Not getting the engineering branch of your choice? Here’s what to do

By Nikhlesh Mathur

Globalisation of businesses and employers' seeking engineers with a specific set of skills has led to the development of several branches in engineering. There was a time when only the core branches Civil, Mechanical and Electrical took precedence. In yesteryears, an engineer was considered to be an expert in house construction, or one who can fabricate / repair structures, or humorously speaking considered capable of preventing the lights going off in homes. Today’s engineering aspirants can confirm this fact from their father / grandfather / granduncles. They would be surprised as to how life could survive in the absence of information technology and how could effective communication take place without pressing the keys of smart gadgets. But it surely did, and the very fact that these present day students are sensible enough to aspire to be engineers, bears sufficient testimony to this fact.

Well, it is not that Metallurgy or Marine or Industrial engineering branches did not exist then, but such was the flow of the candidates towards the core branches that these were left for the ones who could not get entry into the ‘party room’.

In the picturesque scenery (engineering education) only a few colours (selected core branches) attracted the candidates at that time. The scenario has changed dramatically over the years. Now each single colour in the scenery is making its presence felt as if the absence of even a small streak of paint would damage the picture beyond recognition.

The reason for such a state of affairs can be attributed to the fact that businesses now require special skills and professional training on those skills. A medical practitioner of the early twentieth century could treat a patient having any kind of disease. Yes, he could treat successfully, but at the cost of fear in the minds of the patient and his near ones. With time, we developed specialists and became less fearful and more confident of the treatment than that which prevailed in the earlier times.

Similar is the case in businesses which require engineers to pull it through the troubled waters. And this gave rise to disintegration of the branches into specialist branches. For example at the shop floor of a refinery, a petroleum engineer is preferred to deal with the process as compared to a chemical engineer inspite of the fact that chemical engineers are also capable to manage refineries in an able manner. Incidentally, this also gave rise to confusion in the minds of the engineering aspirants because unfortunately even till XIIth standard one is not taught about the specific differences between the branches of engineering and the kind of career one can build on them.

An engineering aspirant, therefore, generally goes by what gets cemented in his/her mind during the XIth and XII standard studies, or goes by a combined choice of his or her friend circle, or being infatuated by a certain branch after hearing a success story of a person who opted for that branch, or simply because the candidate is unaware about careers with other branches.

This leads to a precarious condition in which a student aspiring for a certain branch does not get it for some reason and then because he/she has already jumped into the pool without knowing how to swim, has to catch hold of certain other object to prevent his/her aspirations from drowning.

The aspirant then sets in to seek answers from any Tom, Dick or Harry and unless he/she puts trust in someone or something like shiksha.com, he or she more often than not clings to something reluctantly and makes a mess of the career by letting the mind be somewhere else, away from the temple of education.

The direct question of what a candidate should do if he/she wants, say, Computer Science and does not get it, has still not been touched by me here as the above facts and thoughts have been deliberately put in to let the candidate evolve by himself/herself, get into sync with the issue, begin to feel that hasty decisions in absence of right information can be deadly to their career, and above all gather the right set of thoughts into believing career success can be achieved in any branch provided the candidate is ‘cut-out’ for that kind of engineering work or  constructs himself/herself according to the branch offered to him/her.

Coming to the point, engineering aspirants need to guard against ‘Sheep walking’ while selecting an engineering branch and ask someone to subject them to a relevant question-answers session targeted at probing the inherent qualities that can be effectively utilised in a certain branch of engineering to fuel the fire inside the candidate.

If that is done and still an aspiring candidate finds that he/she is offered an apple instead of an orange then the following line of action can act as suitable guide;

Find out if the institute offering the other branch has a provision to enable candidate to change the branch in the 2^nd year. If yes, then under what conditions? And then make yourself suitable enough to comply with those requirements.

Speak to the professors of the particular engineering institute or any other known to you and find out if the offered branch has any direct relation to the branch you aspired to take. For example, students of Computer Science and those of IT share many subjects (classes) in the initial semesters of engineering education. Take a note of the fact that you can still learn the nuances of the branch you aspired to study.

Speak to someone in the related industry/business. Find out if the offered branch can still give you a career you aspired to build from your desired branch. For example, if one wanted to make a career with a software giant then he/she can take solace from the fact that even electrical engineers are offered jobs by them for the same work for which IT engineers also compete. Your own ability to express yourself, your logical reasoning power, your analytical ability can put you in good stead, irrespective of the branch. Another simple example: if one has developed interest to work in the petroleum industry then let it be known to them that all kinds of engineers are required by refineries. So the crux of the matter is the kind of work you want to do, the kind of environment you want to work in.  A white collared job right from the beginning stage of your career would require an engineer to complete management studies.

Find out from yourself as to why you are madly aspiring for a certain branch of engineering. What is making you go head over heels to pocket it at any cost. Perhaps while analysing this you may truthfully find yourself inclined to some other engineering branch as well, and in that case you will have more than one happy choice.

The aspiration to be an engineer should not end after completing engineering, irrespective of the branch you specialised in. Present day students should understand that simple B.Tech / B.E./ B.Sc Engg is proving to be insufficient to pull the chariot of their career and take it to some reasonable distance. Added knowledge in the form of post graduation in a subject of the branch in which graduation was done, or say MBA is now more and more beneficial, if not an absolute necessity. When such is the need of the hour then the candidates aspiring for a certain branch and not getting it can plan out their post graduation in such a manner that the needs of their dream career get fulfilled after higher education. If such plans can be made, timed and executed perfectly then a candidate need not worry about having to take an alternate branch of engineering.

There is always an alternate available to everything in life. It might not look as good in the beginning but then one can always make it better than the original alternative. For aspirants of engineering in a specific branch there is always an option open to study a related subject in the other alternate stream of education. There are cases where you find top-notch scientists spilling the beans when gently probed that they went for B.Sc., M.Sc., PhD because they failed to get an engineering college of their choice or a branch of their choice. Present day candidates can draw a leaf out of the career of many physicists who opted for higher education in Physics when they could not get ECE or IT or CS. There are many research scientists in the field of chemicals who opted for higher education in Chemistry when they found themselves behind the ‘cut-off’ percentages for admission to engineering colleges in their times. Such examples tell us that there is also an alternate to engineering subjects.

The pathway to any career is generally not absolutely straight like individual rail tracks. It can be made to intersect and merge at convenience with other lines.

The bottom line is accepting the branch which is somewhat related to the one you aspired for. If you are sure that nothing except the preferred branch only can make your life then get this thought cross-checked for correctness before you give yourself a ‘lay-off’ for an year or so for having another shot at the target.

If you can develop the power to relate your dream career with engineering education then think a bit further and find out how the offered branch of engineering can also play a positive role in it. If the offered branch does not relate at all to your career (like being offered Mining against your aspiration to be an IT expert) then think how you can fit yourself in the career pertaining to that branch. Do not be crestfallen if you find that you may have to do graduation, post-graduation, M.Phil / PhD and leave engineering to get onto the same employer's bus which picked candidates from the placement cell of engineering colleges.

The branch you dearly aspire for is not a diamond amongst marbles. All are diamonds only, may be with a difference that you see greater light emanating from the one you long for. This can also be ensured by enhancing the sparkle in your own eyes as well. So why don’t we do this than being sorry for ourselves or blaming our fate?