A piece of writing that I put together a month or so back. My first attempt at writing an article for a newspaper. Like most first attempts, nothing really came of it. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the exercise :)
School is widely regarded as the first social experience. College marks the end of the beginning. School (and home in most cases) is left behind. Students are forced to see dreams in a real life perspective and they take the first few steps towards independence. The journey to college marks a watershed in their lives as for the first time they briefly get to savour freedom of choice.
Choice titillates eighteen year olds who are young adults. Adulthood beckons them. Confusion, social pressure and job security lure many into taking up engineering. Engineering allows an individual to choose between diverse avenues of employment after graduation. Choice is thus enjoyed and deferred.
Most of the students at engineering college are away from home for the first time. Freedom, the routine classroom environment and rigorous curriculum drive students differently. A select few immerse themselves in self study and project work. Some students involve themselves with extracurricular activities (most of which cannot be mentioned in print!) and computer games. The vast majority distance themselves from academics and do not identify with the coursework that they are subjected to.
The end result is that a large number of youngsters find themselves to be caught in a web of interminable hours in the classroom, innumerable examinations and little or no official leisure time. It is in such a situation that relationships are forged, the classroom becomes a place to recoup energy that is spent elsewhere, last minute preparation is accepted by teachers and students alike as the norm and procuring notes for photocopying is made a fine art. Students love college for the freedom that it provides to find or lose one’s self. They feel that engineering is less an exercise in learning and more an experiment with education.
Recruitment in engineering colleges begins in the third year of college. Not surprisingly, students also pull up their socks at that time! Discussions about pre-placement talks, pay packages and companies dominate their hitherto carefree lives. Some students say that college helped them to gain a clearer perspective on life. The abundance of choices available post engineering notwithstanding, a high percentage of students commences professional life in a software company.
Most software companies operate behind a veil of informality. Casual e-mails are framed carefully and orders come gift-wrapped with smiles. At work every action comes under the scanner and friendship does not come with the click of a mouse. This may not as yet be an Orwellian scenario but nonetheless freshers say that they have to learn to cease living by instincts and fend for themselves. Fast! Once in the workplace engineers adapt well and most feel that this has little connection with their college education.
The majority of engineers feel that their ‘chosen’ course of study did not enrich them academically. However, they do concede that the rigorous curriculum which most of them underwent in a disinterested mode has left its traces on their mind and helped them gain financial independence. The minority that participated in the rigmarole of engineering college believes that the hectic college years provided a flavour of the pressures of professional life and equipped them to feel at home in an organisation. The consensus is that actual learning takes place only at work and that the first job is a stepping stone for post graduate studies.
It is quite an eye opening and soul wrenching experience for engineers to accept technical activities as part and parcel of their lives. For some, every day dawns as a new project with tickets attached to it! They understandably look back at their college years wistfully, yearn for a few more years of a life without worries in which they could follow their hearts, only to realize that life must go on and grudgingly appreciate work and its inevitable consequences – monotony and money.
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