When you were in the tenth standard you may have heard your teachers say, "This is the most important year. If you do well in the final 10th exams then your life is settled." Coming to the 11th standard (after having chosen or rather after being forced into choosing a stream) the teachers would say, "The syllabus in 11th is double than that of 12th. If you can do well in 11th then 12th standard will be easy for you." And then when you are in the 12th standard the same teachers would say, "This is your life. If you do well here then you will get a good college and your life is settled."

        Is that the end of the story? It may be if you happened to get admission into IIT, BITS or REC. But for those who enter into other lesser-known colleges, the story definitely continues. With so many engineers coming out every year, the demand for engineers is limited while the supply of engineers is countless. A few years back demand and supply was in similar proportions and fresher graduates could expect to get a good job with decent pay. But now a B.E. does not assure that you will settle in life after four years of college. And if you get a job, it may well be on a pretty low pay scale. B.E has literally become something that every Tom, Dick and Harry has. It is just a basic requirement for everything. Someone said B.E. stands for Beggars for Employment and I guess it really makes sense in the present Indian scenario.

        So, once you enter into an engineering college it is high time to start thinking of what you want to do next in life. This is a question that many students never think of till they step into the final year of college (in most cases the thought arises only in the final semester). It is better that you think of the various options available and decide on what you should do. And I suggest that you start thinking at least from second year onwards. Collect as much information as you can get and use all your resources effectively. What are the avenues that you could take?

• Job in your field

• Job in any other field (like marketing)

• M.E./M.Tech in India

• MBA in India

• Entrepreneur (either continuing a family business or starting a new business)

• Studying abroad

You could basically divide it into 3 routes: job, higher studies or business. Let me stress on one fact here: whatever you do next in life, the ultimate aim is to get a job. Even if you go for higher studies you have to end up searching for a job again. What's the big deal in higher studies? It gives you a couple of years extra to hunt for a job. For 2 years you need not worry about searching for a job. And it gives you an extra edge; since you will be more specialized. I am certainly not going to deal with entrepreneurship in this book because it would need a complete book on its own. An entrepreneur is quite a challenging job and you can find lots of books on the subject. If you feel you cannot work under someone, or if you feel you want to be at the topmost level of the organization or if you want to take up challenges and create a fortune 500 company, then you can think of becoming an entrepreneur. I am certainly not against it but most people usually don't opt for business immediately after their graduation. They tend to work in their area of interest for a few years, assess the market situation and then start a business.

My advice is to keep all options open. Don't say that "I'll never get a job. I have to do higher studies" or "I can't study another 2 years. I can only go for a job".

        Keep both options open. You never know what might happen in life and don't ever think that you cannot do one or the other. Everyone can study (just like you studied school and four years of college) and everyone can work in a job (ultimately you have to work somewhere. If not after your B.E, then it would be after your M.E). Again in the case of higher studies, don't restrict yourselves to India or to some particular country exclusively. Keep both options open if possible. Doing your higher studies in India would be cost effective but when you do your higher studies you have to make sure that the degree would be an asset. Which means that you should pursue your master's degree in a good college. In India, that would correspond to the IITs, RECs, BITS and a few other premier institutes in different States but a foreign degree will generally be of more value (simply because the education system abroad is quite different from what we have in India). The reason I say this is because if you happen to do your masters in some private unknown college in India, you will land up with the same problem for jobs. Again you would be competing with thousands of fresh undergraduates and since you have specialized, it could even lead to your rejection (since the company may feel you are over-qualified or have specialized in some other field). And the greatest risk is that you may ultimately have to enter the teaching profession (I am not saying that teaching profession is bad. If you like to teach then it is fine but many people seem to take up teaching without having any interest in the job. So be careful when you do your higher studies - don't do it just for the sake of doing it; take it up with interest). Same applies for those planning to do their MBAs. Do it in some premier institute.

GATE is the common entrance test for taking up M.E/M.Tech. in India. It's a great idea to just start preparing for GATE exam from your 2nd year onwards. It would mean that you have to focus on your academics extra hard (you will have to learn more on the subjects that you learn in college so that you have that extra edge for cracking GATE). First check up with the GATE syllabus for your course and then prepare extra in those subjects. Usually the mere mention of GATE puts off most students.

"GATE! Nah! That's not for me. I'm not so brainy."

Well, you don't require a special engineering brain to crack GATE. All you need to do is put in some regular effort in your studies. Start from second year itself so that you have a feel of GATE early on.

It's easy to advise others but everything is hard to practice. It is easier to guide, but the real difficulty will be in working hard to realize the dreams. I am going to guide and inspire you as much as I can; but the ultimate effort has to come from within yourself. No one else can do it better than you. It's your life; live it so that you are proud of every moment you've lived.