Guide 101: Career Options For Engineers That Should Not Be Missed!

Should I take a job or go for higher studies? How can I make a successful transition from college into the workforce? What if I run my own start-up business? Did these questions just flutter your heart? Well, rest assured you are not alone in facing the ultimate dilemma of - What’s next? But we guarantee you that it won’t be so by the end of this article. The following guide will not only discuss the career options for engineers but will also enlist the relevant examinations, that can help you take leaps. Let’s set the ball rolling and make things easier!

Earning a B.Tech can open doors to employment opportunities in nearly every sector, from public services to armed forces. Yes! flexibility is the biggest advantage of an engineering degree. The broad curriculum, coupled with projects and internships, allows students to develop skill sets applicable across industries. But it is this flexibility that often digs a deep burrow of confusion for the engineers.

To help you draw a clear picture, here is the list of the best career options for engineers, our next-gen technocrats.

Giving wings to your start-up dreams

With an engineering degree in hand, many graduates watch out for the potential career paths, salaries, and higher studies, but some bright-eyed and enthusiastic innovators look for giving shape to their entrepreneurial dreams. Determined to follow the road less-travelled, some are able to chalk-out a successful career but unfortunately, the others get stuck in the flock of blind sheep. To keep yourself away from stumbling into a quagmire, ask,

Do I have a business idea that meets the demand of the market?
Do I have the required knowledge and expertise to start that business?
Can I finance the business and start-up costs?
Do I have an efficient staffing strategy and adept technology to run the business?
Can I do anything to make this idea better?
Do I have a location that fits well within my budget and offers scope for expansion?
And most importantly, do I have the ‘Can-do’ attitude?

So, before turning down a steady job opportunity, evaluate if you truly have what it takes to run a start-up business.

Looking beyond the aspects of entrepreneurship for engineering graduates, if we frame a flow chart of the career options for engineers, it would look something like this:

Let's tee off by going into details of every option one-by-one.

Higher education after graduation: Yay or nay?

We all have that vigor to start professional life after walking out of the hallowed halls of institutions, don’t we? But let’s be honest to ourselves here. How will you rank yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 on the study skills and techniques crucial for the growth of your career? If you are convinced with your rank, then voila! You are ready to embark on your professional career.

On the flip side, if you have even a shadow of a doubt, hold on! Go through these career options for higher education especially curated for engineers:

M.Tech/M.E.: Regarded as a benchmark for engineering graduates in India, the most sought-after entrance examination for admission in M.Tech courses is through GATE, held annually. Other postgraduate engineering entrances like TANCET, PGCET, NERIST, and CSIR-NET, also help students to pursue Master's in their field of specialization. So, if you want to get more insight into any particular subject, you can opt for an M.Tech/M.E. degree.
MS: It is one of those career options for engineers that carries a lot of weight on the resume. Designed especially for those engineers who want to study abroad, it attracts aspirants who have an analytical and technical bent of mind to hone in on a single specialty.
MBA: With more than 4 lakh students enrolling for an MBA degree every year, it is a booming career option. To get an entry ticket to the top B-Schools of India, CAT is considered as the mainstream examination. Aspiring candidates can also appear for other exams like XAT, SNAP, IIFT, NMAT, CMAT, etc to get on the premiere premises. In case, you are looking for doing an MBA overseas, do not miss filling out the forms of GMAT or GRE.
Ph.D.: If you are confused that whether you can get direct admission to Ph.D. sans Master’s, then the answer is a YES. You should get down to building a great profile for a Ph.D. application right now if you have future plans of research after your B.Tech./B.E.

The craze for government jobs

Career options for engineers are not just limited to private jobs or higher education, there exists an entirely different universe of government jobs. And after all, how can one deny a secure, more flexible, and rewarding job which gives a better work-life balance and more holidays? So here are some of the options that can be taken into consideration by engineering graduates aspiring for government jobs:

Administrative jobs

SSC CGL: Conducted twice a year, the examination witness a cut-throat competition with approximately 17-23 lakh students appearing every year. After clearing the pre, mains, and interview, candidates are recruited at inspector level, sub-inspector level, or assistant level jobs, across 18 government departments.
Bank PO: If you dream of yourself as a Bank Manager of a National bank down the lane, this is something for you. You can opt for various Bank PO exams, conducted by public sector banks for starting your journey as Probationary Officer.
IAS/Civil services: A hard nut to crack, approximately 4 lakh candidates compete for 1000-1500 vacancies every year across the country. Considering all the career options available for engineers in the government sector, what can be more profound than clearing an IAS/Civil services examination!

Technical jobs

IES/ESE: If you are focused on catering to technical and managerial functions of the Government of India, and belong to the Electrical, Mechanical, Civil, or Electronics and Communication branch you can opt for giving the IES or ESE examination to become an Executive engineer aka Class I officer.
SSC JE/AE: For the rank of Junior-level or Assistant-level engineers, all the Department of Central India and State release their own vacancies in Electrical, Mechanical, Civil and Electronics, and Communication engineering.
Scientific officer: One of the prominent career options for engineers is going for the scientist entries. Yes! You can look forward to getting into BRAC, ISRO, DRDO, and whatnot. For becoming a scientific officer, you can get a decent score in GATE or sit in their respective examinations like OCES/DGFS for BARC and CEPTAM for GATE.
Bank SO: All the Computer Science and Electronics and Communication engineers must not miss this one! Conducted by IBPS, nearly 10 lakh students compete among themselves for 1500+ vacancies for becoming Scale I officer.

Public sector undertakings

Public sector undertakings (PSUs) are government-owned corporations, where generally the government has a partnership of the ratio 51:49 with the private companies. NTPC, ONGC, SAIL, BHEL, HPCL, CIL, and IOCL among others are the cream of the crop and play a major role in the Indian economy. Without a doubt, PSUs are the dream of many engineering graduates and attract a huge pool of electrifying talent each year. One of the luring career options for engineers in PSUs is TTA and JTO.

So, if you belong to Electrical, Electronics and Communications, Instrumentation, Computer Science, IT, Radio engineering you can apply for the post of Technical Telecom Assistant (TTA) and Junior Telecom Officer (JTO) at Maharatna PSUs. They provide a handsome salary along with all the perks and facilities you can dream of. Apart from this certain PSUs uses GATE scores as a means for recruitment. So, if you wish a real-time growth in the technical field along with livelihood facilities, work your fingers to the bones to get this high-class job!

And then a window opened...

Look around, and you will find every second person taking up a job offer at private firms through on-campus or off-campus placements. These private companies might not have glamorous initial public offerings but that doesn't mean they can't be great places to work at. They definitely invest in your learning and development if you show potential. Personal growth at private companies is something that no other career options for engineers can offer. So, if you are planning to grab that job in a start-up or an MNC, buckle your shoes for the grueling process and nail it! And do not forget to trim your resume such that it lands in the YES pile.

By and large, the world of engineering has an array of choices available but the sooner you understand who you want to become and what you want to do, the better your chances to shine out bright. At first, the task may seem insurmountable, but we hope after reading these career options, you can now take the first step towards success.

The choice is yours to make!