Students seek careers in engineering for many reasons. Some have specific goals: they may dream about developing the next laser, transistor, or vehicle for space travel; or they imagine building companies that capitalizes on new engineering capabilities. Still others imagine educating people about engineering in schools or through the media; they want to provide counsel or shape public policies on issues of direct relevance to engineering. Each of these motivations is legitimate, each is valuable, and each flows naturally from an education in engineering. As the techniques and products of engineering and technology have become more central to modern society, a background in engineering has become essential to career development.

In fact, degrees in engineering are becoming as fundamental to modern life as the traditional liberal-arts degree. The contributions of engineers already extend beyond research and development and throughout the realms of teaching, business, industry, and government. People with bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in engineering are forming companies, managing businesses, formulating policy, consulting and entering into other avocations.

The basic qualifications required are a pass in the 2-year Pre-University Course (Standard 12) from a recognized University with high marks. The students may also be required to write Entrance Test and those who secure high ranking may be eligible for admission. The basic subjects that the students should have taken in the pre-degree course for joining the communication-engineering course are physics, and mathematics.

It is better for students to have a good foundation in these two subjects. Courses available There are only a few Institutions of higher learning in India and abroad, which offer Communication Engineering as a separate discipline and awards the degree of B.E. (Communications Engineering).
Generally, communication engineering forms a part of the Electronics & Communication Engineering or Information Technology or Telecommunication Engineering degree courses. If, however, separate degree courses on Communication Engineering are offered, then the general pattern of course content would be broadly as under, subject to variations in individual universities/institutions:

An Overview of Communication Engineering Course :

The Bachelor of Engineering in Communications Engineering will be a four-year degree course. It may cover a two-year general engineering programme, providing a solid foundation in the fundamentals of computers, communications and electronic engineering principles. This may be followed by two year of specialist education in Telecommunications Engineering and Information Technology, combined with a period spent in the industry for gaining practical experience. The course will consist of lectures, tutorials, laboratories and projects. Students may also be required to do a project work at the end of the course and submit a project report. Broad outlines of the structure and general course content.

The course is generally designed in such a manner as to provide students with an exposure to the practice of engineering principles, the use of mathematical models of physical systems. A thorough grounding in the fundamental engineering discipline, including electromagnetic theory, control theory, circuit theory, communications, linear and non-linear systems, systems identification and modeling, signal processing, as well as the underlying advanced mathematics required to support these sub-disciplines, will be covered in the course. The aim of the course will be to provide a strong general engineering focus and equip the students with the knowledge to analyze not only the electronic control system, but also the physical system that is being controlled. The emphasis will be on design and innovation, integrating theory with current industrial practice in the context of real engineering applications. Details of course modules which may vary, to some extent, from institution to institution, university to university, would be patterned broadly as under:

First Year (All semesters) Electronic Engineering Fundamentals :

Computing for Engineers; Computer Architecture and Digital Logic; Physics for Engineers Engineering Mathematics; Engineering Design; Electronic Materials Science; Electrical Fields and Circuits;

Second Year (All Semesters) Introduction to Telecommunications :

Digital Systems; Analogue Electronics; Electric Circuits; Solid State Electronics; System Dynamics.

Third Year (All Semesters) Signals and Systems :

Computation and Simulation; Digital Communications; Electromagnetics and Propagation; Modulation and Coding Techniques.

Fourth Year (All Semesters) Mobile Communications :

Satellite Communications; Optical Communications; Computer Networks; Computer Graphics; Image Processing; Digital Signal Processing; Microwave Systems; Real-Time Systems; Neural Networks; Intelligent Networks; Industrial Electronics; Elective Modules;

Project Work. Project Report :

Attachment in Industry for practical training.

In recent times, the Indian Information Technology Industry or the IT Industry, as it is generally referred to, is the fastest growing industry, accounting for about 2% of the Gross Domestic Product of the country. The IT industry covers broadly: communication engineering and technology, telecommunication engineering, and computer hardware, software and systems.

At present, nearly 300,000 engineers and scientists are employed in IT industry in India and annually nearly 60,000 IT engineers are coming out of colleges and universities. But, the demands for Indian IT engineers both within the country and abroad are growing most spectacularly due to several factors as under: The Government of India has approved a National Telecom Policy and a National IT Policy. The implementation of these policies calls for investments of the order of about Rs. 10,000 crores annually and might result in increased job opportunities in each year for about 100,000 communication engineers, telecom professionals and computer software, hardware and systems engineers, not to mention job opportunities abroad.

Indian IT engineers are the most sought after in the United States and many of them have set up their own companies in that country and some have even become millionaires. Other countries like the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan are inviting Indian IT engineers to work in their countries. Within India itself, there are at present more than 1200 IT companies in the private sector and more and more start-up coming up each month. Many foreign IT giants like Texas Instruments, Motorola, Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Philips etc have set up offices and development centres in India, offering increased jobs with very high salaries to brilliant Indian engineers.

The Indian IT companies, particularly software companies, are exporting products and services valued at about 5 billion US dollars (equivalent to Rs. 22,500 crores) to foreign countries, particularly to the United States. The exports are growing at an annual compound rate of more than 50%.

The National IT policy has set an export target of 50 billion US dollars (nearly 225,000 crores) annually by the year 2008. Naturally, such a massive export promotional activity would require the services of hundreds and thousands of IT engineers each year. At present, India lacks good communication infrastructure, with only 2.5 telephone per 100 people. The National Telecom Policy calls for increase in tele-density to 7 phones per 100 people by 2005 and all most all the 500,000 or more villages are expected to have telephone facilities by this time. This means that there will be more and more telecom equipment production facilities – telephone instruments, switching equipment, telecom cables, optical fibre cables etc. Major Indian companies like Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd., Mahanagar Nigam Ltd., and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., will be expanding their operations.

Many foreign companies like Siemens, Alcatel, Lucent, Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson etc. are also setting up telecom equipment production facilities, besides several Indian companies like Tata Telecom, Himachal Futuristic, BPL, Bharati Telecom and others. In view of these factors, there is no doubt that the Indian communication and computer industry are on an expanding spree, with very bright prospects and job opportunities for the IT engineers.

Communication and IT engineers are generally recruited for jobs in reputed Indian and foreign companies through the process of campus interview and selection. Many reputed engineering colleges have the experience of the entire batch of their communication and IT engineers being selected by these employing companies each year.

The average starting salary for a communication/IT engineer is between Rs. 15,000 and 25,000 per month, plus several fringe benefits like bonus, gratuity, insurance schemes, pension schemes, cash awards for outstanding work, leave travel concessions, reimbursement of cost of home computer, books and periodicals, membership fees in professional associations/societies, etc. Many engineers are also sent abroad to work on projects for foreign companies and organizations. In such cases, in addition to their normal pay and allowances, the engineers are paid good overseas living allowances for the period of stay, besides travel costs.

Graduate education in engineering is generally a process by which individual degree candidates develop into scientists, engineers, or other professionals who are capable of independent research, development, and application activities of high quality. Progress is achieved by the student with the advice and guidance of his teachers in College/University in which the student is pursuing the degree. The success of a student will depend on where his particular interests will lead him.

Engineering study—rigorous though it is—will provide him with the tools and concepts that he needs to achieve his goals. His own goals will determine which engineering degree is most appropriate to him. Many people find satisfying careers in a variety of positions after the bachelor's degree. Others, notably engineers, find that a master's degree equips them well for professional careers. For those who hope for careers conducting research and/or teaching at the university level, a Ph. D will probably be required.

The student might decide himself whether he is bright enough to become an engineer? Since there is no standard against which to measure oneself or no kind of intelligence applies across all the many fields of engineering. The student has to trust in his deepest feeling. If a scientist [or engineer] experiences the exhilaration of discovery and the satisfaction of carrying through a really tricky experiment, then he [or she] is hooked and no other kind of life will do. One does not need to be terrifically brainy to be a good engineer. Common sense one cannot do without, and one would be the better for owning some of those old-fashioned virtues - application, diligence, and a sense of purpose, the power to concentrate, to persevere and not be cast down by adversity. The student may make a list of reasons why he likes to study engineering and a list of reasons why he does not.

He must make a list of the positive and negative aspects of various careers in which he is interested. He can also seek out people with engineering backgrounds who work in careers in which he is interested and ask them about their work and how they got where they are today. What do they find most satisfying and most disagreeable?

Undergraduates can talk with several graduate students and those who are about to become a graduate student can talk with several advanced students or postdoctoral students. The challenge before the students is to know themselves well enough to understand their particular strengths and weaknesses as aspiring engineers or other professionals. They should be wise in the selection of their teachers/guides and other members of the who can help them realize as much as possible of their potential. The objective of all interactions between the student, his teachers/guides and other members of the faculty should be to maintain abilities in which the student already has developed strength while helping him to increase abilities that are not yet developed fully.