Management Part 2

*Continued from Previous Post

They choose engineering as everyone around them is doing so, and then shift to management, apparently for the same reason. But the truth is that, there is not much in common between the two streams. Management is more apt for B.Com, Economics Honours or BBA students, than engineering students. They have many subjects in common as well. Those who have a natural inclination towards business will like MBA as well. But how much does engineering and management have in common? Apart from say, Mathematics, I would say, hardly anything.

One of the arguments (or reasons) stated by a few engineers on why they want to shift to management, is that they are bored of their subjects, fed up of the technical aspect, and find no scope in the present scenario with just an engineering degree. Now come on. Why did you take up Engineering in the first place, if you hate your subjects so much?

India is currently facing an acute shortage of capable, skillful engineers. Mainly cause all the best engineers, say from IIT’s and NIT’s, are shifting into management for more profitable careers. True, they may earn millions, and fill up their own pockets by getting into the corporate world, but very few of them ever utilize their engineering skills. Honestly I really see no other reason for a IITian to get into management other than the lust for money (and more money, cause they can still earn a significant amount with just their engineering degree, but prefer not to). If you think otherwise, ask yourself this question. ‘Would you have preferred to do a MBA , if you could have earned much higher pursuing some other degree?’

One of the professors in an IIM rightly commented during an interview, ‘If all engineers want to become managers, then who will do the engineering jobs?’ Even the guys who do go for engineering jobs, almost always choose IT jobs as the first priority. This is also another reason why India has such a serious shortage of talented chemical, mechanical, instrumentation(and other core branches) engineers, as all of them are either working in an IT job(never mind that they don’t have any base in IT, as the IT companies don’t bother about that), or are currently pursuing a MBA.

And I don’t see the situation improving any time soon. Not until say a third degree comes up, and displaces MBA from the top slot.