Engineering Beyond the IITs

"In this world, an ordinary life has become synonymous with a meaningless life."                        
 - Brene Brown, author of ‘The Gifts of Imperfection'.  

If you are doing engineering or you are preparing for the engineering entrance exams, you must have heard the common abbreviation PCM i.e. Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. PCM is the only thing in engineering which proves you can be a good engineer. And if you don't know even one of them, all you can do is go to any of the average colleges and prove yourself again and again all because you didn't get admission at the so called ‘BEST COLLEGES'. I never understand what a ‘Best College' is. Is that college the best which gives the highest pay packages to its students by calling the biggest MNC's for placement, or that one which has the best faculty or the one with the largest campus? Ask yourself and ask the people around you. You will not be surprised by the answers as among all the names you'll get to hear, the IITs, NITs, BITS and DTU would be the most prominent among them.   Actually, it's a vicious circle. The big companies have a perception that the graduates from mostly the top colleges are suitable for recruitment. That's why a student who gets admitted to one of them is termed as a good engineer by our society. This perception has a reason too. Your parents tell you to stop living and just study the moment you opt for science and enter into XI standard. That's because marks and grades are the only valid proof of intelligence in our country. Passions and hobbies are only respected when you become a millionaire or a celebrity pursuing them. There's a RACE to get

to the top engineering colleges. And some of the students in this race are not even participating by their own interest. They are just fulfilling their PARENTS' CHOICE or succumbing to the PEER PRESSURE of being in the top notch colleges and ignoring what they love to do. At the end of the ‘Race', many potential engineers fail to get into any of the good, old, famous colleges and regret ignoring their passion. Most of them start thinking that since they are not in a very good college, so no matter if they study or not they are bound to get an ordinary job. Finally, they stop taking studies seriously and that becomes visible in their performance. One wrong decision makes them lag behind the other students and then after four years, they are left jobless in the crowd of engineers. Hence, they themselves prove true, the perception of the big companies ignoring their own lack of self confidence and effort.   This perception of the corporate world can be proved wrong to some extent, if all the students start taking their interest areas seriously and start participating in the extracurricular activities related to their interest. Then only, there will be a day when this perception of the corporate world would change and all the good students, be it from the IITs or any other ‘not so famous' engineering colleges will get the best jobs and prove their talent on the national as well as international front. To sum up, all you need to know is that engineering is all about skills, ideas and most importantly technical aptitude, and NOT about the college in which you are studying. All the colleges are just as good if you have the FERVOR TO SUCCEED. It's not the top college that gets the best students the seven figure salary, but, it's their own competence, hard work and interest in the field of engineering that makes everyone believe in their talent. So never forget that, HARD WORK IS NEVER WASTED; it's just that sometimes life takes time to pay you back for your efforts. So START WORKING HARD today and just wait for life to surprise you with success in return for your dedication. REMEMBER, IT'S NOT THE RESULT THAT MAKES YOU EXTRAORDINARY, IT'S ALWAYS THE EFFORT.