Why Engineering? Which branch is good? – For me or for the world? A rogue engineer’ analysis of the hidden side to everything in engineering!

It’s that time of the year when thousands of souls are lining up on the crossroad trying to determine which road to take! I was too four years ago; when I was in a similar situation after my class XII. Ok atleast I knew I was going to do engineering. But I was confused what branch is apt for me? Do I choose the branch depending on the demand and worth of the branch or will that not matter and I can make my own choice depending on my own interest. What do I really want, everyone came up with their own advice, infact I wasn’t even listening to anyone, I had developed a misconception and was thinking only about it, which is may not be such a wrong thing to do at such a point of time. This is what I intend to explain through this post!  Read on \m/.

Why engineering?

Is it because you want to be the next Jack Kilby or Thomas Edison? Want to do a PhD in the subject?  These guys know it all what they exactly want. They do not require this manual! (More importantly these are the kinda guys we so badly want)

Is it because you think engineering is a good career option and you not very sure what after and want time to decide your future course of action but you want to learn a lot of things and do good. (My kinda guy)

Is it because you’ve heard B.Tech + MBA helps you secure your career totally and land you a job in the world’s best company ruling over these godforsaken engineers, getting them do all the work while you take away all the credit! (Both literally and monetarily)  (Most of the people take up engineering these days because of this factor which is not necessarily wrong)

I took up engineering now what?

1^st year 1^st day: Come in the dim witched lecturers and asks us for our intro and future plans! If only I had a future plan?  No points for guessing 70 percent of the class went for the third reason in the previous paragraph and so was the percentage in most classes. I was as usual for the second reason but I just said that I wanted to do an M.Tech just for the heck of answering a question whose answer I did not seriously know that point of time(though I do not want to do it now!)

What engineering branch do I choose? Which is the best?

If you are type 1 you know it all, you know the branches which interest you, go grab it! For example in our first year I had a classmate who would design robots (from scratch), in our Computer Aided Design Classes when we guys used to design simple figures with great difficulty, some geek gods used to design airplanes and submarines. (That counts for some geekiness, and it was more depressing than inspiring because even though you want to be you can’t be a geek like them, they are born that way. After all who designs robots and airplanes three months into engineering, we can only attempt its not difficult but still hats off to them)

If you type 3 you need to choose the branch which makes a good combination with an MBA degree. Mechanical is by far the evergreen branch serves the best with MBA. Then come in the Electrical branches ECE preferably, EEE sucks (did not find a better word) no explanation required here! Since your focus right from start is to do an MBA choose the branch you’re comfortable with it! I know a Sardar from my batch who can’t write a program for calculating the area of square in C language (the simplest program you will come across), but he wants to do an MBA and he took up ECE! So that counts for some bravery, sincere advice join a branch where you will be able to score a good percentage and show up the future employers that you rocked in engineering! For the good ones who can carry on the pressure and can definitely do well no qualms, you guys will definitely do well irrespective of the branch.

If you type 2, this Post is dedicated to you guys.

Electronics and Communication Engineering J what I am): By far the best. If you interested in designing computer chips, if u think you are fascinated by how a cell phone works, how the battery power lasts for so long for some devices and not for some (Nokia Vs Sony Ericsson), want to know what is this fuss about 3G, CDMA vs. GSM, want to design an Automobile safety system, a collision avoidance system, Program a chip and put it on a robot to make it work the way you want, Design protocols that decide how the data will be transmitted across the free space or through optical fiber, then ECE is for you.  Future scope: Immense, with companies setting off shore campuses for R&D in India there will be immense demand for EC engineers. Boom in the Telecom sector and then new Fab city (for silicon wafer fabrication and manufacturing chips for first time in India) ECE is here to stay. Moreover ECE guys are versatile can be fit anywhere.

Companies:

EDA: Cadence, Mentor Graphics,

Semiconductor Design and Fab: Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Infineon, Freescale, Bosch

Telecom: Huawei, Alcatel-lucent, Ericsson 

 

Electrical and Electronics Engineering: If you in the IIT’s its ok. If other colleges this branch I don’t consider a very good option. Major part of your engineering life you are running a Motor or an Alternator first trying to understand how it works then its efficiency and then how do I transmit the power. That’s it your life stops there. You hardly learn things which are in demand today. Under the pretext of electronics all they learn is SCR and UJT (if that counts for a field as vast as electronics) Still I know a friend of mine who learnt a lot of things on his own like robotics, microcontrollers and embedded systems and is working on quality product stuff. There is always room for learning everywhere.

Civil and Mechanical Engineering: (We go hand in hand): My personal favorites, if you are the kind of guy who is inspired by the modern marvels on History channel. The unique design of the Hong-Kong airport, PETRONAS tower or the Bruj-AL-Arab hotel inspires you and you like watching extreme engineering on discovery channel. Or if you heard that Mahindra Scorpio was designed by an Indian engineer who was 23 year old! If you want to design the next gas guzzling Hummer for the US marines or the fuel efficient and the cheapest car on earth Nano! Or if you fascinated by Michael Schumacher and feel you should design a faster car for him so that he can remain competitive even @ the age of forty, or if you want to know that the site of the world trade centre is good enough for a building that giant size, then these branches provide you the opportunity to do so!

Biotechnology:  If you think that you did not get a seat in a medical college and you can compensate it with a degree of B.Tech Biotechnology, this ain’t true. The b.tech biotech guys just study the applications and they hardly know the undercurrents. It is better go do a B.S in genetics or microbiology. What B.Tech biotech does provide you is a diverse understanding and application of biotechnology in diverse field ranging from protein engineering to Industrial processes of producing a better quality beer to a way to understand means to protect the ecology, or even design a drug but in a generalist aspect! So if u thought you will be working on stem cells and producing new dollies (the cloned sheep) you’re mistaken, this is one branch where a PhD is a must and requires immense hard work dedication and research unlike other branches. So if you can burn the midnight lamp and read those big fat books (which I’ll rather use as a pillow or a dumbbell) like doctors do, this is the one for you!

Chemical engineering: If you think you are good at organic chemistry, or want to design high pressure boiling chambers, or think that you have better ways to treat the chemicals coming out of the industries to save the environment, or you think you are fine with the smell of Hydrogen Sulphide this branch is for you.

Computer Science: The most sought after branch. This should not be necessarily seen as related to coding! Engineering. There is lot more to it. If you interested in operating systems, think windows sucks and Linux rocks and you think you have the creative genesis to design cool applications. Moreover there is web designing, Distributed Computing (getting a lot of computers together and make them solve a common large problem i.e. a cheap way of making your supercomputer), Networking and designing optimum algorithms for fast processing this is the branch you are looking for! Basically you got to have good logical skills and work on it.

 

In general there is more to engineering than only Studies. There is a lot of room for personality development, meeting people from different diversities (if you in a nationally reputed college) and taking part in different activities. Thus engineering rocks no matter how you see it!

 

P.S : if u have any queries please post a comment, i’ll get back to you.