IIM, A churning machine
as i was browsing thru some management related stuff, i stumbled upon the blog of one Anand Sritharan. his profile was quite interesting. he is an IITian, finished his Masters in EE from UCLA, worked with Intel as a Design Engineer in Santa Clara for a while but went back to India to crack CAT and is now with McKinsey after his IIMA stint. for sometime, i was pondering on what could have made him go back and take CAT. IIM craze of course, i decided.
over a period of time, i have started to feel that all our IIMs and other management institutes in India have become a churning machine of salesmen and marketing personnel. they are producing graduates who take delight in their trained taste for management and are convinced somehow that they have made the most rational decision by getting into management well early in their lives.
this is a serious thought to me at this stage of my career and also purely from my not-so-well-informed point of view: do i want to sell my country to MNCs and yet made to feel that i am actually selling fancy stuff to my people, a deceitful convincing that i am improving their lifestyle? i am not undermining the developments that have swept our country and the incredible job done by NGOs and NPOs to rural India. on the other hand, we need to look at the statistics of how many engineers we have lost. India needs good engineers in more numbers. after all, software and FMCG alone cannot sustain a country's overall development. engineers build nations and it has to be emphasized in our govt policy and regulations. some portion of our govt's and ultimately the tax payers' money goes towards funding technical institutes like IITs and IISC. when the engineering students blindly jump into management and sell soaps, it is little disheartening to see it as a waste of another engineer point of view, though their aptitude will anyway be put to use in some chosen field.
i donno why this cynicism has crept into me. where do i base this? recently, i happened to speak to some friends who finished their grad from IIMs. they are not happy now with what they do (they are with FMCG MNCs and take home a bundle) but said they were happier in their previous jobs as engineers and software professionals. initially, it felt good to hear this!!!!!after all, its a sour grape for me.
my concerns are established deep in me for quite long that i need some sort of answers now. i am at crossroads and need help finding direction. i donno who would be the right person to ask. mails to anand sritharan has proved futile though.
it could just be a yearning to be home where things are happening. grass is always greener on the other side.
over a period of time, i have started to feel that all our IIMs and other management institutes in India have become a churning machine of salesmen and marketing personnel. they are producing graduates who take delight in their trained taste for management and are convinced somehow that they have made the most rational decision by getting into management well early in their lives.
this is a serious thought to me at this stage of my career and also purely from my not-so-well-informed point of view: do i want to sell my country to MNCs and yet made to feel that i am actually selling fancy stuff to my people, a deceitful convincing that i am improving their lifestyle? i am not undermining the developments that have swept our country and the incredible job done by NGOs and NPOs to rural India. on the other hand, we need to look at the statistics of how many engineers we have lost. India needs good engineers in more numbers. after all, software and FMCG alone cannot sustain a country's overall development. engineers build nations and it has to be emphasized in our govt policy and regulations. some portion of our govt's and ultimately the tax payers' money goes towards funding technical institutes like IITs and IISC. when the engineering students blindly jump into management and sell soaps, it is little disheartening to see it as a waste of another engineer point of view, though their aptitude will anyway be put to use in some chosen field.
i donno why this cynicism has crept into me. where do i base this? recently, i happened to speak to some friends who finished their grad from IIMs. they are not happy now with what they do (they are with FMCG MNCs and take home a bundle) but said they were happier in their previous jobs as engineers and software professionals. initially, it felt good to hear this!!!!!after all, its a sour grape for me.
my concerns are established deep in me for quite long that i need some sort of answers now. i am at crossroads and need help finding direction. i donno who would be the right person to ask. mails to anand sritharan has proved futile though.
it could just be a yearning to be home where things are happening. grass is always greener on the other side.
your point of view reflects your concerns about 2 trends :
ReplyDelete1.engineers from all branches abandoning their core knowledge area for greener pastures in software.
2.engineers doing well in software and other branches changing lanes into marketing and financial analysis type work ( after mba ).
>>>my view >>>
#1.not all graduates from iit are heading for software . companies like maruti, tata motors, bosch, general motors, suzlon recruit from all campuses.so its not that the core engg. jobs are not having their share of talented engg.
#2.manufacturing . civil and infrastructure works and material sciences in india is becoming world class.and to further support allround growth of industry , india needs a strong arm of marketing and finance proffesionals. and if engg can do that job better than others why not ?
#3. about satisfaction level in job after mba , i have interacted with people who are doing brand management kind of things and are enjoying it more than code writing. so all depends upon person.
regards
saurabh
p.s : very nice blog ..keep posting .
"selling soaps" is easier said than done ...or else fmcgs wouldnt be paying so much... ever heard of supply chain management ?
ReplyDeleteIt is not that Engineers are abandoning techie stuff. it is only that engineers are craving for niche and elite jobs and management education provides them a path to their dream job. With rising competition, only a niche segment can save your job...So I don't see any need to have a concern about this.
ReplyDeleteIn fact I have seen people returning to engineering streams after completing management, because they have seen a niche opening for them.
And the end of the day, engineers are trying hard to differentiate themselves from the lot and they have chosen management education as the path..
I guess...you gotta get out of the habit of deifying engineering as there always other angles to a business (Finance...operations management...mktg...etc)...so coming to the point...getting an MBA definitely makes you think multidimensionally...
ReplyDeleteAlso I have worked with some of the IIMs... really smart highly driven guys...I can assure you that these guys are not "churned out"..
But what you said is true...the other side is always greener...