Career… a very big and confusing decision for most of the students. After B.Tech a lot of engineering students have no idea what to do next. Parents and relatives are telling to do M.Tech or MBA. Friends are preparing for MS, someone has got a huge package in XYZ company and this is the common story happening every day around you…isn’t it?. While choosing a career, the problem is not that different people are giving different advice but the main problem is students have no clue what they want to do next. Well, it happens with most of the students and that’s completely ok, it’s not their fault as well.
You might be also one of them who is facing the same dilemma. You are unable to decide what’s the next step you should take for your career. What if you go for a job and you don’t find growth over there? What if you go for an MBA or MS taking a huge amount of loans? Is there any guarantee for the job after spending two more years in masters? What about MTech? is there money and a future in teaching?
We know that a lot of options are there and choosing one considering all the factors is a tough decision. Let’s try to sort out this problem and start with a simple question… Did you try to find out on your own what you exactly want to do after engineering…(without listening to anyone)… Did you try to ask yourself where your interest lies actually…… Do you take interest in tech and want to explore this field more or you find your personality best fit into the management.
Whatever your answer is Yes or No we will try to explore every field and will help you to choose the best option.
While choosing the best career option the first thing which is important for students is no doubt…(Let’s be honest…) salary or a good paycheck and this is the main reason students get confused in various options available for them. Firstly you need to understand that all the career options can give you a good paycheck if you work hard. So the thing we need to figure out is which career option can give you more salary, least frustration, and the most important which of these options you enjoy doing.
Let’s take an overlook of what options are available after engineering…
Job
Right after college you can join some company and work for them. It’s good if you are getting the college placement else you will have to apply for the off-campus or you will have to go for walk-in interviews. Depending upon the company you will have to give the Aptitude test, GD, Technical Round, and HR Round. The Package that you will get depends heavily on your college, your branch, your percentage and it also depends on what kind of company you are joining…if it’s a service-based or a product-based company. It depends on your interest and skill whether you want to join a service-based company or a product-based company.
Product Based Companies: Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft are some product-based companies and they mainly take students from the computer science stream. These companies mainly focus on core computer science subjects (ex. data structure and algorithms) so if you are good at problem-solving and coding then go for the product-based companies. These companies’ packages lie between somewhere around 10 LPA to 25 LPA. Join these companies if you are interested in taking challenges, building things, innovating something, and interested in getting practical exposure to the theoretical concepts you have learned in your college.
Service-Based Company: In a service-based company, you will have to work for the clients and most of the work will be involved in maintenance and support. These companies don’t care much about the core computer science subjects and that is the reason they also take students from other branches like Civil, ME, or EC. TCS, Cognizant, Infosys these all are the example of some service-based organizations. These organizations pay between 3 LPA to 5.5 LPA.
Advantage of Doing Job: The benefit of doing the job right after college is that you get some time to dwell on your career choices. It develops your interpersonal skills, communication skills, and teamwork. It makes you more confident and adds experiences to your resume that will be helpful in the future if in case you want to join the MBA program (We will talk about the MBA later).
Masters
MTech (Masters of Technology):
This degree will help you to enhance your technical skills which you have learned in your engineering degree. If your future goal is to pursue research and/or get hired for a technical position in a well-reputed company then this option is good for you. A lot of people enter in teaching profession after doing MTech. Let’s see in detail about this course…
- Duration: 2 Years
- Major Colleges: IIT, NIT, IISC, IIIT-H, BITS..
- Entrance Exam: GATE
- Fees: 25K-45K (Per semester depending on the college you are applying to)
- Career Opportunities: There is mainly four career opportunity you can pick up after completing MTech. You can enter into the corporate industry, you can get into the R&D, you can enter into the teaching profession or you can go for Ph.D. further.
- Expected Salary: The salary you will be getting depends highly on factors like your college, your specialization, and the amount of hard work you put to get into your dream company. The range lies in between 3 Lakh to 20 Lakh/annum (or even more)
- Advantages: If you like a subject, MTech gives you an opportunity of picking up that specialization and enhancing your technical knowledge further. Another advantage is you can get a stipend of 12K-13K per month while you are studying if you become teaching assistants or research assistants. Preparation for Gate is always helpful in getting into the product-based companies. The Gate syllabus is always helpful in clearing the technical round of these companies. All these advantages you can get staying in your own country.
MS (Masters of Science)
MS is much more research-oriented than GATE. It includes fields like maths, engineering, computer science, finance, management, environmental science, social work, and so on. Let’s see in detail about this course…
- Duration: 2+ Years.
- Colleges: You can apply to universities like the US, UK, Australia, Germany, Canada
- Entrance Exam: For English proficiency, you need to give TOEFL/IELTS along with that GRE/GMAT
- Fees: Fees depends on the university you are applying for but it can range in between 25K-50K USD.
- Career Opportunities: After completing MS you have two options. You can find a job in the US and you will get to work for three years on a Student Visa if you do one of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Management) degrees after that you need an H1B Visa. The second option is to come back to India and find a job here but if you are paying your fees in dollars you like to earn in dollars as well especially if you have to pay your loan. This is the reason most people love to stay outside India after completing MS.
- Expected Salary: Depending on your university and your experience it can range between 50K – 100K USD considering that you will find a job in the US. In India, it can range between 5 Lakh- 15 Lakh INR.
- Advantages: Studying in a foreign country might make you homesick and it will be financially difficult but these aspects will shape you as a person. You will be exposed to a new environment, new culture and international exposure always count. It also makes you more independent because you will have to do everything on your own and even a part-time job to support your college fees. Preparation for GRE and TOEFL makes you more proficient in English that can be also helpful in Govt. job preparation.
MBA (Masters in Business Administration)
As the name suggests it’s for building a career in business and management. MS and MTech are technical and research-oriented and that’s why you learn how to manage data but MBA is where you learn how to manage people. You can specialize in accounting, economics, corporate finance, marketing, operations, HR, and so on. Let’s see in detail about the MBA program.
- Duration: 2 Years.
- Colleges: You can apply to universities in India (IIMs), the US, UK, Canada.
- Entrance Exam: CAT, GMAT
- Fees: In the case of IIMs in India a two years course can range between 16Lakh to 25Lakh. In the case of the US, it can range in between 160K – 200K USD.
- Career Opportunities: Depending upon your specialization you can be a management consultant, investment banker, program manager, marketing manager, operations manager, sales manager
- Salary: It depends heavily on your college, your specialization, your experience, and the company you are applying for the job. It can range anywhere between 5 Lakh – 20Lakh per annum (or even more).
- Advantages: Some people believe that MBA is like a natural progression because the techies would want to be a manager someday but remember it’s always better to get at least two years of work experience before you do your MBA which is actually an eligibility criterion for some of the colleges. It makes no sense to learn how to manage something if you haven’t experienced the corporate world first.
In the initial years, a lot of students get confused while choosing a career, and a lot of advice from here and there makes them frustrated as well. Remember that (referring students) you are smart and hardworking it’s just that you lack the right direction. A lot of people join the corporate sector after completing engineering. Due to the low salary, they go for masters but after completing masters they still don’t find any job or any improvement in their career or the salary package.
Remember that the world needs engineers, it needs professors, it needs managers and all of these professions pay a lot if you are good at it and you can become good at something only if you love doing it. After analyzing all the career opportunity if you are still confused that what you love to do and which career option is best for you then talk to the industry specialist, get an internship, take a test, join a networking group and then find out which profession is best fit for you.
