Challenges faced by Engineer

Just like there are plenty of advantages of being an Engineer, they come with their own set of challenges.

One of the biggest challenges faced is indiscriminate move from one department to another. Since they can fit anywhere and can do outstanding job anywhere, they sort of become Fire fighters of the organisation and are sent to extinguish fire everywhere!!!!!!! And problem with Fire fighter's job is that it is not a very high paying job!!!!!!!!!!!. You can not be fire fighter for your entire career. If you do, you lose substantially in monetary terms over the span of the career. Secondly, since you are moving too much, you become a generalist and not a specialist of anything. Generalist earn general amount not special amount!!!! Ha ha ha !!!!

Another problem with engineer is that he is always unsatisfied in a positive sense. He always feels that he can do better in next position!!!!!!! He is always looking for climbing yet another mountain. And if the mountain is not found in the same organization, then he keeps on jumping / hopping the jobs. They succumb to new fads very easily. A lot of engineers got into the bandwagon of ERP (Typically paying Rs. 3-4 lacs for 6 months course) and joined ERP implementation area. When the market dried up, these engineers were left high and dry!!!!!! Same happened with dot.com boom. Many engineers set-up dot.coms with the dream of getting venture capital in millions of dollars, making millions in profits by selling their dot.com companies eventually!!!!. Sadly, they lost their shirts when the dot.com bubble got busted!!!!!!!!!

Similarly, when Y2K issue was hot, engineers put a lot of stake learning outdated technologies (Y2K problem was present in applications / software written in old era). They made money. But as soon as Y2k issue was over, they realised that they have wasted too many years working on totally outdated applications / languages. These guys had a tough time getting back to contemporary technologies. Ironically, some literally messed up their careers and just could not come out it!!!!!

Another challenge faced by the engineer is because of their confidence (should I say sometimes overconfidence). They take up all sorts of challenges some times not realising what it entails. And organizations also encourage such behaviour. So organizations sometimes lose good engineer and get lousy manager because they promote engineer to manager!!!!!!!!!!!!

As an Engineer, one needs to balance the opportunities and challenges. Yet another thing which has tremendously impacted engineering profession and how an engineer functions is TECHNOLOGY. We will see how technology has impacted engineer separately under

Impact of Technology on Engineer.

Milind Kulkarni

18th April 2010

milindinpanhala@gmail.com

Multidimensional possibilities available to Engineer

Engineering is a very generic education path offering multidimensional possibilities over the entire career span of an Engineer. For most of the engineers if you ask, they will agree that whatever course content they learnt in the colleges was hardly relevant when they entered the real corporate world. One of the reasons this happens because the curriculum is not revised for ages with the exceptions of IITs!!!!! Probably things have changed a bit with lot of colleges like VJTI, COEP becoming autonomous and deemed universities, thereby getting a freedom to change the curriculum as frequently as required to reduce the gap between real world and the academics.

Nevertheless, what most predominantly helps an engineer is not the technical aspect of engineering but the engineering mindset, logical thinking, ability to break a problem into small units and addressing each unit separately and then finally linking the solutions to arrive at resolution of the bigger problem. You will notice that these skills are useful in any role, any discipline, any department of the organization. So what happens is you will find engineers anywhere and everywhere!!!!!!! Take my example, I joined the bank as BPR specialist; then became system implementer, then took over as product manager, changed track again to become quality, ISO specialist, then became operational risk expert, then became COO handling all the operational and support areas in the bank including HR, Administration and IT!!!!! My last posting was in the administration handling real estate, procurement, security. Probably my last posting was the most closest to the engineering field. You also realise that during these jumps from one function to another I moved from worker, to manager to COO- sort of a leader.

What advantage I got is my career till date has become quite multidimensional. I came to know almost all the functions of the bank, not necessarily in depth but I have quite decent global picture. During my career, I was considered for different positions within the bank, about which I absolutely do not have any clue and still be offered the position. Most of the time the verdict would be: Milind is an engineer. He will figure it out!!!!!! Slight digression, but when I moved to Kuwait as Head of Organization and Methods department, I was told on the first date of joining that forget about what we discussed during interviews!!!!!. You will be responsible for organizing documented procedures for Islamic Banking since the new bank has just got permission from Central Bank to convert from existing specialised real estate bank to Islamic bank!!!!!! I said I do not know anything about Islamic Banking!!!!! Well the answer was: You are engineer; you will figure out!!!!!!!!!!! Worst of all, one bright morning somebody in the executive management meeting said why do we need milind's department. Let's outsource his activities (means fire milind!!!!!!) and I was told to prepare RFPs to be sent to KPMG, E&Y to make my own job redundant!!!! Again, I was told, You are engineer; you will figure out how to get job done from consultants!!!!!!!! And I had last laugh. My job was not made redundant at all. On the contrary, I was one of the key members who was responsible for conversion to Islamic Banking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I think this is what is peculiar about an engineer. S/he can fit anywhere and be a star performer. In my banking career, I have seen engineers as my colleagues in Treasury, Back Office, Retail banking, Private Banking, Risk, Finance and Control, Operations, Relationship Management, Real Estate, Administration. You name the department and you will find at least one engineer there!!! And the best part of it is that all these engineers are outstanding performers and are really happy doing what they are doing. This reminds me of all time favourite criticism engineers (including me) get: What the hell are you doing in banking??? And if you wanted to be a banker, why on earth did you waste an engineering seat!!!!! Your seat could have been taken up by a student who was really interested in engineering and India could have got one better engineer!!!!!! The problem is: organization does not care what your qualifications are. Organisation is interested in getting problems solved. And because of sheer multidimensional nature of engineer, s/he can solve problems in any area so they are posted in any area!!!!!!!! So engineers are in different departments and roles, not in spite of being engineers but because of being engineers!!!!!!!!

Another advantage which an engineer gets is moving fast from trainee to officer to manager to head of the department to executive management to CEO. They make these role transitions faster and better. It is natural and common to find engineer being CEO of an manufacturing company or engineering company. But it is equally common to find engineer being CEO of a bank, financial institution, Consultancy firm or for that matter NGO!!!!!!!!

But all the things are not hunky dowry. There is a flip slide to this multidimensional aspect of an engineer. Lets discuss it separately under

Challenges faced by Engineer

Milind Kulkarni

19th April 2010

milindinpanhala@gmail.com

Impact of Technology on Engineer

Well technology has impacted every profession dramatically in general and engineering in particular. In fact engineer of 80s vs engineer of 2010s, there is so much difference in working that it is really difficult to imagine that we are talking period of just 30 years.

I typed my BE project report on a manual typewriter in 1989. Can you believe it??? When I joined Tata Electric in 1989, there were just two PCs in the Instrumentation department. When I joined TCS in 1993, we used to queue up to use PCs for our reports!!!!!! When we did one project with engineering company in Vadodara, there was an army of draftsmen preparing engineering drawing on drawing board using drafters!!!!!! In 1996 when I joined the bank, we did not have email for communication. In one instance, I have myself photocopied 12 sets of documents for circulation and dispatched those documents to everybody via internal courier. Imagine how many trees I must have cut then!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fast forward today. Engineering drawings are made on CAD. Nobody uses drafter. 2/3 engineers are controlling and operating entire power plant. All structural designs are done using software. I do not think anybody is putting pencil to paper for these designs. Bid drawings are submitted on CDs, not on paper rolls any more. If on a given day, PC is not available, I really do not think any engineer would know what to do!!!!!!!! All innovations are happening using technology. All engineering breakthroughs are happening through technology.

This poses a real challenge for the engineer of yesteryears. It is no longer sufficient to be conceptually clear about physics, maths and science. You need to use these concepts and integrate them with technology to be an outstanding performer in an organization. Paradigm shift!!!!!!!!!!!

Milind Kulkarni

19th April 2010

milindinpanhala@gmail.com

How to become Engineer?

I narrated my experience of becoming an Engineer earlier. The process was really haphazard and with little thoughts. As they say in the stock market parlance, following Herd Mentality. Because everybody else is doing it, you do it. Some of you might be thinking, well, that was 25 years back. Things have changed now. Sorry guys. Unfortunately, things really have not changed much. A lot of information is available. In fact, we are overloaded with information. Options have increased. And this has made decision making even tougher. Do you really expect a child of 15 years old to decipher all the information and decide whether s/he wants to become an engineer or not? Yes, today's kids are much smarter than we were. They are much more informed. They have access to Internet where they can have whatever information they want. But they need an independent perspective which as a parent we need to provide.

Not an easy task. We can not very easily have an independent or objective view of our kids. We are too much emotionally attached to them. We want them to be what we are or what we wanted to be but could not. A Civil Engineer father who has his own construction business wants his son to be an Civil Engineer to take over his business eventually or a bank clerk wants his son to be an Mechanical Engineer since he could not become Engineer because of lack of finances during his time!!!!!!!!!! But we have moral responsibility to let our child grow in the area where s/he has strength or interest. So how do we know whether our child has that thing to become an Engineer.

To start with, as a parent, lets start thinking about the career of our kids early. Lets start observing them really closely from 5th standard in general and 8th standard in particular. My son was fascinated about Lego building blocks and transformers when he was young. He would play for hours with them. He would build them and break them into parts and start all over again and build something new. Well, this could be a sign of budding Engineer!!! Or take example of today morning. My wife cribbed to Kamala (our cook) that she had completely burnt karela and bhendi sabji. My son asked my wife do you know what exactly happened? Bhendi and karela are organic matters made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. When Kamala burnt the vegetables, hydrogen and oxygen together forming water evaporated leaving black carbon behind !!!!! Vow, is there a chemical engineer in making??? If you find these signs, keep encouraging this behaviour.

There are some aptitude tests being conducted. No harm in having your child take these tests and get the results. But please do not take them on a face value. These are just one of the inputs!!!! Sadly though, beyond this, there is no other help as such available to assess what the child is suitable for. Realising this, Sanjiv, Kannan and myself are launching an career intelligence initiative for school children of 8th, 9th and 10th standard. We will start with 8th standard and work with them for three years. We will work with them in a classroom set-up as well as through website. We have set-up Maverick Achievers Foundation for this initiative. I will keep you posted on the developments. And might ask for some donations as well!!!!!!!

Sorry for the diversion. Once your child reaches 10th, start preparing. If she has firmly made up her mind not to take up biology as subject, identify colleges which offer vocational subjects which will save your child from studying extra language and biology. Check out the colleges which offer vocational courses. You can consider vocational courses like Computer Science, Information Technology, Electronics, or Engineering Drawing, Economics for your child. However, rest assure that getting into vocational courses is not going to be easy. We are talking about cut-offs of 93%+ in reputed colleges like Ruparel, Sathye, Ruia in Mumbai. Let me share my own experience. Even though I was rank-holder and had secured 291/300 in Maths and Science in 10th, I still did not get admission in Ruparel for vocational electronics. The admission closed at 292/300!!!!! I, instead, had to join Parle college!!!! So, if you think that your child is not ready for such high percentages, start looking for less reputed colleges right now.

Oh, I forgot something. In addition to state boards (Higher Secondary Certificate), there are ISC (Indian School Certificate), CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education), IB (International Baccalaureate) curriculum also for 11th and 12th where vocational courses are available. Syllabus standard for ISC and CBSE is comparatively higher. You can consider IB curriculum if you are thinking about sending your child abroad after 12th for undergraduate studies. You can opt for curriculum like ISC, CBSE, ISC if your child has been part of these curriculum till 10th. Otherwise, for SSC (Secondary School Certificate) state board kids, it gets a bit difficult. Bear also in mind the tuition fees in ISC, CBSE and IB curriculum are quite high.

Well, in addition to colleges, start looking for tuition classes. Typically tuition classes prepare for HSC / ISC / CBSE 11th and 12th as well as Common Entrance Tests (CETs). Some tuition classes which specialize in the preparation for IIT-JEE exam have tied up with colleges. The advantage is that the child attends the tuition classes in the college itself. Again it is quite strenuous affair and expensive as well. Discuss with your child whether s/he is willing to put in these kind of efforts. A lot of students are going to Kota in Rajasthan for attending IIT-JEE classes. I heard there are classes who prepare for clearing entrance exams of reputed IIT-JEE classes like Bansal in Kota!!! Even in Pune, some residential classes have come up. Think carefully before jumping in to it. Drop out / Burn out rates are quite high. Understand the capabilities as well as limitations of your child. Do not make her go through something because it is a latest fad / trend!!!!! Sell (not insist) to your child that s/he has to study regularly atleast 3/4 hours a day right from day 1 of 11th. Secondly, 11th is no longer a fun or rest year. Preparation for career after 12th starts from 11th itself. Realise that number of entrance exams have 11th and 12th syllabus for exam - not just 12th. So your child can not just study for 11th forget the portion after exam and concentrate on 12th!!!!!!

Sorry, missed one important decision after 10th. If you and your child have decided that she would not pursue 11th and 12th; instead would opt for Engineering diploma, start checking out colleges offering diploma courses.

After 12th examination, the child has to go through number of entrance examinations. Realise the criticality of entrance exams. Even if your child scores outstanding percentage in PCM or aggregate in 12th examination and unfortunately does not score in entrance examinations, he is not going to get admission into reputed engineering college!!!!!!!! There are number of entrance examinations, we will discuss about few of them.

IIT - JEE

Indian Institute of Technology - Joint Entrance Examination. Clearing of this entrance examination enables your child to get into 6 main IITs, Mumbai, Chennai, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Guwhati, and Roorkee and other 9 IITs set up after 2007. In addition, same scores are considered by colleges like IT-BHU (Institute of Technology - Banaras Hindu University), ISM ( Indian School of Mining - Dhanbad), IISST (Indian Institute of Space and Science Technology), IISER (Indian Institute of Scientific Education and Research, Pune and Kolkata). If your child has a passion for engineering, take him / her to one of campuses of IITs in your area and normal engineering college in your area. You will not have to sell him that he needs to work towards getting into IIT!!!!!!!!! Preparation for IIT - JEE is not memory based. It is application based. It does not whether you know Newton's third law of motion by heart or not. If you have not understood the principle and if you can not apply the law to real life situation, you will not be able to even attempt an IIT - JEE question!!!!! Remember one thing. You are not preparing for IIT-JEE. You are preparing Physics, Chemistry and Maths. Once your fundamentals are clear, you can attempt question from any entrance examination. But remember, IIT-JEE is mother of all entrance exams. Give it a try 100%. After that you do not get into IIT, that is different question. Atleast you will not repent later on in your life why I did not give my 100% for IIT-JEE preparation. My life would have been different. Honestly telling you, I have these regrets!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you score 30%, you will get entry into one of IITs. If you score 60%, you are assured of very good branch in very good IIT. 2nd Sunday of April. Paper I - 3hours. Paper II - 3 hours. PCM both papers. 11th and 12th syllabus.

AIEEE

All India Engineering Entrance Examination. Based on this exam score, you can get admissions into NITs (National Institute of Technologies- earlier these used to be called RECs Regional Engineering Colleges). There are in all 20 NITs one being in Nagpur. It is ranked 4th behind Trichi, Suratkal, Varangal. IIITs (Indian Institute of Information Technology - Allahabad, Hyderabad and Gwalior) also consider AIEEE scores. In addition, DCE (Delhi College of Engineering), BITS Mesra in Ranchi are other reputed colleges which consider AIEEE score. Another important thing is 15% of seats in local engineering colleges are filled based on AIEEE score. So 15% of seats in VJTI, COEP will be filled based on AIEEE score. So appearing for this entrance is must!!!!!!!! MCQ. Negative marking. Right answer +3, Wrong answer -1. 3 hours combined PCM. 11th and 12th CBSE syllabus. Last Sunday of April.

BITSAT

Birla Institute of Technology Admission Test is entrance for BITS Pilani, Goa and Hyderabad. For BITS - Dubai, you do not need to score in the exam; your parents need to have requisite money to pay!!!!!!!!!!! BITSAT is Computer Based Test and can be taken between 1st May to 10th June. The results are declared immediately. MCQ. PCM + English + Logical Reasoning. 3 hours. Negative marking. Right answer +3, Wrong answer -1. 11th and 12th syllabus.

MHT - CET

Maharashtra Health and Technology - Common Entrance Test. 85% of seats in local engineering colleges are filled based on the scores in this examination. Easiest examination. MCQ. 12th standard HSC syllabus. No negative marking. Conducted in 2nd week of May. 90 minutes Physics and Chemistry and 90 minutes Maths.

Now that prerequisites are cleared, where to find information about various courses? Well, check out these two websites for detailed information.

Director of Technical education

VJTI Virmata Jijabai Technological Institute

So all the best guys. Enjoy engineering!!!!!

Milind Kulkarni

31st March 2010

milindinpanhala@gmail.com

Basic Characteristics of Engineer

What are the basic characteristics of an Engineer? Lets look at the the Wikipedia description of Engineer. Engineer is one who works to develop economic and safe solutions to practical problems, by applying mathematics, scientific knowledge and ingenuity while considering technical constraints. The term is derived from the Latin root "ingenium," meaning "cleverness". The work of engineers is the link between perceived needs of society and commercial applications.

So in simple terms, engineer is a clever guy (or of course clever gal as well !!!!) who solves problems using whatever hell s/he has learnt to help a common (wo)man get whatever s/he needs. So for solving problem, engineer has to analyze it, understand it. How does s/he do it? Well, by breaking problems into small bits, attacking each bit separately and then linking these bits together to finally solve the full problem.

Let me tell you one story. In the first year of engineering, we had ApPhysics as a subject. There are many difficult monsters like ApMech, M1, M2 to fight with. So nobody would study ApPhysics till the night before the exam. On the eve of the exam, we would go to AP (Appa Balwant Chowk is a place in Pune where all the academic books are available) and buy the thinnest possible book of ApPhysics!!!!!! I think, there were 12 chapters in the syllabus. In our hostel, there used to be three students in each room. So we will tear apart this book such that each one would read 4 chapters for 2 / 3 hours till about 9:00 pm. Then go to mess, have a dinner and then sit together. Each one will explain what is there in the 4 chapters he has read to other two. Other two would ask questions, why, why not, when, how???. We would remember things by some simple, sometimes stupid logics. To remember characteristics of one particular element, we would create some acronym as weird and vulgar as FCUK!!!!!!! By midnight, we would have tentatively understood what is there in all 12 chapters. We would go for a fag and tea at NCR (Irani restaurant) and over tea and cream-roll, we would sort of establish connections between all the 12 chapters one last time, come back to hostel and go to sleep. Hardly anybody would crack in this subject but everybody would clear the subject with at least 40 marks!!!! That used to be the objective anyway. Get the subject out of way with minimal time and efforts so that you can concentrate on other subjects!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And this is exactly how an engineer functions for entire her life. Any problem faced, think logically, break it into small logical components, analyze each component rationally by asking why, why, why why???? (that is why, you will notice that an engineer would always ask too many questions), understand what exactly the problem is, then try to solve each problem, and intuitively in head link all the components together and arrive at a practical solution.

They use their left brains too much or predominantly. I know a friend of mine who actually drew cause-effect, dependency diagrams to plan funeral of my another friend's father!!!!!!!!! Might appear funny or emotionless. But fact of the matter is: this is how engineers are.

However, all the engineers are not same. Some are really intense. Lets call them Intense Engineer Group. The PhD types. They would zero down on a specific area of specialisation and literally bury themselves into it. They would know inside out of the topic and still would go on digging further. In the final year itself, they would appear for GRE / GATE and start MS / MTech immediately. And then pursue their PhDs. In every class, you will at least have one / two of this type. They would typically join the R&D departments of companies and generate breakthroughs through their research in their areas of specialisation. Some of the engineers from this Intense group, you would find in the academic field as well. They may not be too keen on the teaching part (of course, some PhDs are really good teachers while many are just awful!!!!!!) but would join academics so that they can continue their research without any distractions. Some would also commercialize the results of their research by designing a technical product which has a huge demand from the industry and earn tonnes of money!!!!!!!! My class topper from engineering college followed this path and she is one of the well respected entrepreneurs in US!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another type of engineers are Street Smart kind of engineers. They are good in their subjects and want to create working products by applying their knowledge. Pro. Wangdu (or Rancho) types from 3 Idiots, having 500 patents under the belt within the span of 10 years!!!!!!! They would design an atta chakki which runs on bicycle pedaling power for the villagers since the electricity is very scarce and unreliable in the rural area!!!!!!!! They have passion for engineering. They would like to improve everything, better refrigerator, better car, better telephone. Lets call this group Application Engineers group.

Yet another group is typical Engineer - MBA group. They use engineer's basic characteristics of logical thinking in different subjects other than pure engineering. They would typically take experience of couple of years and get admitted to MBA, most of the times in IIMs. These guys are taught and conditioned to think like a CEO in the MBA programme. So these engineers develop general perspective about most of the things. They always have a 10,000 ft above sea-level perspective. So many times, they are criticized for being more of gas and less of content or stuff!!!!!!!!! Leaving aside this criticism, these guys develop an holistic perspective for looking at issues at hand. They use their engineering technical knowledge combining with management theories and practices and literally go places. Let me give you my own example. I fall in this category of Engineer - MBA working in a banking sector. I always had an edge over non-engineer MBAs. Typically, during banking system implementations, quality initiatives, re-engineering initiatives, my engineering background came in really handy. I could synthesize the essence of banking and technology nicely. This is the strength of this Engineer-MBA group. Lets call it Synthesizing Engineer Group.

Finally, the last category of engineers is sort of combination of all the above + wisdom + the people focus. Typically, these are the CEOs / Heads of various functions in organizations. They are technically sound; they are street smart; they can spot an business opportunity; they have a global perspective and most of all, they can relate to people, motivate them, inspire them and take the along. Typical example of this could be S B Dangayach, CEO of Syntex water tanks. Lets call this Manager or Leader Engineer Group.

Oh before I conclude, let me give you another important characteristic of engineers. Their huge confidence. Since they understand (presummbaly!!!) how the things work at a very conceptual level, they are very confident. (sometimes crossing limit to reach arrogance) They would not restrict their ability of understanding to engineering only. They would use the same logical thinking to understand money matters. So they actively manage their personal finances effectively. They would try to understand how the politics and administrative machinery works and how to use it to the advantage of corporate world!!!!!!!!! (You know what I mean) They would even get into spiritual world. For example, Shree Rajendraji Maharaj is engineer by profession!!!!!. I am sure the operations managers behind running of organizations of spiritual gurus like Sri Sri Ravishankar, Baba Ramdev Maharaj are engineer-MBAs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

However, because of the same characteristics which make engineer so peculiar, confident and sought-after, s/he faces own set of challenges. We will cover them separately

Challenges faced by Engineer

Milind Kulkarni

31st March 2010

milindinpanhala@gmail.com

I am proud to be Engineer

It has been exactly 25 years since I joined first year of engineering. Honestly, decision to join engineering was taken two years before that when I opted for vocational electronics for 11th and 12th in erstwhile Parle college. Now I think it is known as Sathye College. That saved me from studying biology and one additional language, mainly Marathi. Was it a conscious / well thought out decision? Absolutely not. My grandfather had died without medical treatment in our village so my father wanted me to become doctor. Noble thought. But I had been thinking something else. My cousin brother who was doing Medicine was staying with us that time. And somehow seeing him studying so hard, I had decided that I would not become doctor. Secondly, I was scared of dead bodies and I was told that time that we have to work on dead bodies in the medicine!!!!! So I definitely did not want to become a doctor. So my father said, you become engineer. That time there were only two options. Doctor or Engineer!!!

I was rank-holder in 10th so opting for commerce or arts was out of question as per then social norm!!!!!! I was told, Commerce and Arts was for kids who are not academically good and who want to just enjoy college, who are not serious about career!!! So serious studious students like me should take science in 11th and 12th to eventually join engineering. Oh, and one more thing. Taking vocational electronics was a fashion then. Did I know anything about electronics or did I have any flavour of electronics? Nope. Did I have any inclination for electronics or doing any thing hands on? As simple as breaking open a old transistor, or making any working model of aeroplane, car. Nay. I had not even made kaleidoscope using mirrors and broken pieces of bangles which was the most standard practise of engineering minded kids. I did not do anything of this sort. Still I joined vocational electronics!!!! Follow the standard path and listen to your parents / elders. That was the mantra.

Then I did a lot of ghasugiri (slang for burning midnight oil studying) for 2 years. And got 97% in PCM (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics) and aggregate 94%. I was rank-holder, 4th in state, 2nd in Mumbai. And because of vocational electronics, additional 5% were added to my PCM percentage. So I had secured 102% in PCM!!!!!!!!! So what do you do? You opt for engineering, of course. I could have got into any course in VJTI, or SP, reputed government engineering colleges in Mumbai. Did I take admission there. Noooooo. Again, College of Engineering Pune (COEP) was the only college in Maharashtra which was offering Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering (E&Tc) and there were only 6 seats for students from Mumbai. So board rank-holder like me, who secured 102% in PCM must go to Pune. There it goes. I landed up in COEP in E&Tc department.

Oh, I forgot to tell you something. Since somebody had gone to court that year (just like every year), our admission was delayed. So in the meantime, I had taken admission to Chemical Engineering at UDCT!!!!! As usual, no clue about Chemical Engineering. But since at 97% PCM, I got admission, I took it. By the way, since I was mainly ghasu (again slang for students who mug things up and reproduce the same things in toto in the exams!!!) and not really application oriented student, I was not selected for IIT. I was not that intelligent either, I guess. I just knew how to crack the SSC and HSC system quite well. In fact, I did not study much for IIT-JEE. I was not cut-out for it. Within my own heart, I knew I am not an IIT material. By the way, that time we did not have additional monster called CET. You just had to study for 12th and if you are smart, you appear for IIT-JEE. So bottomline is, I joined engineering by process of default / elimination rather than any specific choice / interest.

Now that I was in one of the oldest engineering colleges of the country and in the most sought-after branch of engineering – Electronics and Telecommunication- things should have worked out smoothly. I really wish I could tell you that I was topper throughout four years and completed engineering with flying colours. Sorry folks, that was not to be.

After first year itself, I realised I was not suitable for engineering. But there was no alternative. Rank-holders like me do not drop out and opt for something else mid-way. So somehow I persisted and completed my engineering without losing any year. I turned out to be quite an average engineering student. Thank god, I did not make my career as an engineer. I did job as an engineer for one year and immediately went to US for my MBA and pursued totally different, not directly related to engineering, Banking career.

However, there are lot of success stories from my own engineering class. Some appeared for GRE and TOEFL and went to US for doing Masters as well as PhDs. They successfully completed their Masters and PhDs and joined companies like Intel or started their own ventures and became successful entrepreneurs. Some appeared for GATE and joined IITs for doing MTechs. Most of the fellows continued in the engineering field and then joined IT industry which was sunrise industry then and really took off in 1990s.

Even for me, though I pursued career as a banker, engineering did not leave me. I might have forgotten all the technicalities which I learnt during those four years. But engineers way of solving problem stuck to me. I always had an edge over other MBAs without engineering undergraduate degree. So afterall, the four years of engineering were not waste at all even for average engineering student like me. It really helped even in the banking career!!!

Let me tell you something which is quite unusual. You may not believe it. I had a 6 years working stint in Kuwait and Bahrain recently. In the Gulf countries, the Engineers are so highly respected that even on the business cards, just like doctors, they print Engineer before the name. Even I had a business card which read Engr. Milind Kulkarni!!!! It helped in getting things done. I am proud to be Engineer!!!!!!!!

This is just a beginning folks. You might be wondering why average engineering student like me who hardly worked as an engineer in his entire career of 17 years is still saying I am proud to be Engineer!!!!!!!!

Lets me explain to you some aspects and you will realise.

Basic characteristics of Engineer

Multidimensional possibilities available to Engineer

Challenges faced by Engineer

How to become Engineer

Impact of technology on Engineer

Milind Kulkarni

31st March 2010

milindinpanhala@gmail.com