There is a specialized branch offered at one of the prestigious IITs in India – called Ceramic Engineering. I understand that these kinds of specialized branches have limited seats, and are not very common. Other types of similar branches are Textile engineering, Petroleum engineering, mining, etc.
Interestingly, these branches have limited seats and more interestingly, these streams have very limited job opportunities. Yet, students opt for these branches. The reason: majority of them are not interested in the branch studies, but they are more keen on getting the tag name of reputed institutes with them.
How many textile engineering students from IIT take up a job at a textile firm or go for a Masters course in textile engineering? How many Ceramic engineering students take up job at ceramic industry and get into designing crockery or mosaic tiles? Ever heard of any ceramic company visiting IIT campus to hire ceramic engineering students?
Does it mean that the quality of students passing from IIT ceramic engineering branch are not upto the level of other branch IIT’ians? Definitely not.
So where do these students end up? They take up software jobs.
So many comments have been left by different readers on my blog, saying that they don’t believe that India’s growth is only fuelled by software professionals and their salaries. Other sectors like Banking, Retail, Oil and Gas, Telecom, etc. have contributed equally to the growth of this country. May be true, but how many of these high caliber professionals, passing out from reputed institutes in India land up in these sectors??
Ultimately it all boils down to money.
Sometimes back we were discussing one thing in a group of friends: Why do people from any and all backgrounds come to IT industry? Why they do not go to other sectors if the other sectors are also fuelling growth?
Someone said: I feel comfortable to work on a computer and that is my skill set which I utilize to the maximum.
Another one said: It is easy to talk to overseas clients on the phone instead of facing the Indian customers.
Interestingly, the second one had switched the job from a retail store where he was working as a inventory management assistant. Today he was proud to tell that he finds it easier to talk to overseas clients.
A friend of mine was previously working for a top Indian IT company (one of the big 3). Unfortunately (for him), he was assigned to a banking project which had a client who was an Indian Bank. He was supposed to train the government bank officers on using the product that he delivered. His experiences are amazing: “The bank officers slept while I was giving them a demo on how to use the product”. That was the reason he switched the job – not happy to serve the Indian customers – Corporates or Individuals.
Who is at fault – the trainee officers or my friends – I don’t know.
But one thing is sure – We Indians are not willing to work for Indian customers. You will find people willing to switch the jobs from other industries to the IT sector, but hardly anyone from IT sector will ever join other industries.
The reason – It again boils down to money. The billing that happens in US dollars or Great British Pounds or Euros give them more salary compared to their counterparts working for Indian customer oriented companies. A successful release of a product or project ensure either some good bonus, or atleast a five star party or outing at company’s expense, so-called MNC corporate culture with only 8 hours of work (extending into flexible working hours) 5 days a week, a A/C cubicle and loads of other freebies like Medical insurance, etc.
Is the same available to all other industry sectors? Ever heard of an individual working on flexible hours for any Indian customer oriented company – 5 days a week? A person may work as a store manager at big mall like Westside, Reliance stores, Big Bazar, Lifestyle, Shopper’s stop, etc. – may be he draws a good package of around 6 lakhs per annum, but is his life as easy as compared to that of an IT pro?
Anyone working as a call center executive at any mobile company is willing to switch the job as soon as he gets an offer from a so-called MNC.
Ever heard a free credit card being offered to a person working in Reliance Fresh? Or an Insurance agent chasing a Shoppers stop floor manager for offering insurance policy or tax savings? Any automobile manager getting calls for free credit cards? Does it mean that these people are not worth the claims of fuelling the Indian growth story?
A young relative of mine recently took admission in Automobile engineering in a college in Maharashtra. Unfortunately, he could not secure a free seat in the engineering entrance exam, so he paid a lot of money to secure this seat in the private engineering college. Before taking admission, he called me one day to ask if he should take this seat. Instead of I telling him anything, he convinced me that “An engineering degree will help him atleast secure a software job”.
4-years is a long time to study – I wish things remain good during these 4 years, markets remain good and his dreams should be realized.
Continue to Part II of this article
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