Engineering Students are wasting their Time in Management Studies; they have Another Way to go

The IT boom has brought many job opportunities to India. This has made engineering the first career choice for many. The supply of graduates in India is growing at around 5 per cent a year. Among them, the current average employability rate is 26 per cent for engineering graduates and !" 5 per cent for other graduates #!. $. A recent study conducted by %angan &anerjee and 'inaya( )urushottam *uley, both associated with the IIT, &ombay shows that India has surpassed +hina, ,apan, -outh .orea, the /- and the /. with an impressive !.0 per cent increase in the number of graduate engineers. 1owever, when it comes to the number of engineers per million people, India has only 2 0 with -outh .orea having the highest number 025. 3hile ,apan has 465 engineers per million people, +hina has 20! #!$. In 2!!5, it is estimated that 2.5 la(h engineering degrees, 22,!!! engineering *asters degrees and about ,!!! )h6s were awarded in India. The study showed that doctorate degrees were less than per cent of graduate engineering degrees in the country. The percentage of doctorate degrees compared to engineering degrees was much higher in most of the other countries 778 per cent in the /-, ! per cent /., 5 per cent 9ermany and 2 per cent -outh .orea. A survey done by careers26! and :ahoo; among students doing distance learning provided the following information about the preferences of students # $.

STUDENTS PREFERENCE F R D!STANCE "EARN!N#

This shows the trend of increasing no. of student prefering *&A. 3hy are engineering students moving towards *anagement -tudies< Large no. of engineers= A report by business standard states that India produces around 45!,!!! #2$ engineers every year. The job opportunities available in India are not increasing with the increasing numbers. Thus people find it necessary to diversify their profile. Flexibility: *&A provides opportunity to enjoy fle>ibility during 9lobal recessions and downturns in economy.

High Salaries: There is a hope to get into highly paid jobs with *&A which may not be available in any other field. Lack of interest in Engineering= ?ot all those who ta(e engineering have passion for the subject. -ome may recogni@e midway through their engineering education that they are climbing up the wrong tree, that this is not what they love to do. At such situations, switching over to management stream after completing their graduation is the perfect escape route for them.

3hy engineers should do *&A< Necessary for society= Angineering provides the technical (nowledge about what to manage and *&A provides the management (nowledge about how to manage. -o a combination of the two is necessary for proper and efficient functioning of enterprises. Growth becomes easier= 1ierarchy at the top and tapering of pyramid at the top reduces the no. of opportunities available to grow. *anagement education is always a supplement, a shortcut to reali@e this dream to reach the top of pyramid. Engineering helps Management: .nowledge gained during engineering is not lost. Bn the other hand, it helps in understanding the dynamics of the industry better. # eg= A person with IT wor( e>perience moving into IT consulting after *&A will help the company he is wor(ing in as his IT (nowledge will help him understand the situation better and render better services$. oes not mo!e away from engineering: Institutions li(e the IITs provide management education to help engineers acCuire management s(ills. Thus management and engineering need not be two e>treme poles. They can travel in parallel to each other. "ro!i#es opport$nity for creati!ity: 9rowing in any enterprise does not occur until it is a person e>pands hisDher s(ill sets and integration of (nowledge from different spheres. This happens only when people move away from their area of e>pertise and e>periment with newer field. %E&s with M'( o$tperform others: Three professors from I?-AA6 #*orten T. 1ansen, 1ermina Ibarra, and /rs )eyer$ e>amined the long"term performance of more than ,2!! global companies in an attempt to compile a list of +ABs who delivered the most shareholder value over the course of their tenures. 3hen they loo(ed at the +ABs from companies based in 9ermany, &ritain, Erance, and the /nited -tates, where reliable information on degrees is available # , !8 +ABs in total$ they found that the 22F of +ABs who had an *&A ran(ed, on average, 0! places better than the +ABs without an *&A.#2$#&ut there others who have a different perspective. In Indian scenario, the study proves that 0!F of +ABs have *&A implies that 6!F do not. Among the top ! +ABs in India, ?aveen ,indal, +AB of ,indal -teel G )ower Himited #,-)H$ #/niversity of Te>as at 6allas$ and &has(ar &hat, *6 of Titan Industries #Indian Institute of *anagement #II*$, Ahmedabad$ are the only two +AB with *&A #0$$. "rofessional grooming: *&A is a course which trains a person to be a leader. There is more of professional grooming than (nowledge that one can e>pects from management education. -o any engineer who would li(e to groom himselfDherself professionally should go for *&A.

'eca$se of these reasons) the n$mber of people opting for M'( has increase# in the past few years. *his is e!i#ent from the graph of the profiles of the people who ha!e applie# for GM(* between +,,-./,. #5$

#MAT TEST TA$EN %& A#E #R UP AND &EAR 3hy Angineers are a crowd in & -chools< Selection criteria skewe# towar#s engineering st$#ents = & -chools have a selection criteria which emphasis on Cuantitative ability and data interpretation which helps engineers have an advantage over students from other streams. Thus it is necessary to enforce a parameter for diversity in selection of candidates. 0n#$stry #eman# an# performance of past engineering 7*&A students their success stories motivate other engineers to ta(e up *anagement. To avoid such instances students should be educated about opportunities in all fields before ta(ing decisions.

Conclusion
In todayIs fast moving era, all that matters is to do jobs in a faster and easier way. All the s(ills acCuired are necessary to remain competitive and stream of education adopted to acCuire these does not matter. Avery person should identify their preferred field of wor(ing choose the path accordingly irrespective of the monetary benefits that can be acCuired from it. Aducation helps a person acCuire s(ills, not bring success. -uccess comes to those who will and dare and not to those who sit bac( waiting for it with a degree in hand. And as Albert -chweit@er has rightly said, J-uccess is not the (ey to happiness. 1appiness is the (ey to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successfulK.

Reference:
0. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.deccanherald.com/content/46137/num er! en"ineers!rise.html 0.1. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www. usiness! standard.com/india/news/en"ineerin"!"raduates!could! ecome!more! unemplo#a le/3$6771/ 1. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.careers36%.com/news/6&'&!Careers36%!#ahoo! distance!education!surve#!'%11 2. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www. usiness!standard.com/india/news/en"ineerin"! "raduates!could! ecome!more!unemplo#a le/3$6771/ 3. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www. usinesswee(.com/ schools/ lo"s/m a)admissions/archives/'%1%/%1/st ud#)ceos)with)m as)outperform)those)without)the)de"ree.html 4. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pa"al"u#.com/news/6%!percent!top!ceos!india! do!not!have!m a!de"ree!insead!h r!stud#!a!'&3'3 5. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www."mac.com/*/media/+iles/"mac/Research/,-./ 0'%/est0'%/a(er0'%1ata/profileof"matcandidates)t#'%%6%7to'%1%11.pdf