The world is not fair

At the time of writing this post, my brain might not be in the stable state (I am constantly questioning stuff) and No I am not depressed, neither I am procastinating. This post might feel like a rant, because partly in a way it is but ranting is (I think) good for your brain because.

A. It helps you clear your mind & think descriptively.

B. It lets you question things nobody is talking about (or maybe no one wants to).

I wrote this for myself, so if the reader is not me 👀, then you can reach out to me personally through email to share your thoughts (they are perfectly safe with me).

My status in 2020

I am right now in my last semester of my undergraduate IT program (BCA), I was not placed anywhere partly as one of my friend says, “You didn’t appeared in most of the campus placements”. But the ones I appeared for rejected me (my fault). I mean I didn’t even clear the coding round (if there was one, more on this later). No one is to blame here :(

Why the world is not fair bhupesh ?

It’s not, there will always be descrimination, majority-minority, suppression-oppression, partiality.

Note that I live in tech culture so I can speak from that perspective only. Just keep reading and you will know why. Here is a nice index of what I share.

• My status in 2020
• Why the world is not fair bhupesh ?
  • Higher Education in Computer Science
  • Practicals, oh jeez!!
  • Tech Culture in India
  • Final thoughts

Higher Education in Computer Science

Following are the recognised graduate programs in CS & IT (2020).

• Btech, Bachelor of Technology.
• BE, Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering
• BSc, Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
• BCA, Bachelor of Computer Applications.

So let me clear some things here first. If you have done Btech or BE you are an engineer and if you have done BSc or BCA you just graduate in CS or IT.

Masters program in CS or IT include: Mtech, Msc, MCA

Let me be clear (again) here on who can do what:

• If you have done Btech or BE you are eligible for MSc and MCA.
• If you have done BSc or BCA you are not elgible for Mtech just after undergraduation. You have to do either MSc or MCA to be eligible for Mtech.

Now don’t ask the why? question here, I said it earlier that people who have done Btech or BE are engineers. Being graudate in CS & being an engineer are 2 different things (I think this is pretty common in different continents as well). For e.g I graudated in CS/IT (about me) & I am not an engineer (but I am well enough suited for Software Engineer roles, sounds weird right?)

Lets compare the syllabuses of these entrance tests.

1. MCA

   This is my favourite (because I actually gave one, remember I am not eligible for Mtech). Here is a depiction of stuff asked in Delhi University’s MCA entrance.

   

   See complete syllabus

   Hmmm, interesting. So you expect me to know Calculus but not anything about Operating Systems, Databases or say Data Structures.

   Why because the people who make these syllabus and exam patterns for MCA clearly assume that we ain’t know shit anything about computers & need to test our Math skills. But hey ! solving that riemann integral.) will help us fix the last bug which broke the production?

2. MSc

   And the syllabus for MSc Entrance for the same institute.

   

   Ok, tbh this is pretty neat, this is what I needed (but i didn’t gave this exam 😞). But why the partiality here? If both the courses make us “masters” of CS/IT why testing different things ? Am I saying to remove Maths from MCA entrance ?, No hell NO. It is the most important subject but there must be atleast a fair balance on what is asked ? All the Data Structures I learned during my graduation are of No use & what about the CPU scheduling techniques ? what about that?

   how can I trust your course if you are not testing me on my basic CS skills ? only 4 questions ? Whats wrong Delhi University ?

   Did us BCA graudates did something wrong? Am I stupid? I don’t know whats happening with CS education in India & where we are headed, I think India being a developed Nation is a pipe-dream if things like this are not fixed.

3. Mtech

   For doing Mtech you need to give GATE. It’s the only option for students who did BE/Btech to pursue higher education, it’s a compulsion if you need to take admission in Mtech programs across government colleges.

Where I am headed ?

From all the available masters programs I discussed above, my only options are MSc in CS or MCA. Evaluating the syllabus of MCA it looks it has nothing interesting I want to study about. I am not elgible to take GATE (remember not an engineer) moreover I need to do MCA to be eligible for a Mtech program. I may end with a MSc or maybe not, I am still trying to figure out this job v/s higher education dibacle.

FUCK !!

Now you tell me, Is higher education accessible ?. Only those students will be able to study in good institutes who clear the entrance (which is the only way, remember “survival of the fittest”). And those who don’t have to study in what people say Tier-2,3,4,n colleges (basically no one knows you exist). Both kinds of students graduate, the ones who graduated from well known institutes receive higher salary (because most well knows companies only come to these institutes for campus placements) and the ones who don’t are usually paid even less then the average. Now I understand why online education platforms like coursera, udacity, upGrad are popular.

Oh it was bearable until I found that tech companies here compare a “masters” degree with an “undergraduate” one. Oh you did MCA, you know iT Is EqUaL to bTeCh ?

Practicals, oh jeez!!

No don’t let me start on practicals. I hate how its done.

You know how practical are done for programming subjects? We have to “hard print” the whole goddamn file which contains single page programs like “Write a program to implement fibonacci series”. No i am not kidding. I was so frustated with this that I started to build a platform for our minor project report to address this issue (still a WIP).

Anyways a few months back we gave our external practical examination, the examiner was going to ask questions on the said Minor project report. This sums up how our viva went.

Tech Culture in India

By no means i am speaking facts here, this is my personal opinion. I have given references wherever necessay, please research on your own if you find something wrong.

You know the top tech IT companies in India ? ask some Indian dev maybe (oh wait I’m one). These 3 names TCS, Wipro, Infosys will always be present in top tech list. It’s no surprise that you may have never hear of these companies before (I mean they didn’t built anything used by millions of people worldwide) by no far means they are the Googles or Microsofts of India. You know why because they work in service sector & some of them write software for the government (online entrance examinations for different posts). Wipro being also in electrical hardware business.

But we are speaking about software here, you know how these companies hire software devs? Campus Placements. So you had bet that they might be giving a big package to students right (I mean they are Top Tech in India, Rs 14,00,000 ($20,000) is pretty reasonable right)? No you are wrong, read these insights from glassdoor

The starting salary for a new hire is as low as Rs 2,00,000 (around $2721.96 as of 11 sep 2020).

For starters you are exempted to pay taxes if you earn this much amount of money. The govt. (un-intentionally) labels you as underpaid and poor 😬. Which is pretty great right no taxes !!, but you will be a fool to flex your salary to your friend who got placed in Microsoft.

No its not a joke you know why? Because,

• Becoming an Engineer is a goto career field if you are not going to be a Doctor or preparing for Government Entrances.
• “BHED CHAAL” (or Following the crowd blindly) leads to unavailability of skilled candidates. This Bhed Chaal happens because parents in India want their child to have a successful & stable career ahead which either means getting a government job or becoming an engineer or doctor. So the “peer pressure” makes students opt to do one of these things ultimately increasing the count of “engineer” in this country leading to un-employability.

Now i understand why students here in India spend there time doing Competitive Programming. I mean its the only way to hack a big company if you are not getting placed by your college in Google.

Dont’t believe me? See discussions on r/DevelopersIndia subreddit.

Final thoughts

You ask me why India is still not a developed nation? Because there is no innovation and even if there is, it only happens in IITs. Most of the students are busy trying to crack a big package I mean why don’t they? If we follow the principles of “survival of the fittest” then why is there a Reservation system in Indian colleges?. You want to drive innovaton, bring the best and brightest minds. There is no point in reserving seats for OBC and SC and lowering there cut-offs for entrance examinations (I understand quota for PwD and ST is absolutely necessary).

Recently NEP 2020 was announced & I was more than happy, a lot of new changes (will) be done, I think this would fix some of the problems 🤞🏽.

I think I have said enough. These were some of my thoughts that were stuck at the back of mind. I may be wrong in some points but tbh i don’t care. I hope my opinions change with time.