The GD/PI season has started and with it has started the process of crash-course contemplations and ingenious introspections. The way it goes (atleast for the majority in India) is that you first decide you want to do an MBA and then come up with a reasonable rationalizations to convince the interviewers. And the best part about management is that it is so very vague that it accomodates each and every person with each and every background. So, even though their final goal maybe to become an investment banker with a fat paycheck, the creative career paths that people choose for themselves while 'introspecting' cannot cease to amaze an ordinary intellect. One wants to open his own music company in the future (she's received training in classical music you see) while another wants to join politics and work for the country.
The reason for this 'directionlessness' is not very hard to find. Let's start with a basic analysis. Skim through the best of India's management colleges and you find that more than 60% of the managers are engineers. A variety of reasons are provided for this, the strongest being that 'entrance test aptitude' with its emphasis on number crunching is a forte of engineers. Such is the hold of engineering graduates on management seats that any 'non-engineer' who gets into management roams about wearing his 'non-engineering' background on his sleeve. But from where I see it, it's a systemic malaise that runs deeper than mere 'entrance test aptitude'.
I think it would be a good idea to see why are so many 'management oriented' engineers produced in the first stage. The infant state of India, had provided for the creation of only two elitist autonomous institutions: the IIT's and the IIM's. While these prospered, engineering and management education grew alongside. Ofcourse the medicine, law and other such traditional professions also had their place but the IIT's created a brand-name for engineering that's hard to match in any other field. The result is for all to see. Every child of an 'above average' IQ while in school is told to prepare for the IITs. "This is where the keys of heaven of lie", he or she is explained to in no uncertain terms. Go a little high with your SSC percentage (an indication of the fact that you were able to slog/have a good rote memory/have an above average IQ) and the choice is clear. The dear little 'intelligent' child of the family is going to study science. Commerce is for the middle ones and the disgraceful liberal arts are for the immature imbeciles who were able scrape through. This mechanism ensures that the most of the 'High IQ Crowd' (HIC) is studying science.
Even while in science, the pressure is on to take up either engineering or medicine. Here again, the pure sciences are subjects for losers. So a major chunk of the 'HIC' prepares for engineering and medicine. So, some go for medicine and the rest for engineering (Engineering seats are many, plus there's are the numerous IIT hopefuls who are finally ready to settle for less). The medical grads when see a secured future, a good earning, and an amount of social respect in a society. In short, they see enough money to live on even if not comfortably enough. A non-IITian, after going through a 4 year ordeal in the sub-standard teaching-shops of the country, is asked to take up a job as part of the army of 'cheap labour' mediocre IT engineers that India produces. A quick realization dawns that the technical field was not as good as it was made out to be and India (the IITs included) is not exactly a hub of cutting edge research. It would be worthwhile to mention that some bright engineers with cash to spare take the earliest flight to the US of A. The rest take the same route that they are by now habituated to: the process of elimination. They took science because they looked down on other fields, engineering came in again because the pure sciences didn't matter and medicine was not considered/achieved. So now, the only option which promises a fat salary is management education.
Since, these are a part of the 'HIC', they are above the 'normal' commerce and arts grads when it comes to IQ. So much so, that most of those who score high on the verbal ability sections are engineers. The number crunching quantitative part is not exactly a help for grads from the other fields but this is a minor reason. (You don't see management schools teeming with math grads, do you?).
In the end, in most of the cases behind the veil of the variety of imaginative answers that crop up lies a simple reason: 'LACK OF OPTIONS'. A lack of options that plagues every generation from the time they are in school right up to the top. A lack of options with which every developing society suffers. Let us see if in future, we are able to attain that one true freedom: the freedom of choice.
The reason for this 'directionlessness' is not very hard to find. Let's start with a basic analysis. Skim through the best of India's management colleges and you find that more than 60% of the managers are engineers. A variety of reasons are provided for this, the strongest being that 'entrance test aptitude' with its emphasis on number crunching is a forte of engineers. Such is the hold of engineering graduates on management seats that any 'non-engineer' who gets into management roams about wearing his 'non-engineering' background on his sleeve. But from where I see it, it's a systemic malaise that runs deeper than mere 'entrance test aptitude'.
I think it would be a good idea to see why are so many 'management oriented' engineers produced in the first stage. The infant state of India, had provided for the creation of only two elitist autonomous institutions: the IIT's and the IIM's. While these prospered, engineering and management education grew alongside. Ofcourse the medicine, law and other such traditional professions also had their place but the IIT's created a brand-name for engineering that's hard to match in any other field. The result is for all to see. Every child of an 'above average' IQ while in school is told to prepare for the IITs. "This is where the keys of heaven of lie", he or she is explained to in no uncertain terms. Go a little high with your SSC percentage (an indication of the fact that you were able to slog/have a good rote memory/have an above average IQ) and the choice is clear. The dear little 'intelligent' child of the family is going to study science. Commerce is for the middle ones and the disgraceful liberal arts are for the immature imbeciles who were able scrape through. This mechanism ensures that the most of the 'High IQ Crowd' (HIC) is studying science.
Even while in science, the pressure is on to take up either engineering or medicine. Here again, the pure sciences are subjects for losers. So a major chunk of the 'HIC' prepares for engineering and medicine. So, some go for medicine and the rest for engineering (Engineering seats are many, plus there's are the numerous IIT hopefuls who are finally ready to settle for less). The medical grads when see a secured future, a good earning, and an amount of social respect in a society. In short, they see enough money to live on even if not comfortably enough. A non-IITian, after going through a 4 year ordeal in the sub-standard teaching-shops of the country, is asked to take up a job as part of the army of 'cheap labour' mediocre IT engineers that India produces. A quick realization dawns that the technical field was not as good as it was made out to be and India (the IITs included) is not exactly a hub of cutting edge research. It would be worthwhile to mention that some bright engineers with cash to spare take the earliest flight to the US of A. The rest take the same route that they are by now habituated to: the process of elimination. They took science because they looked down on other fields, engineering came in again because the pure sciences didn't matter and medicine was not considered/achieved. So now, the only option which promises a fat salary is management education.
Since, these are a part of the 'HIC', they are above the 'normal' commerce and arts grads when it comes to IQ. So much so, that most of those who score high on the verbal ability sections are engineers. The number crunching quantitative part is not exactly a help for grads from the other fields but this is a minor reason. (You don't see management schools teeming with math grads, do you?).
In the end, in most of the cases behind the veil of the variety of imaginative answers that crop up lies a simple reason: 'LACK OF OPTIONS'. A lack of options that plagues every generation from the time they are in school right up to the top. A lack of options with which every developing society suffers. Let us see if in future, we are able to attain that one true freedom: the freedom of choice.
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