What are the Future Job Opportunities for ECE/EEE/Mech/Civil/Chem Students? 

Yesterday I was sharing a video message (https://youtu.be/PAFuE-S3YL0 ) to all Engineering students on how they can groom themselves to protect themselves from the future potential recession. I received a comment saying the message is more inclined to CSE. Though the basic message and Internship planning are the same for all branches, let me answer specifically for the ECE/EEE/Mech/Civil/Chem context. 

The opportunities for Non-CSE remain constant. Let me share an interesting parallel. BBC posted an interesting article on How much Gold is left on Earth? Today, around 60% of the world's mining operations are surface mines, while the remainder is underground ones. To date, mining companies look at the opportunity differently. They estimate the volume of gold that remains in the ground in two ways: 

1.         Reserves - gold that is economic to mine at the current gold price
2.         Resources - gold that will potentially become economic to mine after further investigation, or at a   higher price level.

But you know what, there are so many unmined resources. They did not explore at all. There are some known gold deposits in Antarctica. Gold is also scattered along the ocean floor but is also considered uneconomic to mine. Efforts to recycle gold extracted from electronic waste are already well underway. Since we do not know how to mine them, can’t we keep them in the resources category? Technology is evolving? Geospatial technology and industrial drones might make it economical? Research started just now. The world is just exploring basic automation. There are a lot of traditional & time-consuming manufacturing/ electrical/ chemical processes to be automated. The only thing is the kind of learning for Chem/ECE/EEE/Mech should be slightly different. 

The rules of the Game are as follows. 

1.  All students regardless of the branch must be good at Programming. For example, Python or MATLAB or any other traditional programming like C++/Java, etc. Python is preferable. Every automation task needs a programming background. 
2. ECE students must focus on IoT-related subjects. The future of IoT has the potential to be limitless. Advances to the industrial internet will be accelerated through increased network agility, integrated artificial intelligence (AI), and the capacity to deploy, automate, orchestrate and secure diverse use cases at hyper-scale. Hence you need to master all ECE subjects to make an IoT device. 
3.  Mech and Chemical students should understand the principles of mechanics and the production process. However, they need to get into the robotics side or industrial automation side for large-scale opportunities. For this, you need to be good in foundational subjects and programming which makes an industrial task automated. 
4.  Yesterday I was trying to buy a fan. The shopkeeper was showing me an ATOMBERG fan!! First time I saw this brand and did my due diligence. It was found that it is started by Manoj Meena, CEO & Founder at ATOMBERG, Forbes 30 Under 30. https://www.linkedin.com/in/manoj-meena-46510415/. Go through his profile. He did his BTech in EEE from IIT Bombay and started this company. What did he promise? 

Atomberg designs and manufactures energy-efficient & smart home appliances which are not only solving India's energy crisis problem but also bringing an unheard comfort & experience to our consumers. It is India's most energy-efficient ceiling fan consuming only 28 watts of power (65% less power) as compared to an ordinary fan that consumes 75-80 watts of power. It comes with a smart remote with a timer and sleep features. Customers are saving up to Rs 1500- Rs 2000 every year for every Atomberg fan they are using. Now can you imagine what skills are needed for EEE students? One needs electrical, electronics, computer science, and business management skills!!  

5. There is a journal named “Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering”. Now you can imagine what kind of advancements going on in Civil Engineering using Computing power!! If you read every article in this journal, you will understand how the world becomes multi-disciplinary!! 

 The world of products is going to be multi-disciplinary. In the future, there is no CSE/ECE/EEE/MECH/CIVIL/CHEM.  
There are going to be 3 types of resources 
1.         Computing Resources (Only coders e.g. CSE/ECE)
2.         Computing Resources with Domain Specialization (coding with domain understanding, e.g.                             EEE/Mech/Chem/Civil)
3.         Operators (They can only use but cannot create automation/ conduct research. Any CSE/MECH/EEE/ECE/CHEM/CIVIL fall in this category) 
Now you as a student can decide which category you want to be in. Category 1 or Category 2 or Category 3 and work towards those skills. 
Best wishes
Ravi Saripalle

Note: Opinions expressed by authors are their own.

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