Posted by Career Opportunities in Electronics Industry
Electronics industry in India is providing employment to students from various academic background . Let me try to put some based on my knowledge.
- Ph.d/M.Tech/B.Tech generally get placement in software and hardware development .
- Diploma (Three year) generally do PCB designing and many students opt for lateral entry in B.Tech.
- ITI students get placed in soldering , wiring , component placement and servicing.
- B.Sc/M.Sc in Software development . One can find M.Sc/M.Tech as well
- BCA/MCA in Application software
Do we have outdated syllabus in academy ?
This can be a contradictory point of discussion. First of all , We need to understand one thing that it is not practical to change academic syllabus frequently as per Industry. Industry is driven by Marketing and it will keep inventing new things every year. However academy must have foundation courses to meet the requirement.
There are Engineering branches available in India > For example Mechatronics, Medtronic, IoT, Robotics , Aeronautical, Aerospace , Automotive, Biomedical etc However these are available in selected colleges. But still engineering colleges provide options for Embedded , IoT , RTOS , Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence , Cyber security etc. So it is not fair to say that courses are not aligned with academy in India.
Why students not get job in Core ?
There are several factors for this . I am trying to put some checklist for that .
- There are three main programming languages for Electronics core job and must be done in sequence. Those are C , C++ and Python. If someone work 60%in C , 30% in C++ and 10% in Python. It is good enough at entry level for Embedded System. For VLSI , they need to get expertise in Verilog , VHDL, System C etc.
- In addition to above programming skills , They need to focus on academic specific subjects . The overall CGPA or % provides hint for that background.
- One can do internship/project work during semester break in his/her area of interest.
- If someone don’t meet above criteria , then definitely there will be problem in getting off campus internship/job in core area.
- Some students do lot of hard work but without any proper direction. Here Internet based knowledge can confuse them as well. Unfortunately they realize this only after facing industry.
- Other issue is that many embedded professionals don’t work at one place for more than two years so they don’t get enough exposure in particular domain. Freshers also get misguided due to dirty politics in small companies. Generally the employee ,who creates negativity against employer , never resign.
Harsh Truths of Electronics Students in India
I am basically from CSE but moved to Embedded. I have done few things like PCB designing , soldering , schematic review etc. which normally CSE students will never do. I have seen VLSI, Embedded and pure software during my 25yrs career. Based on my observation , Majority of ECE students struggle in confusion. Here are few points :
1: VLSI is dream job of many ECE students. However they don’t get good resources during Engineering and good companies hire mostly cream students from prestigious institutions. Now MNCs prefer Master degree.
2: Those who go for hardware design , They limit themselves to PCB design and hardware design only . Also demand in hardware was low due to manufacturing outside India.
3: Many students just prepare for IT because of campus visiting companies. So ideally they have to learn out of syllabus and sometime without interest.
4: Some companies hire good Electronics students but don’t provide core job. They end up in testing & service kind of job . Sometime work as contractor only.
5: Many students are afraid of coding because they follow high level software development courses and beyond their background. For ex Java . Data structure & Algorithms related courses .
6: Embedded software is one domain which ECE students can manage by learning only few extra skills. It also requires good efforts and patience. Hardly a bunch of students work in this direction from the beginning.
7: Many ECE students spend years for Govt & GATE preparation.
8: Those who get chance in core field , They keep changing at frequent level for salary hike. Some of them endup to a cocktail resume .
9: I noticed the internship advertisement by many startup-companies mention too many skills as requirement which is not possible at Engineering level.
10: Unfortunately even after studying 70+ subjects and 10+ online certificates, ECE students don’t get motivation in terms of salary.
11: After getting education from highly qualified professors and global course, Students opt for some training institutes without knowing the background of instructor. Sometime such institutes assign teaching to old students who themselves failed to get embedded job. The outcome can be easily understood.
I tried to cover most of the points.
What can be the solution ?
India is such a big country that such issues should be addressed at regional level. Will Make in India be successful by just start-up companies ?
- I think that there must be review of each institute for Electronics branch . How many students are opting for core ? How many companies provide internship to students in core domain ? How this can be improved ?
- If companies get some kind of tax rebate in providing internship to students , It may solve issue related to industry exposure . As of now , there is no such provision.
- Do we need Industry expertise for coding skills as well ? This can be done by faculty itself.
- There must be provision for scholarship or reservation for good performers in core domain.
- Government should encourage technical education start-up companies.
- What is the advantage of inspiring school level kids by ATL if they can’t build career in that domain ?