The job is an important aspect in everyone’s life. It validates the skill one is good at so that someone is willing to pay for that skill one possesses. It is a wonderful feeling to get paid and being appreciated for the work that one does.

Jobs come in various shape and size. Some jobs are physical labour and some are mental labour. As jobs move from physical labour to mental labour the payment for the job gets higher, i.e. a person doing coding gets paid high than a person doing the clerical work. As the mental work gets tougher, the payment also increases considerably. Similarly, the harder the physical labour gets the payment also increases considerably. But then the physical labour seems tiring but the tiredness due to mental labour is much severe which goes unnoticed.

In a country like India where we are predominantly agriculture-based, we are being taught that moving to cities abandoning the villages is the right way to lead life. We have started accepting this as the truth. As many villagers migrate to the city and become city dwellers, the Agriculture is fading slowly.

Agriculture taught us that we are our own boss, we have our land and we can grow what we want and we can sell that product to others for an income. Now that we are telling others that agriculture is not a profitable income source many are leaving that seeking a better option for their livelihood.

Now, most of our youth, irrespective of where they are from either village or town. They all migrate to cities seeking better lives. To survive in the city, they need to have a “Job”. Is this is critical in their survival? Yes, it is. Without a Job, one can’t survive in a city.

Let’s look at a job. For what am I paid?

Since I am into engineering, I will be talking more about engineering. When I was a kid, I was told that engineer earns more, without questioning that premise, I decided to become an Engineer.

Who is Engineer? An Engineer is a person who solves a problem.

In India, this is Engineering – A student completes 12th Std and then appears for a competitive exam and secures a rank, based on the rank she gets admitted in one of the many engineering colleges. There are about 200 odd Engineering colleges in Karnataka, the same is true with neighbouring states as well. Since Engineering Education is a business and the students are the customers (cash cows), the business does not care about the customers. Hence, we get high-quality students :P.

Now, in any business, the value of the business depends on the customers and the brand value it has created so far. The product might be same across all the businesses but then the name and fame play a dominant role. There are various colleges in and around Bangalore and kids flock to few colleges only which are part of a big University and there are autonomous (This is another big joke!) colleges as well. These colleges are building engineers.

Now, most of the students don’t even know what to do with their future they end up choosing to become an engineer because the student was asked to do that. The student was never given an option or even if it was given, the options were not that lucrative. For students, it is very confusing and they end up taking this long journey called engineering.

Now, in engineering, they are not taught to learn but they are again spoon fed to get good grades in subjects that might be of no use to the student in the future. Again, it is a school drill where each and every student is asked to do the same thing without being asked to question. If at all there is a student who questions, he is silenced by either the power of the teacher or the stupidity of the teacher. The student never Learns.

The teachers who join engineering colleges to teach the students without the intention of making a substantial change in the students’ life create a big damage. The teachers’ intention should not be just paycheck but the value and the support that the teacher provides the student. The teacher should be a guide.

Most teachers are just spitting the same thing there in the textbooks even without understanding what that actually means. Every student just wishes to get marks without understanding the concept and the need for the subject. It is a shame we do engineering this way.

Engineering is killed by the Businessman, the teacher and the students.

Now, these students who pass out without learning any skill to solve a problem seek for a job. The student wastes 4 years without learning a skill of use to him or others.

This should stop.

Engineering is a beautiful course, it should be taught by guides who bring out the curiousness from every student. They should help the student learn a skill and probably even master it. The Students should become a “Learner for Life” and solve the problems of the nation. Education should not be a business, it should be run by visionaries who would love to shape up the next generation of Indians.

Engineering should be helping the students learn a skill, master it and if possible build a business and not a workshop where we churn out students to be a helpless Job Seeker waiting for the mercy of others.

It is sin to be dependent on others even after being an Engineer. Engineers should be able to solve their own problem in the first place.

If you are an engineering student, “BE AN ENGINEER AND NOT A JOB SEEKER, IT IS SHAME”.

Peace.