Look at this advertisement calling for an Embedded System Engineer below.
The above advertisement is for a job position with the company Bosch, looking for a 1-2 year experienced embedded system programmer. Now the reason why I posted this ad is not exactly for the purpose of promoting it, but to show you something that is really very rare in India. Rare like tigers in India. Just 1411 tigers left — the Aircel ad reads.
I’m an Electronics and Communication engineer. Like many other electrical engineers, when in college, I wanted a core job. Nothing else. I was being told by my friends and professors that there are plenty of opportunities for Embedded Systems in India. And not just that, the jobs in the core industry were the most secure ones. Those jobs were the highest paid jobs in India and those who work for those jobs are highly respected — The core electrical and electronics jobs. There are plenty of these jobs around and that’s why I should read electronics basics properly for four years of engineering. Right?
Wrong. Sorry in case you thought so, you are completely mistaken. If you think that there are plethora of core electronics jobs in India, it means that you have no idea about the job market in India or you have no personal experience in trying for such jobs.
I was an ardent fan of Embedded Systems back then. I studied Electronics sincerely in the hope of finding an electronics job. But every time I searched for jobs, I got interview calls for computer science jobs. Always. There are so many IT jobs out there in India. Back then, I even had a separate resume for highlighting my embedded systems skills and a separate copy of resume that showed my computer skills.
But where are the core jobs in India?
I went to Bangalore, the silicon city of India in search of core electronics jobs. After researching a couple of months, I had learnt that there were a only few electrical related companies (countable on fingers) such as AMD, Intel, Honeywell, Bosch, Wipro, Nvidea graphics, CISCO, Reliance, Nokia Siemens. And out of those positions, the number of positions that have a job role completely relevant to electronics and communication is again relatively fewer. Most of the jobs with those companies in India are related to computer programming or BPO.
Tell me something. How many people do you know that hold core jobs?
Out of all your cousins, far relatives, seniors, fellow mates – how many of them work in core electronic company doing a “core” job. Let me tell you a useful statistic. Out of my 120 fellow classmates who passed out from Electronics and Communication Engineering department, just 7 of them are working in core electrical jobs.
That’s not the worst news yet. Those companies that recruit resources for core electronics jobs such as Embedded and VLSI, rarely hire freshers. If you want an evidence to my statement, buy a copy of magazine “Electronics For You” in a local paper-stand and go through the jobs section for yourself. You will find that most of the job positions require the applicants to atleast have 8-10 years of core electrical or electronics field experience. So those jobs are not for freshers. Even if they are freshers, they demand you to hold a masters degree(M.Tech) in VLSI or Embedded Systems or Advanced Electronics. If not M.Tech they at least require you to hold a six-month diploma degree in related fields. B.Tech degree is just not sufficient. In cases where it’s sufficient, companies don’t recruit freshers for such jobs.
There’s more bad news for engineers aspiring for core jobs. The jobs related to core electronics design typically pay you less than IT jobs. Astonished? Shocked? I know you would be. That’s because there is this false conception in every electrical/electronics engineer in India. Want to disagree with me? Feel free to. Nothing wrong. Like I said, it’s a natural reaction from a fresh electronics under-graduate in India.
I am of the opinion that most of the Research and Development work in the field of core electrical and electronics happens in the developed countries such as the US and other developed European countries, with some exceptions. Only the tedious and monotonous jobs such as testing are outsourced to India. So my advice to the Indian students who are seriously looking forward for core jobs would be to pursue M.Tech degree in India or more preferably do a Masters of Science degree in the US or other western countries, or at the least hold a short term diploma degree from a reputed private institution as M.S Ramaiah Institute of Technology or a known government institution such as C-DAC.
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About the Author: Sridhar Jammalamadaka is the Editor of Interview Mantra. He's a typically non-typical Software Engineer from Pune, India. He likes entrepreneurship, web technologies and Micro Controller programming. He enjoys playing cricket and piano (but rarely does these activities). Through this website, he wishes to gather a large community of aspiring engineers, entrepreneurs and professionals from all parts of the globe. You can connect with him on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/sridhar.j 
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