In India, everyone knows that IITs and then, NITs rule the roost when it comes to engineering education. It isn’t surprising that recent surveys on the top colleges echo the same- that IITs are the best. But then, they aren’t the only colleges in India. There are many engineering students who do not study in said institutions. There are thousands of Engineering colleges in India; mostly III Tier. In a recent post, I mentioned a Times of India report that said 80% of engineers are unemployable.
Does it then mean that engineering students outside the top institutes have no hope of ever scaling such heights?
Wrong.
They can. The advantage is there especially for students of Computer Science and Information Technology. Seeing as these are most in demand in today’s day and age, it makes sense for us to delve more into why CS / IT students from any college can match a student from the reputed IITs and NITs.
How so?
Well, first thing is: there isn’t a vast need for physical infrastructure.
CS / IT students basically need laptops and fast internet which aren’t that difficult to procure. It isn’t financially draining either.
With an unlimited connection of any service provider, a student can have access to the greatest resource of all – the World Wide Web. Here, there is no restriction. If an engineering student is tired of listening to his old boring professors, he could learn a lot doing online courses and streaming videos from world-class teachers from all around the world.
They say the world is becoming a global village, smaller by the day. This is more true for the engineering students who now have the ability to access the key to elevating their own education. Even simple things like inaccessible high-end hardware problems can be solved by simply deploying on the cloud. It isn’t rocket science that in today’s world, we can learn almost anything online.
So if you’re wondering how you could level up with those who are seemingly at better places, here are 3 things you can start today!
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Online courses:
So many are free and others, cheap. These will help you not only get the exposure you need but also give you skills that will give you a competitive edge. From UX Design to Android App Development, everything is available on the internet. There are even courses where you could get personally mentored by industry experts. It doesn’t get better than this.
Read Freelance Jobs for students in college. -
Freelancing:
Hands-on experience is the best learning experience. If you go ahead and work as you study, you will gain a lot just from the experience. Check websites like Freelancer and Upwork for opportunities to freelance.
Read How to Become a Freelancer?
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Competitive Programming:
Start solving problems and compete on programming sites such as Programming Competition, Programming Contest, Online Computer Programming, Codeforces, HackerRank, Sphere Online Judge (SPOJ), This will help you enhance your programming skills and develop data structures.
By now, after reading the above points, you may have realized that what you really need in order to get that higher level is determination and motivation. It’s true for all engineering students that, nothing will help if you don’t actually put effort and work into it. But if you have that drive to succeed and prove to yourself and the world that you can beat the best at their own game, go ahead and start. There is nothing that is stopping you from reaching any goal.