- All parents want their children to become engineers when they grow up – but how attractive is the life of a fresher engineer?
- Is the present industrial landscape of India treating our trainees rightly? Or are they victims of clever exploitation and manipulation?
- Wrik Bhattacharyya sets out to explore the pains of a young engineeer in the manufacturing industry in India today
In a world where engineering graduates are growing by large numbers every single year. The “Fresher” scenario seems far worse than manageable. The many graduates from unnamed colleges all over the country are all in a rat race to get jobs. Colleges are cropping up like toad-stools today, but are we equipped to provide jobs to such a large number of “Fresher Engineers”? Do we even need so many engineers? Well, that’s for the Government to decide, but for us to push towards.
Coming to a real-world scenario, colleges churn out engineering graduates every year by large numbers, some are provided with on-campus jobs, while the majority are deprived of this “luxury”. These so-called “fresher’s” have nowhere to go, since most organizations don’t accept freshers”; the ones who do have so much to give (much take than give, coming to that later) is just mind-boggling.
To be honest, employers have good reasons to prefer only experienced candidates. A total greenhorn, or as they are jeered at, a “noob”, would need a hell of a lot more onboarding and training than an experienced engineer. They know the instruments better, have a lot of tricks up their sleeves to tackle situations and have a much better professional attitude. But it’s hardly fair on the fresher counterparts.
A Real-World Story
Rahul, a recent graduate in Mechanical Engineering, got a break by getting placed in one of the large corporates in Calcutta, he was delighted as most out of most of his competitors he finally bagged the job offer which would include 1 year of training and then he would be given a position in the company. Little did he know about the surprises to come!
After joining, the present employees greeted him and the others who joined with him with much haste, as if they were a threat. This did not stop the “Fresher’s” from venturing into the unknown, they were given a brief tour of what the organization manufactures, and provided with a flow chart describing the work process, that’s it. No formal “training” was provided, then they were each given a set of responsibilities to look after under a manager.
This is the way most organizations treat the new recruits as if they learn everything from college and come to work. I don’t have an idea how most recruits manage to tackle these situations by keeping quiet and the mentality of “come what may, I have to face it”. That’s a very dangerous mindset, especially on a landscape ruled by greedy money-grabbers.
Organizations exploit these Trainees as much as they can, by getting them to do work which normally an engineer won’t do, and on top of it they offer them less pay (the so-called stipend) as well, But the most ridiculous thing which angers me; is that the employers hold them accountable for any sort of problem that arises, when at the end of the day the trainee does not have a clue what’s happening or what went wrong.
Fate of the Second-Benchers
Most of the Trainees don’t make it through halfway of the training period, due to these exploiting factors and are left without a job or an experience certificate, since the organization will not give a certificate if the trainee leaves before the completion date. Mentally and physically stressed these fresher’s have a lot to digest, Meanwhile the people who do complete the training are treated as daily wage workmen in many cases.
Most of such “dropouts” have to go out and take odd jobs that are available, just to sustain life. The BPO’s and BPS’s gobble up these young, disillusioned people. Years pf expensive education and hard work go straight down the drain.
Life of a Trainee
Daily inhuman targets, ridicule from bosses and seniors, overloading with work, no social life are just some of the few things which describe a Trainee’s struggle. On the other hand, those candidates who do not get a job are rejected by most of the companies, since they “don’t have the time to train freshers”.
This is a major problem which companies need to understand, a fresher, if employed, will care much more about the company than a person employed for a longer period, they will have more eagerness to learn and tackle situations rather than older employees. This is not understood by most organizations and thus freshers are not provided with an entry only.
The Effect
The rising population of Indian engineers is staggering and more and more fresh graduates are being included in the unemployed population every year. Some take it as a challenge to get secure good jobs, while others are left underpaid, or even out of the industry. The dream of studying engineering is slowly becoming a thing of the past since juniors are getting used to seeing their previous batch unemployed, depressed or even suicidal.
The strong unemployment factor still prevailing in our country is dominating the stories of our youths. The government should realize what an asset they have with the growing mass of young, fresher engineers; and utilize them to the best capacity. Indeed, there already exists plans and schemes that aim to force companies to trainees and interns – for example, the NAPS program that started back in 2016.
However, these programs are pitifully small in the face of the need of the Indian youth; and the fresher engineers are desperately in need of help – or else we will soon face a major departure from the industry. The manufacturing in India today will be hit the most if that happens.
