering, not being well-trained, something about which they do not have sufficient knowledge, less of interest and others such. But they do it for the sake of employment and an urge to get a job.

Engineering has become a havoc that everyone is aware of but still wants to experience it. A huge population of engineers remains jobless for a longer period of time also they do not get an alternative job because of their unsuitable and not well-trained personality.

So, after spending 4 intense and long years in engineering and still not finding a job, many candidates resort to either join a family business or settle for a very low paying job. A few gather up the courage and go for something they want. Some pursue their dreams while others make up a good career in other unconventional sectors mentioned above.