“Humara beta/beti engineer ban gaye.” Your parents say it so proudly, because it is not only a milestone in your life, but also in theirs. But little do they know what happened behind the scenes of these four (or more) years of getting a piece of paper declaring you as educated (kind of). Here are some expectations vs reality you face when you study in an engineering college:
1. Expectation: You probably expected life in an engineering college to be all about bunking, over-the-top parties and a happening social life
Reality: Heavy work-load including assignment submissions, lab-file maintenance and frequent exams
2. Expectation: Hitting it off with the college girls and being the “babe magnet”
Reality: You cannot be a chick magnet when there are hardly any chicks around. What? You thought Haryana’s Sex Ratio was a problem? Perhaps you never saw a classroom full of mechanical engineers
3. Expectation: You expected your professors to be open-minded individuals with dynamic personalities who would further help you grow as an individual
Reality: Never mind
4. Expectation: You expected the lab assistants to help you cheat during the practicals
Reality: But each time you approached them for help, something like this happened
5. Expectation: You always dreamed about being a top-notch hacker, a well known programmer, building something like Facebook, being the next Bill Gates or perhaps designing Iron Man’s suit
Reality: After 4 years, you end up in an IT company as a “Senior Data Analyst” and you realize that your job is nothing but a “Glorified” Data Entry Task
MS Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint become your best friends.
6. Expectation: Remember that hobby of yours which you always wanted to pursue since your school days but couldn’t because of lack of time and immense academic pressure and you always thought of pursuing it in college?
Reality: You can forget about it, for you wouldn’t be able to pursue it in an engineering college either- because around 8 hours of classes everyday will suck up all your time and energy and would make you want to kill yourself towards the end
7. Expectation: So you always thought that your engineer tag will help you impress girls/guys and would help you reach the “THIRD BASE”?
Reality: Had this been true, engineers all over India would be getting laid everyday. It will get you a lot of “Rishtas” and your Shaadi.com profile will be extremely popular but will this help you score with chicks?–>NO
8. Expectations: You thought people would look up to you and think of you as a smart person- someone studying complex matter and difficult subjects. Remember that condescending look you used to give your friends pursuing Arts/Literature courses?
Reality: Only if they knew about your struggle with the subject matter and how hard you tried to understand all things by yourself
9. Expectation: You always expected working in High-Tech labs with the latest technology
Reality: The complex devices being Voltmeters and Ammeters, test tubes and beakers, computers with slow processing speeds and blocked access to Facebook. Isn’t the thrill of measuring weight on a spring balance to die for?
10. Expectation: Being an engineering student you always thought that you will be aware of all the latest gadgets and well versed with the latest technological advancements
Reality: …
Because Giga Hertz is too mainstream.
11. Expectation: You always wanted to change the world with your inventions/start ups. Inventing a flying car, creating a search engine as big as Google or being the next Mark Zuckerberg were perhaps a few items on your bucket list
Reality: Sooner or later you learn that failure is a part of the game
Your invention or start up may not be a huge success in one go. But you have got to keep trying and never give up. That is what makes Engineers different.