This article has been written for the annual magazine of Civil Engineering Association, BITS-Pilani, ‘HIGHRISE ‘08′ and is meant to be a compilation of ideas and pertinent data which may be helpful for students interested in pursuing higher studies in relevant fields.

‘And in today already walks tomorrow. ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge’

Birla Institute of Technology and Science has produced stalwarts in every field. Be it in the industry or in the academia, we can always come across a successful BITSian who is proud of his lineage. Most of us have heard about them and some of us have had the opportunity to interact with them and delve into the reasons behind their success. I believe the only reason behind their success could be – Harnessing core competencies through opportunities. Recognizing our core competencies is a deep and intensive process in itself and the decisions made by most of the men around us are a mere progeny of the societal perceptions or external impulses. However, knowing the opportunities that lay ahead of us is necessary for a wise decision as well. An attempt is made here to provide an insight into the careers that we can pursue after we graduate and more importantly, what we may need to do while we are here to gear up for it. This is not the most comprehensive and absolute article on the subject and has been influenced by countless reports and sources of ideas and data.

Figure 1. Major Career Paths

With such a variety of permutations and options (Figure 1.) to choose from, it is a daunting task to decide the right track. The first step should be to perform a S.W.O.T. analysis on ourselves to gauge our Strengths and Weaknesses, do a review of the Opportunities around us and gauge the inherent Risk associated with each one of them. The different career tracks and their characteristics can be briefly summarized as follows:

Ø M.B.A. Track:

• Ask yourself?

§ How many batch mates have I talked to, at least once during my stay in Pilani? Can I start and hold on to a conversation to perfect strangers? (Gauge your networking acumen!)

§ Do I have the convincing power (rather a confusing power!) to impose even my bizarre views on others? (Tests your marketing skills!)

§ Do I like playing with mathematical data and can easily analyze them and take inferences? (Mathematical or rather arithmetic prowess is a bonus!)

§ Have I handled multiple responsibilities at once and fared well in each one of them? Do I like being busy 24*7? (Multi-tasking is the buzzword in business and with managers!)

• What are the pros and cons?

§ Vertical growth in terms of managerial power.

§ Rise in salary: Average Salary-$145,000 average salary (Wharton), INR 19 Lakhs (ISB), INR 14.83 (IIM-Kozhikode).

§ Hectic schedule and no relation with technical knowledge: BITSian technical prowess is not needed to do the job.

• What is needed for admission and how to prepare? (from a BITSian perspective)

§ Experience: Quality and quantity the most important criteria in U.S. Business schools and ISB-Hyderabad (The More the better! Average is 4.9 years at MIT-Sloan). IIM-Bangalore specifies a maximum score for 36 months and scores decrease for a greater or lesser duration. So, am I set to be in a reputed company after BITS?

§ Academic record: CGPA, X & XII marks (Yes, those too!). Am I consistent with my academics?

§ Scores: CAT propels us to the next stage; GMAT score must be high for U.S. schools. So, am I practicing speed math and gobbling words?

§ Group Discussion/Interview: Culmination of all my talents, if I fared well in my ‘Ask yourself?’ test.

Ø M.S. Track:

• Ask yourself?

§ Have I been able to engage in academic projects and fare well in coursework too? (Gauges your academic aptitude.)

§ Do I ask questions to everything around me and in the subjects that I learn? (Analytical skills are a must!)

§ Have I ever taken a position of responsibility and ‘called the shots’? (Tests your decision-making capabilities in pressure-cooker situations!)

§ Do I ever question the regular coursework as prescribed by the university and try to do courses, which interest me? (Independent thinking suits the perfect graduate student!)

• What are the pros and cons?

§ Increase in technical knowledge leading to better jobs in core industry in just two years.

§ Getting into it easier as one is not competing with highly qualified M.S. students for admission into the program (unlike for PhD admissions where they apply too!)

§ Rise in salary: $48,420 average starting salary after M.S. Civil Engineering with no work experience (Source: Sloan Career Cornerstone Center). $62,275 is the median for all Civil engineers.

• What is needed for admission and how to prepare? (from a BITSian perspective)

§ Relevant project and work experience: Criteria for M.S. aid (which is extremely rare) are based on this and its relevance to the department to which you have applied. Internships and projects also let us know researchers who may give recommendations (You need three!) and we will have something to write about our experiences in our ‘Statement of Purpose’, both of which are mandatory in the application. Have I been involved in projects or internships, which are relevant to the field I wish to apply?

§ Academic awards and accolades: This shows that the student and his work has been recognized and awarded at a national/international stage. So, have I started participating in academic fests like APOGEE and won academic scholarships?

§ C.G.P.A. and University reputation: It shows that the applicant was regular with his coursework, which is an integral part of M.S. too. Among the Civil Engineering students getting admission to top five universities (as per U.S. News rankings) from in 2008, the lowest G.P.A. was 8.15. Am I faring well in academics and my relevant courses? Is my University well known? (Dumb question, because you have one of the best pedigree in Asia)

§ G.R.E. /T.O.E.F.L. scores: They are used to filter the applicants and narrow down to a smaller applicant pool. 750-800 in Quantitative, 500-550 in verbal is the average at U.C. Berkeley. T.O.E.F.L. has a particular cutoff for every university and requires minimal preparation in addition to G.R.E. Have I opened those Class IX geometry notebooks and started dreaming about words?

Ø PhD. Track:

• Ask yourself?

§ Do I like doing independent study and fare much better in courses I like doing? (Quantifies your passion for some research area or a broad domain!)

§ Have I been addressed as ‘nerd’, ‘weird’, and ‘eccentric’ by people around me at some phase of my life? (Are you capable of single-minded concentration on a single topic for a 5-7 year period?)

§ Do I get new ideas about the things I read? Do I try out new and often impossible ideas just to satisfy my urge ‘to know’? ( Gauges your research aptitude!).

• What are the pros and cons?

§ Prerequisite for a career in academia and research.

§ Independence to engage in projects you like, though under some restrictions if in the industry.

§ Takes a lot of time: The median number of years taken to complete a PhD at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is 6.1 years (Source: Phds.org)

§ Highly competitive: The ratio of M.S. to PhD admits is roughly 10:1.

§ Not necessarily a rise in salary: Rise in salary from M.S. to PhD depends upon the area of expertise. It might stagnate after M.S. or differ by an insignificant amount thus denoting the importance of industry experience rather than a PhD.

• What is needed for admission and how to prepare? (from a BITSian perspective)

§ Quality of research and the output: In addition to doing good projects and internships as in for M.S., the quality of work matters. In addition, the relevance of the work with the latest research topics (thrust areas) as it is the departments and the professors whose research matches yours who are going to fund you for 5-7 years. So, have I started working with well-known professors and on relevant quality projects?

§ All other factors as stipulated for M.S.

All the above tracks and the offbeat ones like Entrepreneurship, pursuing an M.E. in India or pursuing Civil Services have their own merits and demerits. There have been successful people who have excelled in every track. There is no set norm for success and there are no stereotypes. There are plenty of BITSian examples like Vinod Agarwal (McGill, Logicvision, Semindia), Thomas Thampy (Elexsi), Seshadri Vasan (McKinsey, Oxitec), Sharad Mehrotra (Procket, Fabric 7) who have excelled in the industry after their graduate studies. The most preferred option among BITSians is the M.S. program and gurus advice against going for a PhD unless one are absolutely sure about the field in which he wants to work and has the requisite research credentials to back up his claim.

Recent trends in the Civil Engineering group at BITS-Pilani have shown confirmed admissions from top universities in the world- Stanford University, University of Texas-Austin, Purdue University-West Lafayette, Texas A&M, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia-Tech), and there has been a trend among the students of getting into reputed business school in India and abroad. A higher degree is an investment in the future and BITS-Pilani provides the perfect foundations for a rewarding experience during graduate studies and beyond.