Let an engineer be heard for a change

Much scorned engineer I am. According to the recent survey conducted by Readers’ Digest in uncle Sam’s land, my breed is the most boring one when it comes to recounting occupational cases , what it means is audience will be glued to a doctor when he narrates how he cured that beautiful damsel, they will be willing to lend an ear to a lawyer who saved his client’s life by his wonderful castle of lies, even a politician would be entertained if he has some scandal brewing up but poor engineers mention them and the party wears a forlorn look. Well that is the way it was slated to be, engineers are meant to bring order to chaotic world, and orderliness is looked upon with much contempt these days.

This is just the beginning my friends, the cup of woes is not yet full. Ok let me take you to the class of 2000, a bunch of young boys and girls are inducted in a college based on their prowess in PCM(physics, chemistry and mathematics). These gawky teenagers have bright minds and dreamy eyes. Umm time to face the reality, face the director kidos!!. What the grand old man has to offer. “Young friends, India is in desperate need of its engineers, not to engineer some defections or split(followed by muted laughers) but real engineers who can build dams, generate power and design new chips “ . Then he reeled off some data to show India is facing talent crunch, we are a blessed lot to be at right place at right time. Citizens of India are paying through their noses, mighty money being invested in raw talent of ours, so that these talents can be shaped up and work wonders for the country. Ouch, what a long and draining speech!! , I wondered. But facts were pretty true I had to pay some 8000 per annum as token fee (really pittance if you consider the quality education we were provided with). We all became one night kings and managed to see through all papers unblemished (without losing our virginity to much dreaded supplementary while showing good report cards). Finally we jumped software bandwagon. Why?? Money was there and there were few companies which visited campus with building dams and generating power in mind.

So I landed up in one of much esteemed companies and churned few lines of code like rest of my breed. Now here comes twist in tale, when I decided to throw my hat in the ring for MBAs well my non engineer friends didn’t take kindly to the news.
Want to hear some reactions, feel blessed here they are – ‘engineers should be prohibited from writing any entrance exams, taxes have gone down the drain to prepare them “. Ah want few more – “Greedy engineers, money is never enough for them, agreed they are sharp, they have acumen to crack all they want but when unemployed youth are cajoling Government and firms alike for a job , is it moral for these engineers to grab someone’s opportunity in garb of an MBA seat.” Ah what to say even my sibling taunted me for that, “et tu Mr Engineer, well sharp minded you find everything boring , enough tinkering with software/hardware you need to mangle Indian economy now eh “


Well face the destiny, we are 60 % of what IIMs are, may be 70-80 % of what rest of wonderful MBA colleges are. Engineers are here to stay, love them loathe them you cant’t uproot them . We dare you (not an egoist uttering in his trance). Speaking the very essence of the truth, let merit be the sole criteria and let boring breed of engineers choose what they want to do. We take Readers’ Digest in stride.