A letter to my undergraduate friends at DoES, IITK

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This letter is primarily intended for students of the BS-MS program at the Department of Earth Sciences, IIT Kanpur but I am putting it up on a public platform in case it may help others too, and in case others may chip in and contribute to the discussion.

I am writing this, not because I think I am the best person to advise you, but only to start this discussion. I hope you will discuss anything I say further with other, more experienced people.

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Hi all,

Some of you are making choices towards your futures right now. Some of you will choose to exit Earth Sciences after your undergraduate degree. And some of you may already have plans of how to do so. Indeed, there are numerous options available - since you are at an IIT, you are in a reasonably good position to land a job in other sectors such as banking or data analytics or coding. You may also consider preparing for a UPSC exam or getting an MBA after this. This post is not intended to criticise any of those career paths because
  1. they are all perfectly valid choices, and
  2. no one but you can know what is best for your own self.
I am writing this because I want to make sure that you have considered the following perspectives before you make your choice.

Why not to not choose Earth Sciences


No prior exposure

When I joined my undergraduate program in 2009 (I feel like a fossil already! ๐Ÿ˜ญ), I had no idea what Geology was all about. There are very few schools in India which teach about Earth Sciences at high school level. I wanted to be a civil engineer because my dad was a civil engineer and that's all I knew anything about. But the JEE system doesn't exactly let you choose what you want - you get an option and either you take it or you leave the chance to study at an IIT (more about that later). For some of you (and I suspect this is a large proportion), Earth Sciences wasn't your first choice. And that's okay.

Make sure you are not not choosing Earth Sciences because of unfamiliarity.

The handful of courses you have studied so far in the department may not be enough to make you appreciate the vast scope of Earth Sciences. And if you restrict your learning to the classroom lectures and the lecture slides, there is little chance that you will see why thousands of scientists have spent their whole lives studying the Earth. I have found that whenever I have picked up a good textbook or a research paper, the subject has become far more interesting to me. It wasn't just about how interesting the subject was, but also how much interest I took to learn.

I recommend you compare this with your friends in other branches. Most of them would face the same kind of unfamiliarity. Most undergraduate degrees are spent learning the basics and the jargon of that particular branch. By the time you have a chance to learn anything interesting, advanced or socially relevant (built on those basics and jargon), some of you have already decided they want to leave. Give Earth Sciences a chance, not for the field but for your own self.

Lack of awareness about Earth Sciences in India

Even if you are beginning to appreciate Earth Sciences, your families might not. After all, they don't sit in the lectures with you and they don't study the concepts you do. The average Indian family does not have adequate awareness about job prospects. This means that however well-meaning our parents or relatives are, the discussion comes back to the same few buzzwords - engineering, UPSC, MBA, or the package. You may have a similar experience.

Make sure you are not not choosing Earth Sciences because your family does not appreciate the field.

This lack of appreciation can be far more insidious than you anticipate. If everyone only talks of those 1-crore packages, or those coveted IAS jobs, or that IIM tag -- please, for God's sake, forget about the tags! -- it can be very discouraging to pick the path less travelled. Don't back down from your own interests for the sake of social approval. This has deep long-term implications.

Despite a few ups and several downs, I am happy to be pursuing a career in Science. I wrote more about this here.

Lack of proper guidance

This could be due to various reasons:
  1. You do not have anyone in the family who has exposure to Earth Sciences
  2. You are not comfortable enough to freely discuss career prospects with your faculty members / postdocs
  3. You are not comfortable enough to freely discuss career prospects with the postgraduate students of your department -- this is important; do not rely solely on undergraduate seniors. Undergraduate wisdom is typically based on 2-3 years of "real" exposure to Earth Sciences. Sure, you probably relate more to your undergraduate seniors, but I strongly recommend talking to Masters and PhD students for more advice.
For the batches at IITK right now, this problem is a bit more acute. Since the BS-MS program is a new program, you do not have senior batches to guide you and share their experiences.

Make sure you are not not choosing Earth Sciences simply because you do not know who to ask for guidance.

On my personal front, I will be happy to answer questions. You will find that so are many, many people in the department. Overcome your hesitation and seek counsel. It's a big deal to choose a career and you should get advice from as many sources as you can from within the field. Think carefully about whatever advice you get -- no one knows everything, and it is your job to figure out if that advice applies in your situation. Advice from parents and relatives is not enough.

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Lastly, it would be cool to have some of you as future colleagues. But irrespective of your career choices, I have had fun getting to know you and overall, I'm glad we all met. ๐Ÿ˜Š

Happy last-day-of-Antaragni!



Part II ➝


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Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 20, 2019 at 1:59 AM

    Nice ! Beneficial for not only the freshers, but even those who have never thought of taking up Earth Sciences..

    ReplyDelete

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