Academic | Career | Informative |

What next after Engineering? (#1)

5 minutes

What should I be doing next? M.Tech? OR MBA? OR MS? OR a job? This question is haunting every engineer since times immemorial. You must have asked yourself this question a lot of times. Even if you have decided on something, it is good to explore the other options lying in front of you. It’s a truth never discussed or told. We prefer keeping silent and let things happen only to cry later about the mistakes we made.

In India you are not judged by what you have studied but what you do after you complete your education. The society is more concerned about the job and pay you get after education and not the intellectual property you have earned. Before exploring the options, you should remember that nothing is permanent and you can shift careers at any point of life. Don’t yield to hypocrisies of society but follow your heart.
There is a myriad of options available for engineers to choose from. But what works most efficiently is careful evaluation of your interests and your strengths. First let me list out all the available options and then discuss each of them separately clearing common doubts to exploring unknown territories.
We can broadly divide them into:
  • Going for Higher Studies (M.tech, MBA and some professional diplomas)
  • Job in public sector (IAS, IPS, IES, SSC etc.)
  • Private Sector/Corporate Jobs (Software, Core Engineering, Banks)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Creative Fields (Photography, Writing etc.)
I’ll get started from not so obvious options and continue to go in detail about everything available.
  1. Creative Fields
Remember Farhan from 3 Idiots whenever you want to go against the current and pursue your passion in creative fields. In India we don’t get any encouragement if we want to go creative especially after engineering. It can be anything ranging from photography, painting, performing arts, writing or fitness.  If you love writing-be a writer; love capturing nature and wildlife-explore your options in photography; love speaking and talking to people-be a Radio Jockey; always found your legs move with the music-be a dancer! Learn it by doing and be so good that they can’t reject you. Don’t restrain yourself to conventional jobs by succumbing to pressure of your parents or anyone.
I personally find the TVF team a live example for going unconventional and proving everyone wrong, when you have time read their story and get inspired.
  1. Entrepreneurship
As fancy as it may seem, establishing your own company is not an easy task. Startup is trending more as a fashion then a career option. Being your own boss does not mean you can ignore work and life would be easy. There are ups and downs every day. Maybe you would not get any client for the whole year. Be ready for the challenges and immense learning if you are determined to be an entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur doesn’t always mean that you should reap profits, establishing a non-profit organization is a greater challenge. You can help people and pursue your dream at the same time.  
There is no short of inspiration and means if you want to start on your own. Rather than a complex material I recommend “How I Braved Anu Aunty and Co-Founded a Million Dollar Company” by Varun Agarwal. Be ready for the challenges it poses as this is the road less traveled.
  1. Job in Public Sector
Are you always fascinated by bureaucracy and wanted to be a part of it? There are a lot of exams conducted by UPPC and State Govts which allows you to achieve your dream.  Yes, civil services is everyone’s dream and also toughest exam in the world but if you have determination and right strategy cracking it is quite easy. If you want a basic idea Roman Saini’s videos in Youtube is a very good start.
If you want a job in public sector but remain in core engineering field going for IES is almost equivalent to IAS. Other than that many PSU’s offers job through GATE score. You can also watch out Employment news for any latest notifications for jobs in Railways or any other govt. organization.


As this is an exhaustive list of all available opportunities discussing it in a single post will bore you to death. So, I’ll stop for now and explore some other options in my next post.

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About the Author:
An engineer by qualification and voracious reader, Vamshi Krishna wants to make an impact on our education system by bringing positive change in the students. He is technology savvy and also interested in human psychology. Through Your DOST he wants to make his opinion count.

Vamshi Krishna

An engineer by qualification and voracious reader, Vamshi Krishna wants to make an impact on our education system by bringing positive change in the students. He is technology savvy and also interested in human psychology. Through Your DOST he wants to make his opinion count.

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