5 Tips For Confused Engineering Students To Find Their Ideal Career Path

A degree or diploma in engineering can open up many avenues for you. Despite negative news like contraction in the economy and falling demand across sectors, the craze for engineering courses is skyrocketing.

As an engineering student, the future is set for you. But, to truly shine in the field, you have to possess a few skills that can set you one step ahead of the crowd.

Read this article to discover the top five things that can prepare you for the future and make you a job-ready candidate without any confusion.

Contents

1. Get Ready For The Future

Your college curriculum can’t keep up with the rapid pace of the industry. The difference between what you are learning in college and what the industry needs can often be poles apart.

To keep abreast of the industry, consider enriching your resume with courses like Computational Fluid Dynamics, Full Stack Web Development, Hybrid Electric Vehicle Design, Automotive Design, MATLAB, or others.

An engineering degree or diploma teaches you the basics, which all other engineers like you are learning. To get your dream job, you need something more than the skills that an average engineer possesses.

Industry-approved courses, such as those mentioned above, can help you bridge the gap between college and corporate and assure the recruiter about your skills.

5 Tips For Confused Engineering Students To Find Their Ideal Career Path

A degree or diploma in engineering can open up many avenues for you. Despite negative news like contraction in the economy and falling demand across sectors, the craze for engineering courses is skyrocketing.

As an engineering student, the future is set for you. But, to truly shine in the field, you have to possess a few skills that can set you one step ahead of the crowd.

Read this article to discover the top five things that can prepare you for the future and make you a job-ready candidate without any confusion.

1. Get Ready For The Future

Your college curriculum can’t keep up with the rapid pace of the industry. The difference between what you are learning in college and what the industry needs can often be poles apart.

To keep abreast of the industry, consider enriching your resume with courses like Computational Fluid Dynamics, Full Stack Web Development, Hybrid Electric Vehicle Design, Automotive Design, MATLAB, or others.

An engineering degree or diploma teaches you the basics, which all other engineers like you are learning. To get your dream job, you need something more than the skills that an average engineer possesses.

Industry-approved courses, such as those mentioned above, can help you bridge the gap between college and corporate and assure the recruiter about your skills.

If present-day recruitment trends are any indication, recruiters prefer candidates with proven expertise in a specific field rather than a simple college degree.

2. Discover Your Niche Early In Your Career

Right from when you enter the gates of an engineering college, many thoughts will hover around your mind.

You will hear students discussing topics revolving around the likes of placement, projects, internships, CGPA, SGPA, YGPA, competitive examinations, higher education, and many more.

As an engineering student, it can be naturally very confusing and overwhelming to navigate through these ideas.

Quite often, students make the mistake of following the herd mentality, where they decide their career by looking at what the vast majority is doing.

But doing so can not only rip you off the opportunity to find your niche but may also prompt you to make wrong decisions. Hence, it’s never too late as an engineering student to decide what you want after the final year.

If you have an enriched resume and know that you can take on the industry, it’s good to go for on or off-campus placements.

If, however, machines or software fascinate you, and you would like to augment your engineering prowess, then going for higher education may be a better choice.

At this point, it is wise to consider that whichever option you choose must help you stay relevant in the future. There’s no wisdom in choosing a career that you will regret about, going further.

If you need help in choosing a career, contact a career counselor to analyze your interests and suggest an appropriate field.

3. Gather Details About Your Preferred Career

Now that you have figured out what you want to do after adding an engineering degree to your resume, it’s time to explore as many details about the career as you can.

For example, if you choose higher studies, then you have to select between two options – pursue a course from a university or join a private institute offering industry-ready courses on advanced topics.

Reputed private institutions tie up with the best companies and arrange placement sessions for their students. Moreover, they offer personalized attention and hands-on courses, something a university rarely offers.

Other than higher education, you can choose several options like preparing for a government job, setting up a business, pursuing an MBA, joining the management cadre of an organization, joining an internship, etc.

If you want to get a government job in engineering, you may have to clear the GATE exam. Hence, whichever field you wish to move into, it is wise to research about it and direct all your efforts towards the goal.

4. Find Out Your Personality Type

Often, students face confusion because their career interests are all over the place, and they can’t pick one thing to achieve. In this case, personality tests can be an excellent way to find out more about your career.

Your personality defines your likes and interests. While you may be eyeing a dream job in a dream organization, if your personality type doesn’t match the job requirements, you cannot survive well.

Hence, determining your personality type is vital before deciding which career would suit you more. To help you in the task, various free personality tests are available online.

Some popular tests that engineering students frequently use are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test, the Keirsey Temperament Sorter test, and the Jungian Type Index test.

If more than one test suggests a particular career, then you should consider exploring that career more than others.

5. Establish Milestones

If you have the desire to make sense of all the confusing thoughts in your head, try setting small, medium, and long-term goals for greater clarity.

Your long-term goals should include the things you wish to achieve after five or ten years. The long-term goal will give you direction and help you to lay down a timeline.

Once you have the long-term goals ready, move on to create mid-term goals, which can range between one year and three years.

Hence, if you are pursuing a course in mechanical engineering and your long-term goal is to join Schneider Electric, your medium-term goal would be to look for Courses after/for Mechanical Engineering.

As a final step, prepare a list of short-term goals to stay on track. It is also essential to include milestones in your career plan and strike off the ones you achieve as you proceed with the journey.

Additionally, take out the time from your busy schedule to reward yourself after accomplishing a goal. Rewarding oneself can be a healthy way to boost self-motivation.

Conclusion

For an engineer, the sky is the limit. You can taste success only when you adapt yourself according to the needs of the industry.

To excel in your field of interest, you have to look beyond the ordinary and aspire to inculcate the habits that are a hallmark of any successful engineer.

Updated: December 3, 2020 — 10:00 am

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