The biggest question for engineering aspirants before facing counselling is which branch to choose? With the ever-fluctuating trends of the market, this question takes an even more intense form. Opting for the current highest in-demand engineering stream may direct to land you in a problem as you will be facing a market with your degree only after completing your course i.e. 4 years (B.tech) or 5 years (Dual degree programme) and the scenario after four years is quite hard to predict. The standard of engineering graduates who pass out each year has also decreased substantially. This is due to the increased number of private Engineering colleges and increased number of seats.
The most common query among all engineering aspirants is about the best engineering courses/ branch/ specialisations/ discipline. According to us, all branches of engineering are equally good. What matters is your interests and aptitude for that engineering stream. So don’t pick a branch you have no interest in, just because it promises fat pay packages! But selecting an engineering discipline can be very difficult. You often get confused about whether to give importance to the stream of your choice or a reputed institute. So, to make things easier, we have listed out various engineering branches based on previous trends and the past preferences of other engineering aspirants like you.
Popular Engineering Courses in India
Computer Science & Engineering / IT
Software engineers are the most sought after in India. So, it is no surprise that this branch is right at the top! This branch offers higher pay packages than any other branch as well as ample overseas job opportunities. If you have an interest in database management and application development, you should seek out this engineering discipline.
Your starting salaries as a fresh computer engineer from a good institute can range between Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh. You will start as trainees or development engineers and then move on to designations like design engineer, project manager and eventually CTO. As you move up the management ranks, your pay can go up from Rs 20 lakh to Rs30 lakh per annum.
Electrical & Electronics Engineering
There will always be opportunities for electrical engineers as this is an evergreen field. You will learn about transmission and generation of electrical power, electrical circuit design, electronics, instrumentation, control systems etc. There are a lot of openings for this profile in the government sector. You might get to work in steel factories, the railways, at construction sites or handle automated systems in which electricity supply and distribution plays a crucial role.
An entry-level engineer earns about Rs 20,000-30,000 per month. Salaries vary from industry to industry. At a middle-level technical position, e.g. a project head or team leader, one gets Rs 70,000-80,000 per month. At the managerial level, a senior manager earns Rs 1.5 lakh per month.
Mechanical Engineering
Another evergreen field, there will always be opportunities here, despite varying market trends. It is one of the oldest and the most demanding branch of engineering and therefore one of the broadest. As a mechanical engineer, you will get to design, analyse, manufacture and maintain anything that moves!
Entry-level salaries range from about Rs 1.3 lakh to Rs 3.15 lakh per annum. Pay hikes depend on your performance and any additional skills you acquire.
Civil Engineering/ Environment Engineering
As a student, you will study Fluid Mechanics, Soil Mechanics, Design of Structures, and Structural Mechanics and water resource engineering. And then as a civil engineer, you will be building roads, buildings bridges, dams, canals, seaports, power plants and airports! This sector is looking up these days mainly due to the numerous infrastructure projects that are in the pipeline for India. It is a challenging profile but immensely satisfying as well. Also, with the green way of living gaining popularity across the world, the role of a civil engineer often overlaps with that of an environmental engineer as he needs to plan his projects in an environment-friendly manner.
In general, a fresh civil engineer can make Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 a month. Someone with 15-20 years’ experience can earn Rs 75,000 to Rs 1 lakh a month. In the government sector, for example, the CPWD director general earns Rs 80,000 a month.
Chemical Engineering
A few years back, Chemical Engineering was not considered to be an exciting field, but things have changed now. Global warming and its consequential environment issues have made chemical engineers hot property now. In your 4 years of study, you will cover chemicals, polymers, petroleum, pharmaceuticals along with computer and information technology for the development of chemical engineering processes. Petroleum i.e. Black Gold has made this field very prosperous. Go for this field if you have an inclination towards organic & inorganic chemistry.
You can get placed with ONGC, Reliance Industries Ltd., Essar Oil Limited, Gujarat Gas Company Limited, Indo Gulf Fertilizers Ltd, Coromandel Fertilizers Limited. Apart from regular jobs, there are numerous research & development opportunities for chemical engineering students and remuneration may range from 1000-1500 dollars for PhD students. Opportunities are plenty in the renewable energy sector, nuclear power sector, and industrial metallurgy sector.
Biotechnology
Think of biotechnology in India & you think of Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and her biotechnology company, Biocon. Today, India is considered one of the best destinations for the biotechnology industry because of the availability of state-of-art resources and facilities to carry on newer practices.
A B.Tech in Biotechnology would throw up opportunities in production, research, and marketing in the fields such as environment, energy and conservation, agriculture and horticulture, medicine and healthcare, animal husbandry and dairy farming. Research-oriented aspirants have a good scope of research laboratories and as professors and research assistants. There are opportunities in government and corporate-run research and development organisations. You could hold designations like a lecturer, marketing manager, quality control officer or manager, bioinformatics, environmental specialist etc.
Genetic Engineering
Considering the potential of progress in the next few years, genetic engineering has become one of the best choices for engineering students with a wide range of career opportunities. Genetic engineering is a comparatively new branch of engineering and is a part of biotechnology. It is a combination of Biotechnology, Biochemistry, Microbiology and some other related areas.
Aeronautical Engineering
When it comes to counting the best branches of engineering, aeronautical engineering always gets a place in the list. The field of aeronautical engineering comes up with various specialised areas such as propulsion, computational fluid dynamics, aerodynamics or materials and structures. The branch is one of the most sought-after branches in engineering and offers innumerable opportunities in terms of research, design, development, testing, manufacture and maintenance.
As a fresher in the field of aeronautical engineering, one can get INR 4 to INR 6 lacs depending on the organisation one is placed in. The mid-level salary of an aeronautical engineer is somewhere around INR 12 to INR 15 lacs which can go up to INR 6 to INR 7 lacs per annum.
Industrial and Production Engineering
Industrial and production engineering, available in a handful of colleges are gaining popularity nowadays, as there is more demand for employees than supply. Industrial and production engineering deals with the development, implementation, monitoring and improvement of the whole industrial process. This branch of engineering is used in manufacturing and production unit of the industries in order to increase productivity as well as the efficiency of the system. There is ample demand in public as well as private sector for industrial and production engineering graduate.
Petroleum Engineering
Considering the significance of fuels in today’s’ world there is a huge demand in this sector. Petroleum engineering not only deals with extraction and purification of the fuels but it is also responsible for finding the location of availability of fuel as well as exploring the new dimensions in this field. The demand for petroleum engineering is restricted to specific places due to its dependence on the availability of petroleum reserves.