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Recently some of the students have reached out to our alumni community for getting information/ help for internship abroad. This has prompted some of our alumni to advise students to explore other options for better future.
The views are expressed by Satinder Mullick (Mechanical 1958) from USA and from Animesh Pathak (CSE 2003) from France. The views expressed are their own. Animesh can be reached at: animesh AT gmail.com. Satinder can be contacted at writing to chronicle@itbhuglobal.org.
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Views by Satinder Mullick (Mechanical 1958)
Recently a couple of students have written to Alumni asking for aid to present a paper in France or internship in USA.
1) Before doing that—talk to your professors who have experience as to the cost/benefit of these opportunities. My thought is that India has advanced and 3rd year or 4th year students should take advantage of opportunities in India.
2) Look for research in areas where the future is better. I have been involved in funding guidance for R&D in a top company well known for great inventions/products. Betting on the right horse is the key for most companies as most of the horses turn out to be dud. So look for areas for where the jobs are or look for salaries as an indicator of areas worth.
3) Pursuing higher education in USA is becoming expensive as grants/scholarships money is limited. SO WORK, SAVE and then pursue your dreams. Taking loans is an option—but if you choose the wrong area or your timing is bad with USA in recession, then it may be difficult to get a job. Many doctorates have been forced to take jobs of Taxi driving etc. to survive.
4) Consider doing an MBA in India—that helps you get insight into better opportunities. If you are determined to go into R&D—and get your PhD—you can do it later on with money earned and hopefully become a R&D leader with your MBA experience. Khosla and others have succeeded because they had business sense besides technical strengths.
5) GOOD LUCK—Pursue your dreams with your own resources. Prove that you are hard working. Most of the graduate students in USA did all kinds of jobs to survive. US is running a big budget deficit—so state universities are demanding accountability for money spent on education.
6) India is much advanced compared to 1954-58. Many US companies are opening research facilities in India as it is cheaper and good talent is available. In pharmaceutical area—US companies are relying on Indian companies, but Intel, Cisco, Microsoft and others are expanding to lower R&D costs.
7) For a few thousand dollars gained by working in USA—you are giving up the emotional support of your family. In 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s—the tradeoff/ balance/ pendulum tilted towards USA. In 2011 and beyond—I believe that the pendulum has tilted to India if you add “emotional-family support” loss/gain.
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Views by Animesh Pathak (CSE 2003)
I have recently noticed the positive trend that students from ITBHU are showing greater interest in research work abroad, and have emailed asking for guidance, as well a financial support for internships, conference travel, and graduate studies abroad. Here are some suggestions which I have given, and wanted to share with a wider audience for greater benefit:
1) Check the FAQs. Today, there are various mailing lists, including itbhu-gradschool@googlegroups.com , where ITBHU alumni have already documented their opinions on the graduate school experience, and are willing to help. Join them and ask your questions there for better responses.
2) Value the reader's time; be clear in your questions. Please remember that the alumni are taking out time from their busy schedules to read and possibly respond to your message. The more specific your questions are (“Should I study nanotechnology at Duke Univ.?” versus “What are your tips for future directions?”), the easier it becomes for the reader to respond to them. This will increase the chances of your getting a timely response.
3) Be careful about punctuations and grammar. Graduate school (and life in general) will involve a lot of writing – emails, reports, and manuals – and if your email to us is full of SMS language, typos, and generally bad punctuation, it leaves a bad taste in our mouths, and the writer comes across as someone who did not do his homework. With spell-checkers integrated in all major browsers and word processors, why not try to type a few more characters? :)
4) Customize your email for the reader. Just like you do not like getting generic offers for credit cards in your emails, we (and the professors you will email later) also do not like getting emails which clearly look like a mass-mail. Please try to spend some time reading about what the recipient of your mail does, and then customize the email to his context. For example, I deeply appreciate if before sending emails to me, the student has done his research and had a look at my webpage to know my area of work, which can be found easily by using Google.
5) Talk to your seniors. One very valuable resource that students often overlook is their own seniors at ITBHU. Ask around to find out who are the ones who went to good institutions, both in India and abroad, for internships last year. Maybe ask them to host a small workshop to give you all suggestions. That will be as valuable as waiting for an email response from someone who lives 12 time zones away :).
6) Don't ask for funding unpaid foreign internships. Please note that we in academia understand that it is not hard to get unpaid internships where the host professor is paying nothing – neither airfare not stipend. After all, who does not like free labor? :). Therefore, when we get emails from students asking us to fund an internship where all the funds are to be borne by the student, it does not sound special. And since a lot of you are already getting internships which are (at least partially) paid, why not try for that?
7) Choose your conferences carefully. Not all conferences are equal – some are quite simply a means for the participants to get a paper easily, and travel to an exotic location at the same time, while making money for the organizers. Therefore, when we get emails from you asking to fund conference travel, and then our friends who work in the area tell us that it is an unknown conference, we feel sad for the time you spent on this paper. And this brings me to my final point.
8) Seek us out sooner than later. For example, if you ask for “alumni working in area X to give us direction in research” as opposed to “alumni who can fund our travel to a conference in area X”, you are much more likely to get timely advice, which will be more useful in the long run. Additionally, in this manner you develop a longer lasting relationship with the alumnus based on shared work interests, instead of just a need for money.
Hope you will find the above points useful. I can be reached at animesh AT animeshpathak.in, and blog at animeshpathak.blogspot.com
(Animesh has a B. Tech in CSE from ITBHU, and a PhD in Computer Engineering from the University of Southern California. He is currently a researcher for the French national labs (INRIA) in Paris, France. )
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(Courtesy: http://www.cartoonresource.com/ehg120-hd.jpg)
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(if you having troubles, try posting your comment on this page or send an email to chronicle @ itbhuglobal.org)Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi 221005, UP