To what extent can IT degrees become worthless?
If he accidentally asks about an Uber driver in India, he will probably reveal to you about his past as a programmer or IT engineer.
If you ask someone on the streets of Mumbai or Bangalore in the mid-1990s how important it was to be a programmer, you will hear countless stories about people who immigrated to America to earn money. Huge salary, or Internet entrepreneurs start from scratch and become millionaires.
India was the country that began reducing restrictions on foreign investment in 1991, prompting a host of information technology (IT) companies to emerge. Comes with it is the recruitment demand that increases exponentially, for software developers or programmers. IT has suddenly become a ladder to success, at least for the middle class.
The Bollywood films have dramatized it into the survival struggle of students trying to get into top technical colleges. Couples are starting to put their programming experience on their wedding invitations. Matchmaking websites are designed to help people match up with tech-staff partners. Becoming an IT engineer is a must before someone wants to learn what they need to do with their own life.
In India, before you know what you want to do, you must have an IT degree first.
But today, things have changed dramatically. While the top programmers still hold their superstar status, the rest of India is now flooded with unemployed engineers.
According to a study, there are currently more than 3,500 engineering schools across India and about 90% of graduates do not have the programming skills to work in the software engineering field. The best jobs will be awarded to graduates of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), the "jewel" of the national higher education system.
Every April, approximately 1.3 million students will take the General Admissions Examination (JEE), the main pathway to IIT. There are less than 12,000 seats on the lecture halls of 16 IITs in India, so the fighting rate is about 1/100 per year, much higher than those of the world's top-ranked universities like Oxford and Cambridge ( Brother).
To deal with this situation, in the early 2000s, the Indian government began to recognize hundreds of new technical colleges. But the standard is quite loose. Private universities are willing to give up to a third of their seats to students who are willing to pay fees between $ 15,000 and $ 35,000 upon admission.
Indian students crowded in a college exam preparation class.
The situation is so severe that, in mid-February, the All India Council of Technical Education, a consulting body regulating technical schools in the country, announced it would stop recognizing engineering colleges. New technique until 2022.
Anand Nair, a mechanical engineer working in the government, thinks social pressure is part of the cause. "In India, you need a 'traditional degree' before you want to pursue your passion," he said. "And the qualifications mentioned here are mostly related to engineering."
In addition, as the number of engineers has increased so much, the average annual income of new engineers has dropped to about 4,500 USD. Furthermore, in recent years, even after graduating from an engineering university, many people still have to find jobs in other fields such as sales, marketing, human resources, and content management. .. instead of becoming a technician. In extreme cases, some even become full-time Uber drivers or food deliveries.
Hariharan, from Chennai, is a prime example of this trend. He is a 26-year-old trained IT engineer who currently works as a human resource manager. "I majored in computer science but realized I wasn't a good fit for programming. Dropping out was not a good choice, so I persisted in finishing it."
He then stumbled across a vacant HR manager position in an interview at a startup education company. "In my team, everyone is an engineer," he said. "There are very few people with experience in any field other than engineering."
The author of this article also said that he completed a degree in electronics and communications engineering, had an internship at Nokia Siemens Networks before deciding to become a journalist. And of the 180 people who went to journalism school together, 12 are former engineers.
IT used to be the dream and pride of all young Indians, and their families.
If you ask someone on the streets of Mumbai or Bangalore in the mid-1990s how important it was to be a programmer, you will hear countless stories about people who immigrated to America to earn money. Huge salary, or Internet entrepreneurs start from scratch and become millionaires.
India was the country that began reducing restrictions on foreign investment in 1991, prompting a host of information technology (IT) companies to emerge. Comes with it is the recruitment demand that increases exponentially, for software developers or programmers. IT has suddenly become a ladder to success, at least for the middle class.
The Bollywood films have dramatized it into the survival struggle of students trying to get into top technical colleges. Couples are starting to put their programming experience on their wedding invitations. Matchmaking websites are designed to help people match up with tech-staff partners. Becoming an IT engineer is a must before someone wants to learn what they need to do with their own life.
In India, before you know what you want to do, you must have an IT degree first.
But today, things have changed dramatically. While the top programmers still hold their superstar status, the rest of India is now flooded with unemployed engineers.
According to a study, there are currently more than 3,500 engineering schools across India and about 90% of graduates do not have the programming skills to work in the software engineering field. The best jobs will be awarded to graduates of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), the "jewel" of the national higher education system.
Every April, approximately 1.3 million students will take the General Admissions Examination (JEE), the main pathway to IIT. There are less than 12,000 seats on the lecture halls of 16 IITs in India, so the fighting rate is about 1/100 per year, much higher than those of the world's top-ranked universities like Oxford and Cambridge ( Brother).
To deal with this situation, in the early 2000s, the Indian government began to recognize hundreds of new technical colleges. But the standard is quite loose. Private universities are willing to give up to a third of their seats to students who are willing to pay fees between $ 15,000 and $ 35,000 upon admission.
Indian students crowded in a college exam preparation class.
The situation is so severe that, in mid-February, the All India Council of Technical Education, a consulting body regulating technical schools in the country, announced it would stop recognizing engineering colleges. New technique until 2022.
Anand Nair, a mechanical engineer working in the government, thinks social pressure is part of the cause. "In India, you need a 'traditional degree' before you want to pursue your passion," he said. "And the qualifications mentioned here are mostly related to engineering."
In addition, as the number of engineers has increased so much, the average annual income of new engineers has dropped to about 4,500 USD. Furthermore, in recent years, even after graduating from an engineering university, many people still have to find jobs in other fields such as sales, marketing, human resources, and content management. .. instead of becoming a technician. In extreme cases, some even become full-time Uber drivers or food deliveries.
Hariharan, from Chennai, is a prime example of this trend. He is a 26-year-old trained IT engineer who currently works as a human resource manager. "I majored in computer science but realized I wasn't a good fit for programming. Dropping out was not a good choice, so I persisted in finishing it."
He then stumbled across a vacant HR manager position in an interview at a startup education company. "In my team, everyone is an engineer," he said. "There are very few people with experience in any field other than engineering."
The author of this article also said that he completed a degree in electronics and communications engineering, had an internship at Nokia Siemens Networks before deciding to become a journalist. And of the 180 people who went to journalism school together, 12 are former engineers.
IT used to be the dream and pride of all young Indians, and their families.