Dear Candidates
I am Gijo Vijayan from Mechanical Guru, today I want to tell you why piping design is one of the best career options for mechanical engineers who just passed out from College.
When a student pass out from engineering college after completing Mechanical Engineering, there is a very big confusion facing him, where to go ? The first option for most of the students from middle class families is to get a job immediately via campus interview. Many such students eventually get selected in Campus interview and pursue jobs totally different from their field of study. Many students of Mechanical, Civil, electrical , Instrumentation and Chemical engineering branches are hired by IT companies for coding work. They happily join these companies and start learning coding soon, so what they learned as basics in their field of study becomes waste.
Some students go for doing higher education in India and abroad and later land up with MNC’s outside India, never to return. Some students join their family business and run the same or go for MBA course. Do to lack of guidance and research opportunities, many students migrate to metro cities and start searching for jobs, our metro cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore etc are overcrowded with engineers now days. These students are not employable and land up in low paying jobs.
Most of the engineering colleges in our country do not counsel their students what to do and where to go after completing their degree. The basic reason is the lack of knowledge of faculty members who has only bookish knowledge and never care to guide the students. The worst part is that students don’t know what to do and where to go after completing degree, most of them land up in wrong jobs and spoil their career.
Each and every student who complete their mechanical engineering degree has unique qualities, some are good designers, some can be good in marketing, others in research and development, but these students never know their strength and weakness. Thus a brilliant mechanical engineer with aptitude in design end up working as marketing executive selling industrial valves and end us as poor marketing engineering. A mechanical engineer with aptitude in marketing end up as a production and quality control engineer and end up in job which he don’t like. After marriage and settlement, they are unable to change their profession and work in fields which are not suitable for them.
So, what is the solution ?
As soon as a student pass out from engineering college doing any degree, he/she must be given a rating certificate based on his or her skills. A team of experts must evaluate his/her personal and professional skills and given him a certificate – stating which filed the candidate will shine in his/her career. The rating must be done by an independent agency and this must be made mandatory. After this rating is done, no student will ever have any confusion in his life, which field he will shine best in his/her career, sooner or later in life.
Here is a Sample rating of students of Mechanical engineering from COLLEGE A,
Manoj Kumar – Fit for Industrial Marketing – CODE 001MA
Rajesh Nair – Fit for design engineering – CODE 001DA
Renu Sharma – Fit for Teaching – CODE 001TA
Ibrahim – Fit for Production Management –CODE001PA
The skill codes must be applied to all colleges and universities in India. The candidates must apply for jobs with their skill rating certificate.
Now let me tell you about piping design.
Piping design is an excellent career option for Mechanical engineers, it is not suitable for everyone. If you love design engineering and love imagination and creativity, piping design field will suit you lot. If you never like design engineering, please do not purse this option as a career. Piping design is almost 99% technical job, you need have good IQ, imagination, knowledge and willingness to learn, to become a successful piping engineer. If you love design, then you need to acquire piping design skills after you complete your Mechanical engineering degree.
The best way is to do a basic piping design course, the best education you can get is from IIT’s , some engineering colleges also conduct these courses. Otherwise you can join renowned private training institutes that train students in piping design. Do piping design courses in three stages:
BASIC PIPING DESIGN (API,ASME, ASTM, ANSI Codes, Autocad, Microstation)
3D MODELLING of Piping (PDMS, SP3D etc)
Stress Analysis (CAESAR-II)
Advanced Piping design
It will take 3 to 6 months to acquire piping design skills, you need to learn as much as possible during this period. Once you acquire the basic skills, make a good BIO-DATA and start applying for jobs, I am sure eventually you will land up with a job in piping design. Stick to the field, keep learning, it will take minimum 10 years for you to become a full blown piping engineer. You must not change your field in between other than piping, also do not run behind money. Change job every 3-5 years, and you must work with different EPC companies in Oil and gas, power, infrastructure and in period of 10 years, you become a full blown piping engineer.
As a grand professional in Piping design, you will have very great demand in India and abroad if you divert your career in the way I said above. Companies will hire you with big salaries in India and abroad. Even if you decide not to work with any company, you can teach students piping design and make a good living, if you are more smart, you can launch your own company and provide technical consulting services giving employment to people. Now the choice is yours, if you like, choose piping design as a career and enjoy the rest of your life. My own experience: Most of my friends who joined with Reliance –Jamnagar in 1998 as trainees, who pursued piping design engineers are now working with world class companies in India and abroad, enjoying luxurious life. You can be one, if you wish to, the key is in your hands.