Plight of an engineering student

Every year lakhs of student join engineering college. Four years later when they pass out from college with degree, only a handful of students get job through campus placement. Rest of the students goes to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune for job searching. It is a known fact that the number of vacancies in companies are very less compared to the number of students with an engineering degree. If they somehow manage to get job within two years then it’s well & fine. Else the misery begins. Once they complete two years of passing out of the college, no company accepts them as freshers and as they don’t have work experience they are left at nowhere, irrespective of the ground realities. 

There can be many reasons for which a student remains unemployed in the first two years. Many ambitious students start preparing for GATE,CAT, IAS, IES. Unfortunately the success rate in these exams is abysmally low. So 80-90% of the students, who prepare for these exams, are bound to come back to their mainstream. Often the financial constraints of middle class students, does not allow them to take more attempts and if they wish to come back and try corporate job, they are already out of competition.

The worst affected are the female students. First of all Indian parents are reluctant to send their daughter to big cities for job searching. If a girl don’t have a job by the end of college, it is more likely that she will get married. If two years passed in the meanwhile, her career is wasted. Her resume will not be considered by the companies simply because her year of passing is older than two years. Her degree, hard work, 16 years of education makes no sense just because there is a two years gap. For the rest of her life she is forced to become a housewife or do a job way below her qualification. This is our misfortune.

Further students who had never done anything wrong in life are pushed to get a fake work experience to get a job, because standing on moral high grounds is not helping them to feed themselves. Hence they are compelled to do this sin. If they are caught their career might be spoiled & they may end up in jail. There is a possibility that a girl candidate with fake experience got caught, she may be black-mailed to do undue favors.

All this is happening just because our companies have set a limit of two years for freshers. With this article I urge the companies to please consider students with zero experience as freshers, irrespective of the year of passing. This single step would open doors for millions of students who are stuck in wrong jobs, as housewives or unemployed. It would multiply women participation in work force. It would open doors for students who want to chase their dream job or set up a start-up company, because they can get back to corporate sector, if they fail in their attempt. This would promote entrepreneurship, risk taking attitude, which is lacking in Indian youth.

It is high time for our government to intervene and find a solution to it. Else our demographic dividend may turn into a demographic disaster if youth with sophisticated technological knowledge choose to turn anti-social/ dacoit/ naxal/online fraud.

Indian philosophy speaks of a concept of  “Bisa-brukhya  nyaya” , which if translated into English would be  “Poisonous tree justice”. This philosophy says, “Even if you have planted a poisonous tree, it’s unethical on part of you to kill it.” I leave the rest on your conscience. 

If you think what I have mentioned here is right, then please help it to reach more people and ultimately to the corporate sector. 

--Jai Hind

Written By

Gupteswar Mahapatro