Worth of an Engineer

Well, almost coming to the end of 4 years of engineering and with almost 24 hours a day to waste, I sat up thinking, how much are we worth, after we do this “Technical” degree. Well, if the money invested is any indication, then your worth is quite a lot, unless you are studying in a government engineering college. If you are, your worth is comparatively lesser. Indeed, that way of computation should not be termed as worth, a better term would be waste determination.

So, what other parameters do we use? Ok, let us assume that the knowledge in the department we specialized in, determines our worth. Then, frankly, I can tell you, about 90% of the mechanical engineers in the state can name the parts of an automobile, but none of them will be of any use, if something goes wrong with any of the parts. They can probably state well, point wise, if you need, the various reasons why it doesn’t work. Tell them presentation carries marks, they’ll even draw caricatures of things that probably have not even been invented. If that was a theory paper, he/she might just end up scoring really high. (Of course, under AU even if you are cent percent right you can never say you’ll pass, for sure.)

Obviously, this ain’t a problem faced only in mechanical engineering, other departments are equally bad. The situation is so bad that although there are so many jobs to be had in the software industry, unemployment prevails (talking about engineers here). It’s a situation where, there’s demand and there’s supply to match the demand but something doesn’t add up. It is, what they call, quality of education. The situation is real worse. Instead of we preparing for the needs of the industry, we end up expecting the industry to train us for the job.

Well, who’s to blame? As a student myself, the answer to the question is simple. It ain’t us. Its those guys, who makes us pay in thousands (often in lakhs) promising bright careers in the field we choose. Those people who framed the present format of valuation for technical degrees. And to them let me state the obvious “Waiting for more ominous signs to scrap this present format???”