Build and Sustain a Career in Engineering Paperback – 29 January 2021

I like the way author speaks in short, crisp sentences. He has this uncanny ability to delineate abstract, seemingly unquantifiable, ideas into structured concepts.I am generally not receptive to self-help books. Instead, I read of biographies and historical accounts, and believe in imbibing lessons directly from real lives. However, I was sold out after a recent AICTE seminar delivered by the author and decided to buy his book.The author is genuinely worried about demography induced wave of unemployment in India, and the role our engineering community is missing in taming it. The anecdotes he shares are gripping and helpful. I like that he gives only actionable recommendations and emphasizes long term capacity building over short-cuts. Reliability trumps euphoria! What I like the most, is the use of undeniable statistical reasoning for slaying wishful thinking! The ideas may not be new, but the supportive reasoning most likely is.

I read the book and I feel it should be a must read for all to-be engineers and students who want to take up core engineering roles (jobs, R&D or academia). The book is written with refreshing honesty and from personal experience. It is practical and provides steps, which if taken has the potential to truly transform lives.I especially liked:1. The author's conceptualization of the wage rate pyramid.2. The use of probability theory to explain career options.3. Bringing in additional perspectives from the industry.4. Concrete case examples, explaining choices.5. Providing some of the underlying philosophy with pragmatism. For example , "Unless you are a brilliant liar, I think it is best to be honest. The interview room is not a court of law. The interviewer does not have to prove that you are lying. They will simply not select you." or "Statistically speaking, honesty is the best policy." or "Some subjects are hard. What is hard can often be handled with patience and a plan..." and many more such nuggets of wisdom.As a parent of an aspiring engineer, I recommend this book to all students and parents alike. The book lays bare the challenges that students will come across during the course of their study and career. It provides valuable suggestions on how to proceed. From that perspective, it is truly as the author says - Actionable Advice.Thanks for a timely book and I hope people read it as a precursor to getting on the engineering bandwagon.

A well written book for serious students who care for good advice and aspire to an engineering career.

This book is wonderfully written with a lot of actionable points with examples to draw from. I feel it any budding engineer must read this book to set his/her priorities right from the beginning and be invested in the process of self improvement. The book is not just limited to engineering but any career that can draw parallels to a professional course like engineering. Each chapter is to be contemplated upon, ruminated upon and it is important that one proceeds to the next chapter only once done so as to benefit the most from the book!

An IIT Kanpur graduate in Mechanical Engineering, an engineering enthusiast and author's student in a course on Non Linear Vibrations some 2 years ago. Trust me, even without all this you will resonate. The world needs wealth creation, which needs problem solvers, which need skills that can be technical as well as non technical. The book starts with a wake-up call to be wary of being redundant. It delves into important softer aspects of personality and character. It then touches on the metrics to evaluate a problem solution. Throughout the book, the author provides noteworthy actionable items on becoming worthy to self and the society in general.To put it simply, I read the entire book from the cover, to the preface, to acknowledgement, to end cover reviews in 9 hours on a Monday. I loved the experience. Its a good read for all the learners wanting to become everlasting.

This is an excellent overview of the engineering education and industry in India. Everyone who is studying or aspiring to be engineer should read this book. Prof. Anindya writes in detail about his experiences in various projects which he has worked and contributed. This gives a very good insight into challenges and few examples to show how to tackle them and be open enough to opportunities when things down. A good account of Ethics and values through examples and explanation. All in all, this is a book which is accessible in all terms and a must read to students in school, intermediate, graduate, post graduate, researchers and engineers in industries.

The author uses his scientific lens to analyze the wide array of challenges , which graduating engineers have to face in India. Unlike most other books , its a mirror on the grim reality which we ignore . The author convinces you to take control of the situation by providing many insights and steps from his experience. Its a great read for core engineering students as it shows how thinking like an engineer can help you in every sphere of life . The book is small but written with a clarity of thought and honesty which is seldom found today.

This book is lucid and engaging. It gives practical advise for building and sustaining a career in Engineering. Some of the advise is not limited to Engineering - it is broad enough to encompass any chosen field. A very useful guide for both UG and PG students embarking on a new journey into the real world.

Reviewer: Dr. Sarma L. Rani, Associate Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Alabama in Huntsville===============================================================================India is the second most populous country in the world with about 1.4 billion people and is expected to surpass China to become the most populous during this decade. During the current and the next decade, anywhere from 350 to 700 million Indians will be aspiring, planning, and preparing for their educational and professional futures. India’s demographic dimensions might seem like the perfect exemplar of Darwin’s theory of “Survival of the Fittest.”How can one improve one’s chances of succeeding in this hypercompetitive environment? How should one respond to initial stumbles along the way? How does one remain competitive in the long run, with millions of youngsters ready to take one’s place at a significantly lower pay? To get practical and practicable advice on these and more questions, Anindya Chatterjee’s book, “Build and Sustain a Career in Engineering,” is an indispensable read.Perhaps the most important feature of the book is that all the advice that Chatterjee gives is eminently “actionable”, i.e., the advice coupled with a sense of purpose and sincerity may lead to a material and positive difference in one’s life. Chatterjee has little patience and regard for advice and opinions that are vague and not of much practical value. He bolsters his arguments with multiple examples that fall on either side of the actionable–unactionable divide. A case in point is an entire chapter dedicated to driving home the importance of good spoken and written English. In the chapter titled, “Learning English,” he says in a no-nonsense way, “If you want to build a career as an engineer, learn English well.”Perhaps the chapter most relevant to current students is on campus interviews. This chapter deals primarily with how to acquit oneself during an interview. And again, no detail is too small for Chatterjee, which should be seen as a manifestation of his genuine desire to write something helpful to the students. He begins with a short but brilliant discussion on the asymmetry in an interviewer–interviewee interaction, i.e., that it is the interviewer who holds almost all the cards in their interaction. The point being that it is important for the jobseeker to show respect to the process and courtesy to the decision-makers in the interview. He also advises students not to fall for the lure of a high starting salary, advising them instead to carefully weigh the risk–reward balance in the long term, i.e., consider whether a job pays more in the here and now, but carries the risk of lay-offs a decade or two down the line when younger people can do the job at a lower salary. The book contains opinions and insights from three successful people with diverse professional backgrounds --- an engineer with a successful career in industry in India, an employee turned entrepreneur who started a soft drinks company, and an entrepreneur who founded a successful online marketing company.In other chapters, Chatterjee advises students to learn to speak, write, think, learn to be patient when studying difficult subjects, relate their knowledge to observations in daily life, learn to formulate problems and solve the resulting equations, and learn computer programming and software tools. He writes a chapter on how those with advanced degrees (Master’s and Ph.D.) can pursue and build a technical career in India. Although this book is meant for engineering students, it has a subtler but an equally applicable message for mid-career professionals in all fields. How do mid-career professionals compete with fresh engineering graduates entering the market, and protect themselves from being laid off? Taking the example of software industry, how does a mid-career professional with fifteen years’ experience in code development ward off being replaced by a fresh graduate? The mere fact of having written code for 15 years longer than the young graduate may not be enough for keeping one’s job. What is it, then? Chatterjee suggests that, ideally, all of one’s additional experience should lead to a value-added proposition that a fresh graduate cannot bring to the table.

Enjoyed reading this book a lot. A very pragmatic view of the state of engineering not only in India but all over the world. Has some great tips for young engineers and students.