Once in a while

A Momentous Ocassion.....

Its a crucial time in every guys future. Fourth Year. Placements, applying for Univs, GRE, TOEFL, CAT and what not. Isnt it easy to just get lost in all of it.

Of all these things, placements scare me the most. Will I get a good Job, will they pay be decent, is there really scope for research and development in India? These are the questions which haunt every fourth-yearite. Especially if you are at IIT, people expect you to get a good job, which in essence almost always means high-paying job.

Reality is that most of the high paying jobs, at least in mechanical, are what we call "shit jobs". High paying because you are put away in some god-forsaken place, working in a huge factory and having absolutely no time for yourself. Is that the kind of job I want to do, "NICE TRY". But then the pay is very high. Imagine getting 8 lakhs per annum as a fresher. What will I do with all that money???

That question really makes me think about the current situation in India. With software jobs paying insanely high, not because the job is challenging or tough, but just because 1$ = 46.-- Rs, the relation bettwen merit and salary has been completely eroded. Im not trying to offend any software professional. My dad is a software professional himself and I know the kind of time he had to put, and is still is , into his work. He loves it. Will I ever have a job which I love? I sure hope so. But, back to software bashing, my dad has told me about the kind of jobs that software professionals getting and how freshers are just running behind money without really seeing if the kind of job suits them or not. Last summer he adviced me not to takeup a software job in India. It must have been tough for him to say, I know how much he likes his work. Since most of my friends in Bangalore are in CS, I know their expectations. Honestly, I feel they expect a bit too much, but what they say also makes sense, "When I can get more why should I settle for lesser?"

Where does all this leave me? Its all most like everyone else around me is setting the bar, and I am expected to get better of it since I am an IITian. Its like Sachin Tendulkar always being criticized because he isnt doing as well as he did, even tough he is doing better than most of the other batsmen in the world. Sometimes it makes me feel, "Screw it, ill just go for the highest paying job I can get". On other times I feel, "Is all that money really worth abonding things that you would like to do." Then i remember what my uncle told me. When you are young, you feel the world is watching you and judging you, so you do whatever you can to impress them. It is when you grow old you realize that no one really bothered that much.

Nagesh Kukunoor had come to IITM during the last Saarang. In his lecture he said that all Indians have a check list on which there are a set of standard goals one has to achieve along with the age at which they should be doing it by. All we end up doing in life is ticking events of the list. Finish Engineering by 21, Job immediately afterwards and make lots of money, get married at 28 , have children by 29-30. A person who keeps to the list most efficeintly is said to be successful. In all this we loose out on things which we really want to do. Seeing people around me, they are clamouring for things as if their life is about to end. In reality, it is just beginning. After all, we are just 21. If we make mistakes, there is still a lot of time to make up for it, and a lot of ways to do it too. This is the time to experiment, to see what you want to do, what you are good at and things that you can never do, no matter how hard you try.

Last summer I interned at DaimlerChrysler. The work was decent and the atmosphere very good and laid back. For some strange reason they dont come to IITM for placement. It is a Research & Development set-up: if they have good people, they can do better. They were very impressed by my work. I dont know what they would do if people from here, who are better than me, end up there. I would love to work there, but they dont pay very high. I mean, I dont expect eight lakhs per year or anything, but my degree at IIT is at least worth something. Once again I am stuck in a dilemna, money or quality of Job? All this has driven me to just one conclusion. It is not the right time for me to take up a job right now. I just hope I get admit (hopefully with aid) into at one of the good US univs.

posted by Mahesh.R @ 3:42 AM