B.E. is a two-lettered abbreviation that is earned at the end of a four-year battle. But engineering, a prestigious and once most sought-after course, is no longer an attraction for many talented students. With the total number of seats outnumbering seat-seekers, the course is starting to lose the charisma it once held.

Core courses of engineering like civil, mechanical and electrical have been taken over by newer courses like IT, Computer Science, and Electronics and Communication Engineering. IT giants have brought about this change. But a curriculum that is meant to free brains beyond boundaries has been diminished to pondering about getting placed in an IT company irrespective of the stream.

Even after a ruling by Anna University to start placements only in the last semester of the course, most colleges invite companies in the penultimate semester itself. Instead of being facilitators of education, colleges have become tutorials whose focus is on getting their students placed. Placement records have become advertisement input criteria for them. So any student who is left out in this rat race is treated like a failure by both family and college.

Ritu, a final year civil engineering student, opted to keep to only core companies during her placement interviews while her friends were ready to get placed in any IT firm. Her aspirations to build citadels held her back from hastily deciding like others. But with her peers placed, her anxiety of being compared with them drove her to depression.

This is just one incident. There are many Ritus in every college. This is the crucial time when parents should become friends with their children and show them that the world is not going to end the next day. Children should be taught that opportunity will knock for those who work consistently.

The case of Rajiv is different. He was trying hard to get placed. But luck proved otherwise. It was this phase which showed him who were really his friends. More than him they ransacked every nook and corner for a job. They used to stay with him during all his interview preparations and accompanied him till the last moment. He felt that every effort that they made was purely for him. And when he was totally dejected and was ready to give up everything, it was his friends who pushed him hard and proved his own potential to him.

Professors should go beyond their accustomed role and support students at this time. Along with soft skill training and aptitude test trainings that students must attend, lectures by successful people and alumni who have crossed similar situations should be conducted.

Generally, however, students are not provided with a view of future beyond placements. Opportunities of higher studies and research are blurred out in this haziness. The feeling of being left out leaves them puzzled. A gloomy picture of the future dims the sea of opportunities in front of them. With many openings in higher studies, students should be properly guided. These are times when they should be made to understand that the world does not end with placement and that those who are not placed are not doomed. End of college is just the beginning of life. More than education, experience is what matters everywhere. (Courtesy: Industrial Economist)