At a family wedding I met a “kind” old gentleman, who retorted “Oh God! Why on earth are you studying B.Sc Mathematics?” when he asked me what I was doing. I was speechless.
It made me think if studying mathematics is that big a crime?
We live in a country where getting a B.E or a B.Tech degree is the be all and end all. Every parent wants his or her child to become an engineer and get into a good software job. Pure sciences have lost their place. They’ve become outcasts; kinda like how I felt when the same gentleman (at the wedding) went on and on about his grandson pocketing a handsome “software salary” after having done B.E. Electronics and Communication from some god forsaken college in the outskirts of Chennai.
After successfully completing my bachelors degree, I got into Anna University (one of the most prestigious colleges in India), to pursue Masters in Computer Science. I thought of it as getting the best of both worlds; I have mathematics as a strong base, and now I am specializing in my field of interest. In the third semester of my Masters, I had to attend a number of campus interviews from potential recruiters until I got a job with a CMM Level 5 company. Most of the tests I wrote were just an eye-wash. The companies wanted only B.E candidates. They might as well only call for B.Es. Why take the trouble of saying “All degrees” and insult others by recruiting only engineers?
I remember one such company whose test I had passed and moved on to the interview. I had to attend two rounds of interviews, both of which I did pretty well. I was quite content with my performance and was confident that I would get through. The results were announced the next day. Three B.E students were selected. The thing that was most shocking was that none of them were from a computer science background. One person had done “Metallurgy”, another “Rubber technology” and the third “Soil Mechanics”.
That day, it dawned on me that, what these companies are looking for, are not good programmers or people with computer skills, but people with ‘B.E’ as a suffix to their names.
Education is getting to be a farce. People no longer do the kind of job that they study for. If not medicine, “engineering it is” seems to be the mantra.
3 comments:
I completely agree with you. I have been in the software industry for the past 6 years now and am a Senior Consultant now. And i am NOT A B.E. In fact I do not hail from the Sciences at all - you would be surprised that I am a Commerce Graduate, with an aptitude for computers. Yes I have faced similar situations, which are extremely frustrating. Especially when you see that the person's engineering degree, is not even remotely related to IT, the sector in which he is recruited.
This stems from an old belief that an Engineer, inquisitive as they are, have a better aptitude for everything. But dont worry my dear, times are changing and they are changing fast. Now even big companies are realizing that Being a BE is no guarantee of aptitude and quality in an employee, so now they are open to all streams and lookout for really talented people - with out the shakesperian dilemma of to BE or not to BE. Cheers!
Nice blog you have. And i;d like to invite you to see mine, some time when you have the time and the inclination to do so.
http://anandspeak.blogspot.com
your article is a reflection of my experience, during my college days.
:)
In software line one requires very strong domain knowledge.Software per se is only a tool used for tackling business situations.An Engineer,a Commerce graduate or a finance professional has strong domain knowledge on the subject he has specialised in and they are hired to understand the business situations and then tailor a suitable program for their use.
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