WHAT TO DO AFTER B.TECH: SCOPE OF SHORT TERM COURSES.

 

Soon after B.Tech, starts the endless search for short cuts to landing a job. As India keeps churning out engineers by the lakhs, students find it harder everyday to get into a secure job.


On the other side there are reports that say India is always having a shortfall of skilled hands and good engineers...and then there are your parents and neighbours who keeps reminding you everyday, that you still haven't got a job.


The most important thing a jobless student in such a situation (I guess all of us will have our share of this 'time') shouldn't do is lose hope. And there is no use sitting idle in front of Facebook at your home. Because as days pass you will shrink into your comfort zone and will be becoming less of an engineer everyday. So its very important that you stay positive, and active.


SHORT TERM COURSES: THE MYTH AND THE TRUTH.
Ok, I guess you reached this page searching for "short term courses after B.Tech". Since I am an Electronics guy, I will be talking from the point of view of one, but still I am sure others can also pick up something.
The first thing is that there are short term courses and then there are certifications (short-long? depends). A short term course is usually a set of classes and lab sessions offered by a private institute, that may or may not be good. A certification on the other hand is usually offered by a recognized institution, industry leaders etc. 


MYTH1: Short Term Courses/ Certifications Guarantee you a job : FALSE
As the old saying goes, there is no short cut to success, and no short term can land you a 6 figure salary. Short term courses familiarise you more with new technology, or a platform. Your performance ALWAYS depends on how hard you work and how good you get at the job, and finally, how do you convince people to hire you?
It is how good an impression you make that counts more than your certifications. Certifications just pit you a cut above the rest of 'freshers'.


MYTH2: Short Term Courses will land me a job in Core sectors : FALSE
I have seen many students who always want a job in 'core sector'. Some of them are so damn stubborn, even when their aggregate suggests otherwise. Well, all I have to say about them is wait....and keep waiting. Seriously, I do not expect Electronics and Communication engineers like you and me who cannot repair your home T.V in a real life situation, to be speaking about 'core'! 
Another probable revelation (if you still haven't found out) is the fact that most of the electronics jobs in core sectors like embedded, VLSI etc, involve a lot of coding; so much so that your job experience is going to be somewhat like that of a programmer. Electronics engineers use lots of design tools to do their job at these places, and they don't write down things and solve mathematics sums to develop new chips!


Now, about the different sectors in which short term courses are offered.


1) NETWORKING
No its not social networking, but its all about the Computer Networks paper you probably had in 7th or 8th semester and more than that, cisco's routers. Popular networking certifications are of course CCNA,NP, and IE. The advantage of networking is that comparatively larger number of people are required in this sector today than embedded or VLSI.


2) EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Training program in Embedded Systems Design extensively covers embedded C programming, OS concepts, Linux internals, ARM7 based microcontroller architecture and 8-bit RISC and CISC architectures. The RTOS covered are mostly vx works and Embedded Linux. Students passing out of this course are supposed to come out with a strong command over embedded systems programming concepts. This sector is still in its early stages in India, but every now and then promising movements are seen in industry, like some Indian companies like Wipro foraying into ES. 


BOTH Networking and Embedded can be handled with a little more effort by Computer Science and EEE, and Instrumentation students also.


3)VLSI

Twenty-five years ago, Texas Instruments (TI) spotted India's rich talent pool and became the first multinational technology firm to establish a research and development center in India. The operation started small, creating software to automate chip design, but has grown to become the company's largest R&D center outside the United States, designing chips end-to-end.
In recent years, TI has looked to India with new eyes -- as a market for its products. It has opened several sales and support offices, even in such smaller cities as Nashik (in Maharashtra) and Coimbatore (in Tamil Nadu). "We see India as a big growth market," says Biswadip (Bobby) Mitra, president and managing director, TI India. "It has important top management attention, and we are betting big on it."
Over the years, global chipmakers including Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom and NXP, and electronic design automation firms such as Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys have established a strong R&D presence in India. They, too, now see India as a market.


That said, it may still be hard to find jobs in this sector as far as freshers are concerned, as this is real, hardcore electronics, and employs lesser manpower.


I have compiled a list of institutions offering such courses in another post. Click below to view this list. I am not affiliated to or do not advocate any specific one of them, but still I think it might be helpful. The list gives info on Automation, Digital Signal Processing, and Communication Courses also.

LIST OF INSTITUTES

I will be updating the list from time to time. So follow my blog if you are interested in getting further updates.

By Sharath with 19 comments