Engineering aspirants and their parents who attended the 14th edition of The Hindu EDGE Career Counselling programme, held here on Saturday, left the venue with a clear vision on their education and career.
The session, addressed by experts from the industry and engineering colleges in Krishna and Guntur districts, helped the aspirants clear their doubts regarding stream selection and career after pursuing engineering among others.
Making it clear that pursuing any stream with passion would lead to success, experts stressed the need for out-of-the-box thinking and skills.
“Aspirants should look for stream as well as better institute. Every aspirant should check the capability of the institute in imparting skills among students. Companies are now considering percentages for the preliminary round while skills are tested in later rounds,” said Dr. V. Madhusudan Rao, Dean-Engineering and Management, Vignan University.
Craze for certain branches
“The beginning salaries might be low but after a certain period of experience they become experts and earn more,” he added warning aspirants not to go by craze for certain branches.
Dr. A. Gangadhara, Kalasalingam University, Madurai, said interview skills were key for the graduates and everyone should have a skill set that could grab the attention of the employers. He said courses like food technology were emerging as the best career options.
“Chemical industry is very much needed for society. The industry also needs talented workforce. Having a combination of chemical engineering and MBA degrees will make him or her most wanted person by the industry. Pursuing chemical engineering in any IIT leads to a lucrative career,” said Dr. P.V.V. Satyanarana, retired professor in Chemical Engineering, ANU.
“A degree of mechanical engineering does not guarantee a job. But if a graduate has extra skill set and innovation one would succeed. For this students need to work hard from the beginning and choose a particular area in the third year itself,” said Dr. K. Satyanarana, Department of Mechanical, VVIT, Guntur.
Speaking about the most sought after CSE, ECE and IT streams, Prof. K.V. Sambasiva Rao, Dean of NRI Institute of Technology, said the quantum of recruitment by IT giants had come down in the past couple of years.
“However, one could still land jobs in MNCs if proper hard work is done in the college. Many students neglect education after entering third and fourth years in engineering. Many think programming is the only IT job but there are three other areas like designing, testing and analysing where there are job opportunities,” Prof. Rao said.
Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry, AP, J.S.R.K. Prasad, presented the industry scenario and the skills employers were looking for in the graduates.
“Automation is going to replace many humans in many industries and that is not far from us. Even call centres and BPOs largely spread in India may face the phenomenon. Creation of jobs became a tough task for the governments. In such a scenario, skill plays a key role in deciding career of an engineering graduate. The four-year course is just the beginning of learning which should continue forever,” Mr. Prasad said.
Prof. Vijaya Ramu, Head of the Department (Biotechnology), Vignan University, said four years of engineering course would lay a strong foundation for the rest of the life of a graduate. “You need to analyse your skills, your abilities and pursue your interest.
Parents should not force their wards to take a particular subject. Biotechnology is the future of society and it can be considered as an alternative to medical education. There are a lot of job opportunities in the industry as well as research centres that decide how humans use technology.”
Later, in an interactive session, participants raised issues like skills required by the industry, future of civil engineering, best streams for women students, future of Artificial Intelligence, robotics and automation.
