Top engineering branches for 2020 which can provide placement assurance

Engineering is a vast field, and students looking to obtain an engineering degree are often confused about what branch of engineering to opt for. The primary metric to pick a branch should be your interest and liking for the field you pick, but we realise that it is hard to gauge your liking for any field that is not known to you at all. Therefore, we recommend that you do your background research to get an overview of branches before you pick one. A secondary metric would be placement assurance and packages – this plays a very important role in shaping your career. 

The top engineering branches in terms of placement are:

1. Computer Science and Engineering – 

• Organisations across the world are rapidly undergoing digital transformations, the IT sector is experiencing a boom that will stay for a considerable amount of time. This is emphasised by many companies looking to build support for work-from-home policies and going digital plays a significant role in that process.
• The advent of app-based services has also contributed to this demand, with companies looking for web & application developers (to scale up and improve their service interfaces) as well as engineers to manage databases and data analysis. 
• Fields like Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are gaining traction with the advent of big data, but require a certain amount of specialisation, with hiring metrics being unclear for fresh graduates.
• The demand for software engineers is very high, evident from the fact that companies hire graduates having knowledge of programming from other branches as well. CSE graduates obviously have an edge there because computers and development is their core field, and get paid extremely well by both tech giants as well as young startups. 
• Placements are excellent in this branch, with offers coming in from MNCs as well as Indian tech companies. Packages for fresh graduates range from roughly 3 lakhs per annum to over 1.2 crores per annum.

2. Mechanical Engineering – 

• Mechanical engineers design, test, manufacture, install, operate and maintain machines and mechanical systems that are used in different industries. They also take up roles in management positions with respect to operations in manufacturing plants and factories etc.
• Heavy manufacturing industries generally hire fresh mechanical engineering graduates to work on robust process designing and optimisation, as well as operations. With the advent of automation, traditional roles of mechanical engineers are set to change – more engineers will be required to maintain and monitor these automated processes, as well as work in the development of these processes in the first place due to their understanding of the functioning and requirements of machinery.
• Placements and packages in this field depend significantly on the college you obtain your degree from, and range from 2 to 25 lakhs per annum.

3. Electrical Engineering 

• With a degree in electrical and electronic engineering, you can find work in a wide range of sectors including aerospace, automotive, energy, IT and telecommunications. You can also find jobs that require inter-disciplinary knowledge, in sectors such as FMCG, Software and Defence (DRDO etc.)
• Electrical Engineering remains an evergreen field – as in most core engineering branches, automation has recently given rise to new job profiles that are different from the traditional ones, and this only increases opportunities for fresh graduates.
• Jobs are offered by both Indian and international companies. Packages range from 3 to 50 lakhs per annum, with MNCs offering packages on the higher end of this range.

4. Chemical Engineering – 

• Chemical Engineering is a broad discipline – it involves processes and products, and is about converting raw materials into usable products, using ground-breaking technologies and analytical skills.
• Job opportunities are broadly divided into two categories – R&D (Research and Development) and core jobs such as plant and operations management.
• R&D jobs include researching, developing, and applying necessary chemical processes to create a wide range of items for both commercial and industrial uses. This includes methods to develop chemical products, produce them on a large scale, optimise those processes and testing them. Process development and optimisation, formally under the job role of a product/process development scientist, is a job profile that has also grown in terms of openings. R&D also includes optimising and reworking processes to accommodate automation and evolving industry practices, requirements and product standards.
• Employees involved in the day-to-day functioning of plants and manufacturing units generally play managerial roles as well as those of technical supervisors, at the same time ideating, cooperating and coordinating with R&D departments to continuously innovate and optimise.
• Core placements in this field come from a variety of sectors – Fuel (Renewable such as nuclear plants and solar fields, as well as Oil and Gas), FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods), Pharmaceuticals, Petrochemicals, Mining, key manufacturing and industrial output sectors such as steel, cement and other chemical industries. Companies offer packages from 3 to 40 lakh per annum to fresh graduates, depending on the institute they hire from and the job profile. 

All of the above-mentioned branches also have significant scope for placements in non-core sectors such as Finance, Consulting, Banking, Algorithm Trading and Analytics due to the sought after analytical and problem-solving skills of engineers. These non-core placements are across industries, offering packages of 6 to 40+ lakh per annum.

Other branches that deserve an honourable mention in this article are Civil Engineering and Biotechnology. Civil Engineering is a core field that has job openings in infrastructure development and design, and while job openings have plateaued, packages are still reasonably high – ranging from 2 to 20 lakhs per annum. Biotechnology, on the other hand, is a fast-growing field with job profiles comprising applications in various industries such as pharmaceuticals, agri-industries, energy and FMCG, as well as scientific research. 

It is important to note that while certain branches have better placement statistics and pay packages, this shouldn’t be the sole consideration for picking a branch. Instead, the primary focus should be interest and aptitude for the content and applications, as well as picking a good institute. It is important to note that placement packages depend heavily on the institute and recruiters coming to those institutes – packages on the higher end are generally for students from premier engineering institutes such as IITs, IIITs, NITs and BITS campuses.

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