Engineering career option FAQs-Guest post part 2

This is part 2 of the article on Engineering career options. Read part 1 here.

Engineering Career Options, part 2 of 2

5. What is your recommendation for those who aspires to own a business?
If you are aspiring to own a business, your choice of selection in engineering is straight forward. Select the branch which is closer to the area of your future business interest. In some cases, allied engineering fields [like Mechatronics] are better suited as it would deal with multi-disciplinary engineering areas giving you the much needed edge to run your business.

6. I am interested in doing engineering in the niche branches like Petroleum engineering. What is you view?
Pursuing engineering in specialized branche requires some careful study. You must be aware of the job opportunities and their location of operation. There are some very good job opportunities in these fields. As I have seen, job satisfaction is of the highest order. However, currently such jobs are available in very limited number. The work location could be also another aspect you may want to look at before deciding. By the time you would graduate, scenario might change slightly, but not drastically. While some of the colleges are offering such branches, they might not have invested in the right infrastructure. Expert panel may not be available as staff for these subjects. Consider these aspects critically before you firm up!

7. I’m interested in pursuing some serious higher studies after graduation. What do you recommend?
Do not get shocked with my view points. Before deciding further on this, ask yourself why do you want to go for higher studies? Unless you are strongly inclined to pursue a job in fundamental research organization, there is no much benefit you would derive from doing higher studies. In fact, you would lose 18 months to 24 months of professional life and may fall behind your peers. If you still wish to continue with higher studies, never ever consider colleges other than IITs and IISc for post graduation.

There is one advantage though in doing higher studies. You can easily switch job from Industry to academic with the masters’ degree qualification. It would be certainly useful when the industry gets hit and you decide to shift the gear.

8. What are your general tips to build a strong career?
The longevity in the professional cycle could be achieved by any one of the following 2 aspects.

• Deep domain knowledge or expert knowledge in a specific area / industry
• Ability to learn and adapt

So, as you select a specific engineering branch keep the above facts in your mind and keep working towards achieving that from Day-1 of your engineering.

The computer knowledge is of paramount importance while pursuing the engineering study. So, do not take engineering branch other than CS just because you hate computer science. Today almost all engineering branches deal with computer science, at least to some degree. Start loving it and use computers for every aspect. Keep your knowledge up-to-date.

Summary:
Graduating in core Engineering disciplines would provide multiple job opportunities. Also the there would be multiple streams of specialization to pursue higher studies.

Specialized engineering disciplines like [Aeronautical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Biomedical Engineering..] may provide excellent but limited job opportunities in very niche area. Also some of the fields are very promising as the governments spend / investment in the future is likely to support the rapid growth.

Computer science, Information Technology would continue to provide good job opportunities however highly susceptible to Industry scenario.

Green Engineering, Food and Healthcare Engineering, Petroleum Engineering may offer ever consistent job opportunities as these Industry fields are more immune to global slow-down.

Also the reality is that whatever the field a person wishes to continue, one can not succeed without computer knowledge.
-Vidhyabhushan Hande