Why Engineering graduates are looking for banking sector jobs?

Nowadays, banking field is basically infested with engineers as five out ten people who are joining the sector these days have engineering as their graduation subject. In the interview level itself, it is observed that number of engineers is there to be interviewed in order to get a place in banking sector. This is a pretty new trend specially after the boom of IT industry in India in the first decade of the 21^st century. People were then reluctant to even think about banking, however, now they are mainly focused on banking after degree. Why?

Banking after Engineering: Why?

It has been a trend in the recent years that scores of engineers are now entering into the banking sector as clerks or probationary officers or specialist officers. This is very common these days for engineering students to start preparation for banking exams after the graduation degree. Let us find out why.

• More supply than demand: There is a boom of engineering colleges throughout the country. They produce a lot of engineers every year and most of them end up having no jobs or getting underpaid. The reason is that the employment opportunities are not the same as the number of engineers passing out every year.
• Engineers lack employability skills: This is another aspect of engineering education in the country. The students are not employable by the industry because of their lack of practical skills. This creates a gap between the demand of the companies and the actual supply pool of engineers.
• Banking sector is more welcoming: This is a reason that so many engineers as well as professionals from other areas come to banking since you just need to possess a degree in order to become an officer in a bank. You can rise upto the level of chairman or managing director from there if you are talented enough.
• Decent Pay Package: Most of the engineers end up with a job at a small company in the IT field or any other field after studying engineering from various engineering colleges of the country. However, an officer starts with the gross salary of around Rs .37000 in a public sector bank whereas in SBI, you get around 4000-5000 more as they have four more increments in the initial level. Apart from this, you get various perks such as lease accommodation, newspaper allowance, briefcase grant etc.
• Job Security: In private sector, job security is less as compared to the public sector. There is very little chance that a PSB will throw you out in the times of recession unlike the private sector companies which do not guarantee your job under any and every circumstances.
• Social Factor: Bankers are socially respected lot and obviously score more over the IT engineers or any other engineering job as such. You get good social response as well as acceptability as a banker.
• Meritocracy rules: Even if you do not know anything about banking, you can rise upto the topmost level in a bank if you are talented enough to learn things once you join the bank. Banks offer you a more attractive promotion policy compared to the private sector engineering jobs where it is very difficult to get a pay hike or increment.

Engineering sector has its own problems of not having courses designed on the lines of industry requirements. On the other hand, engineering graduates are more in number than required as of the present situation. These two factors contribute mainly to the influx of engineers in government sector jobs such as banking, insurance. Another important aspect is the pay package and job security these public sector jobs offer. Banking is open for all and engineers make the most of it, as of the present trend.