10 Biggest Mistakes Every Engineering Student Must Avoid

Matrix, The Social Network, WarGames, Office Space, Antitrust, Silicon Valley, Jobs, Hackers

You might have heard and probably watched all the above movies’, especially if you are a student of engineering college but why we’re listing out all the above movies’ names…can you guess?? . If you haven’t heard these movies’ names or didn’t catch our point then just open a new tab in your system or phone and search about all these movies. You guessed it right… all the above movies have a common thing and that is programming or hacking, programmer or hacker. Now we want to ask a few questions…how many of you have taken some positive lessons from these movies, get inspired, and tried to spend countless night coding or inventing something new? We bet that most of the students haven’t tried it or if they have tried then just for a short time. 

College Life is awesome for engineering students and they get a lot of advice from others to do this and do that when they enter college, some are good and some are bad. If you are an engineering student and reading this blog we request you to search for the unemployment rate of engineers in India or the placement rate of engineers. You would find out that around 50% of Engineers Are Unemployed!!

Yes, this is the harsh truth that Lakhs of engineers are unemployed, and either they are depressed or trying to sustain their life anyhow from other resources. For most of the students, the reason is very simple and that is… mistakes they have made during their college period. We want you to carefully read the below points, keep your eyes open and see the truth so that you don’t repeat the same mistake and you put your efforts to secure your career and future. 

1. Focusing Too Much on CGPA

CGPA is important in engineering we all agree but focusing too much on CGPA and ignoring the rest of the skills is not going to help a student in getting a job. When a student starts focusing only on getting good grades in engineering their overall development lack somewhere and they face rejection in jobs and interviews when they apply for it. Always remember your practical knowledge is much more important than theoretical knowledge for companies. 

Getting good grades can help you to get interview calls but there is no guarantee of getting a job. You need to become a complete package for companies and in that case, your overall development is very important. There are so many students who are able to secure a good job even if they have low grades and there are so many students who are a topper but unemployed. We are not telling you to completely ignore the grades, maintain a decent grade during your semester exams so you don’t face any problems when a company sets eligibility criteria for your grades. 

2. Not Developing Communication Skills

A research article published by Aspiring Minds reveals the fact that engineers who have good communication skills have better employment, higher wages, and better growth. Good communication skill is very important to stay in the job market. People who are better at delivering their ideas, visionaries effectively, and able to communicate are more successful and in demand for jobs in the market. Expressing yourself and interacting with someone is very important and this is the common and important advice to all students to improve their communication skills during their college period by giving a presentation, talking to a lot of people, making videos, participating in a group discussion, or extra curriculum activities. 

3. Rote Learning and Last Night Study

There are so many students who get advice during their college period that last night’s studies or just memorizing a few questions are helpful to get good grades and that’s the blunder mistake students can do ever. You might get decent grades using this technique but that won’t help you in your future from the job perspective. We want to give a clear picture to those students that technology is reaching Artificial Intelligence, Big data Analytics, Machine Learning and a lot more so developing this habit won’t work when you need to work in a real-time environment on these cutting-edge technologies. So make a habit of understanding the basics and fundamentals instead of rote learning and last night’s study. The more you understand, the less you have to remember.

4. Not Doing Projects

Maximum students get rejected in job interviews due to their lack of practical skills. Every company is looking for candidates who have experience in working in real-time environments and have exposure to the same or at least have done some projects by themselves. Companies have basically three bars to hiring a candidate… 

• What do you know?
• How well do you know?
• What will the company gain?

Your grades fulfill the first requirement but your practical skills, your technical knowledge, or your high-end skills reveal how well you know something and what benefit they will get if they hire you. A lot of students do mistakes and they really need to avoid downloading the project from the internet or getting it from other resources. It’s painful for them to make projects but giving yourself a little bit of pain can help you to land a job later. 

5. Not Using Internet Resources Effectively

The Internet is one of the big sources to learn something valuable and enhance skills. Information is overloaded there and if a student wants to learn they can get a lot of useful materials over there and in that case, they need less help from seniors or professors as well. A lot of courses, resources, and valuable knowledge are available there. Search for some online educational sites, watch youtube video tutorials, learn some new technologies and take advantage of free resources available on the internet. Also, use social media effectively to join some group or community and take help from there. 

6. Not Focusing on Internships

Internships are an integral part of your engineering life as they help you to get the required career growth. Starting working at a young age gives you a proper vision of corporate life as well as a boost that can take you to heights. Apart from that, when you start working from an early age the first thing you learn is to stay humble as it is your learning stage. However, according to a saying, The more you know and learn, the more you know what you don’t know! Therefore, do not waste your college life on theoretical knowledge but gain practical knowledge as it helps in emphasizing up on project-based learning as well as provides a proper vision of your future goals.

You can check the importance of internship from the link Why Internships are Important for Engineering Students or Freshers? So we highly recommend students apply for internships as much as they can, explore the industries, check what skills or technologies they need to develop, and also complete projects by themselves because hands-on exposure helps a lot in getting a job.

7. Not Finding The Right Mentor

Mentors are the path holders and having the right one can lead to the achieve the best. A good mentor helps you in to think critically and always encourages you to do things outside of the box. They also research a safe environment for you where you can present your skills properly. Not having a good mentor will make you lag behind, therefore, you should be always careful before choosing someone to guide you through. Also working closely with your mentor helps you to design meaningful projects which you can use in the future in order to get better opportunities. 

8. Picking Difficult Projects From The Beginning

Just to prove their intelligence most of the students pick very difficult projects right from the beginning which is something you should avoid. The complete engineering industry is solely based on skills and in order to showcase these skills you should take up projects that first make your fundamentals clear and then move to the advanced-level projects. Also, when you do something from scratch there are many things to learn from it, thus rather than just taking up unattainable things develop your skills and focus on the areas where you can excel easily.

9. Not Planning Things Priorly

Our college is the key to our future because it is the first step where we decide our actual goals. Hence, it calls for mistakes as most students follow the crowd and do not look for their unique qualities, which eventually leads to nothing. Also, one of the most negative thoughts is that a career can be decided only after completing the degree, it’s not true! So this is not important that you think about a degree but think about your goal and plan it properly.

10. Choosing Random Courses

The last and final point – do not pick any random course but the one in which you’re having a genuine interest, that can enhance your skillset and take you closer towards your career goal. Any company does not want a person with irrelevant skills, hence you should learn those skills that are actually required in the industry. Therefore, it is important you do not waste your money doing anything unwanted but have a proper mindset.

Life is a roller coaster ride and it’s unpredictable. No one excelled greatly in life without failures. The master has failed more times than the beginner has tried. So, it doesn’t matter how many times you see failure, the important thing is how many times you pick yourself up and always try to give your best.