A recent news report in Business Standard conveyed the same message that I had been trying to propagate: “Master technology first; be a manager later“. All freshers joining Infosys will have to compulsorily stay focused on technology for the first six years of their career. Only after the period, they will have to choose to either grow vertically as a techie or take up managerial responsibilities.

I strongly believe that those selecting engineering as their profession must focus on mastering the technology and do everything to learn as much as possible to enhance the domain knowledge backed up with practical training in the industries of the relevant technologies.

I think one of the main reasons for this thrust is the gradual shift of the IT companies of the country in higher level of outsourcing works that that it aims at now. Major automobile companies have already established their shops and many have their R&D centres too. Even new customers, including automakers Renault, Volkswagen and Harley Davidson, are seeking to outsource their complex design engineering projects to India.

The engineering services outsourcing (ESO) industry in the country is set to achieve $55 billion in revenues by 2020. Indian companies are becoming outsourced providers of critical R&D in sophisticated areas such as semiconductor design, aerospace, automotive, network equipment and medical devices.

As reported, Both the Palm Pre smart phone and the Amazon Kindle, two of the hottest consumer electronics devices on the market, have key components designed in India. Intel designed its six-core Xeon processor in India .

Many startups are also focusing on innovations with huge demand in developed market too.

Under these circumstances, the quality of education as well as skill expectations mainly related to domain knowledge from the candidates will have to be higher. Degrees will be worth nothing, if the knowledge is missing.