Computer Science Engineering, CSE for short, is the technology that’s affecting our lives directly or indirectly everyday and hence, has the widest scope among the major engineering streams of India. In addition to being one of the highest paying engineering jobs, CSE graduates also enjoy the best placement percentage among the other trades of Engineering education. Although it began as a specialization of Electrical engineering, its widespread application in automation of processes has led to an exponential growth in the past 25 years which was called “IT boom” by big media houses such as Forbes. Today, we are at the pinnacle of this stream with projections showing a continuous upsurge for another decade. With this in mind, let’s discover what does a career in Computer Science and Engineering has to Offer.
Career in Computer Science and Engineering
Learning – the First step…
Where?
Although India was late to introduce C.S.E courses in the country (around 1985 – 1990, compared to western countries introducing courses in late 1970’s and early 1980’s), the institutes adopted the trend fast enough. Currently, India boasts of a strong IT sector with some of the biggest Tech Giants having important offices located in India. With that said, let’s look at top 10 institutes to pursue a career in computer science and engineering in India.
- IIT Bombay
- IIT Delhi
- IIT Kharagpur
- IIT Kanpur
- IIT Madras
- BITS Pilani
- IIT Roorkee
- IIT Guwahati
- Delhi Technological University
- IIT BHU Varanasi
Among the NIT’s, NIT Warangal is considered the best institute for pursuing C.S.E, closely followed by NIT Trichy. IIIT Hyderabad, Anna University – CEG, Netaji Subash Institute of Technology, College of Engineering – Pune and VIT also feature among the best C.S.E institutes in the country.
Admission Process
A promising career in Computer Science and Engineering is highly dependent on the brand value of the institute in which student gets enrolled. This fact makes it mandatory to know the admission process to these elite institutes.
In India, admission to engineering studies are solely based on candidate’s performance in various national or state-level engineering entrance exams. Some of these are:
1. Joint Entrance Exam – Main
With over 1 million applicants every year, JEE Main is the single biggest engineering entrance exam in the country. Many premier private institutions and all central government institutions including IIITs, NITs and CFTIs consider JEE Main scores for admissions.
The exam also serves as the eligibility criteria for JEE Advanced.
2. Joint Entrance Exam – Advanced
Admission into IITs is solely based on the candidate’s performance in JEE Advanced.
3. Other entrance exams
Certain deemed universities conduct their own entrance exams and have their own counselling procedure. Some of the popular ones under this category include SRMJEEE (for admission to SRM University), MU OET (for Manipal University), VITEEE (for VIT University) etc.
4. State-level Entrance Exams
Almost every state in India has their own admission system that considers the state’s board exam as the deciding factor. A counselling procedure is conducted to allot students to the colleges. Also, some states have their own engineering entrance exams which are required for admission in those states’ colleges. Examples include Karnataka, WB (WBJEE), AP EAMCET and others.
5. Overseas Options
With USA boasting of the Silicon Valley, it is obvious that the US is the best place to complete C.S.E. UK also has some great universities that offer great opportunities and recognition for its CS graduates. Other countries that feature prominently in the QS World rankings are: Switzerland, Germany, Canada, China and South Korea.
Admissions to most of the foreign Universities are based on candidates’ performance in SAT exam (for UG) and GRE for PG.
Career Prospects in India
Current scenario
As reported earlier, a career in Computer Science and Engineering is currently the hottest thing in India (apart from Rajasthan!). C.S.E graduates across the nation enjoy a great demand. This is largely due to the huge number of service companies operating in Indian cities such as Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune. However, the large number of graduates and companies has also led to decline in the salaries offered to software engineers in service firms.
Having said that, a degree in Computer Science and Engineering still promises a job in most cases.
Jobs – what to expect?
A typical job for a C.S.E graduate, historically, was that of a Software Developer or Software Tester. However, with ever-increasing applications of computer systems, the variety of designations available has also skyrocketed.
However, among all these designations, one thing still resonates:
- 5-6 days a week of work,
- generous number of holidays and job perks,
- huge number of career opportunities.
Some of the popular designations defining a career in Computer Science and Engineering include the following:
- Software engineer
- Software tester
- Data scientist
- Network engineer
- Hardware Engineers
- Database Administrators (DBA)
- App Developers
- Web Developers
- Cloud Engineers.
Other prospects include PSU jobs offered by Government companies through GATE scores.
Salary
Overall average pay for a freshly graduated C.S.E student is the range of INR 3 – 6 LPA. Depending on the job, it could escalate to nearly 30-40 LPA per annum after five years or it could also stay at around 10 LPA.
In some cases, the package may begin from INR 8 – 12 LPA depending on the skill set of graduates and brand value of institutes.
Some of the popular companies that hire C.S.E graduates include the following:
- Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)
- Infosys.
- Wipro.
- Accenture
- Oracle
- Microsoft
- Amazon
- Flipkart
Conclusion
Indian students have the best of opportunities for a great future if they were to opt for CSE. However, recent trends in the industry show that the students have to be constantly evolving to meet the industry standards if they want their career to sustain. This fact has been made evident from the recent reports on Job cut in IT sector.
With software engineers being sought in great demand, the quality is still debatable and the infamous “brain-drain” of Indian engineers also poses a threat. With that being said, a career in Computer Science and Engineering is still arguably one of the best choices for any aspiring student.
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