During the last 30 years we have had raging debates on why our brightest engineers trained in the IITs and IIMs end up selling soap for multinationals, writing copy for advertising agencies and writing programmes for software firms (“A son's dilemma — to be or not to be an engineer,”Aug.28). These corporations hired such individuals on the basis of recognising their potential by their very induction into elite schools.
Today, the trend continues. We have engineers joining banks, investment houses and the IAS. Make no mistake. Even students have realised that their study of engineering is a passport in the job market and have no pretentions of love for the discipline. Unless the hiring process changes or, more importantly, the quality of students pursuing non-engineering subjects improves, the clamour for engineering students in the job market will remain.
Siva Sivasubramanian,
NSW, Australia
My daughter faced this four years ago when she was wondering whether to pursue an engineering course or not. After parental counselling and peer pressure, she successfully completed her engineering in information technology. After this, was another dilemma — MBA or MS? Peer pressure prevailed again and she is now in the U.S. pursuing MS in computer science.
P.K. Varadarajan,
Chennai
