Clearing JEE Advanced is considered to be gargantuan task and every year lakhs of candidates pull up their socks before appearing for the examination. Out of these, around 9000 brilliant minds enter the hallowed gates of Indian Institute of Technology. The interest they develop during the four years and the experience they gain, open up the gates for many career options in front of them. The dilemma of “whether I’ll get placed or not??? “is not a worry to an IITian as he has a wide range of opportunities knocking at his door.
Research……..
Students with a skeptical mind and a want to explore the depths of their field of interest might find a state of peace by opting for a career in Research. Innovation is the need of the hour and this need provides an upper hand to the Research sector compared to other careers. According to NASSCOM it is expected that by 2020, Engineering Research and Development industries will touch $ 40 billion mark. Some of the giant investors in this sector are Volkswagen, Intel, Microsoft, Toyota, Johnson & Johnson etc. Certain government organizations like ONGC, ISRO, DRDO etc. invite engineers from various national institutes to work in the R&D sector. There are many international programmes, in which students are provided with the opportunity of pursuing their interest under the guidance of a faculty at foreign universities. DAAD (German Academics Exchange Program), MITACS are some of the alternatives to strengthen one’s research experience.
Start-ups and Entrepreneurship….
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing” - Walt Disney.
There are students in IITs who consider the above quote to be a gospel truth. So, as a matter of fact, they quit talking and open their startups. Leadership qualities and management skills, along with exposure to various successful entrepreneurs motivates the beginners to work hard on their groundbreaking ideas. IITs can boast of gifting the world some great personalities in the corporate industry including Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, IIT Bombay graduates who set up one of the largest network of cabs in India, the OLA cabs. The latest trend which has come to the fore is gaining experience of startups by doing an intern in a well established one for an appropriate interval of time and then using this experience for building up their own. Startups like Exelixi, started by two IIM graduates, along with other like Twenty19.com, Myntra, and Drivekool are hiring students for paid interns.
Competitive Exams…..
A large percentage of students, instead of registering for on campus placements, opt to take up the challenges posed by various competitive examinations. The students who are interested in joining the Civil Services apply for Civil Exams like IAS, IPS and IES. Apart from these, some develop their management and marketing skills and prepare for CAT (Common Admission Test) with the purpose of getting admission in IIMs and various other Indian Business colleges. Those who are interested in pursuing higher education in some of the famous universities of Germany, US, Great Britain etc. have to pass through the fire of GRE (Graduate Record Examination). A golden option for the students seeking jobs in the Public Sector Units (PSUs) is qualifying the GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering). Some big names in the public sector like SAIL, ONGC, IOCL etc. recruit students on the basis of their score in the GATE exam.
Jobs and Placements…
Although so many other options are available in IITs, but when it comes to statistics, placements are always the most awe-inspiring ones. There are a variety of companies that come fetching for talent and this is where their search ends. Along with major core sector companies like Qualcomm, a large number of IT companies like Infosys, WIPRO, etc. come for the placements every year. Technical communication is also one of the upcoming career alternatives being opted in the past few years. Here, people breakdown various technical and research progresses in information pieces about a product or service that is understandable for the targeted customers. Consultancy Firms are also developing a trend of picking up students from various IITs and the most notable recruiters are TCS (TATA Consultancy Firms), Virtusa Consulting Pvt. Ltd and i3 Consulting.