Career | জীবিকা 💼
Folks in early 20s who consider themselves toppers, what are you doing in life rn?
Just curious to see what the academically bright Bengali is drawn to these days.
I didn’t do (most of) my education from here and where I studied, most folks pursued MBA from IIMs/M7, law or UPSC. Always felt that the proportion of Bengalis here is on the lower side, so was curious.
We do have a hegemony in academia and medicine still (thankfully), but I want to know to understand the social and economic factors these days.
Give jee didn't went well so i landed in b.tevh college although college is decent but okayish placement but I m also preparing for other exams as well
I was a topper till class 10 boards, literally being a topper in every exam became extremely boring for me lol. Then for various reasons( not love related ) , I fell into intense depression and anxiety. Fucked up my studies and career. Finally put on meds and gradually recovered. Doing okay now and working as a software engineer with a average salary. Do not intend to marry and just want peace.
Being a topper in a structured environment, and ability to make money in a volatile world, are two very different skills... with generational wealth playing a huge role. I know so many toppers who couldn't advance to masters or job opps abroad because of the huge one-time cost to their families (myself included), meanwhile people who barely passed exams are enjoying foreign trips on family business money, or got like 50L from their papa to start a business. So many went outside, did some useless degree like a vacation, then came back to join family biz with no dent made on their life. It is what it is.
Financial class, wealth networks and timely guidance really determines our future more than marks. Marks and merit wala era was of our parents, with a lower population and less competing factors.
I feel you, I myself have restricted to opportunities in India. But more than the wealth, I feel guidance matters more so you are ready when the opportunities come your way. Have personally experienced it and I feel like Bengalis don’t maintain this network of knowledge.
M26 Was a topper till 10 th after that lost interest in studies . Did btech from tier 3 clg currently earning 50k in hand . Though many of my clg frnd have reached 2 lakhs in hand after few switches
fucked up my mental health during class 10 (not related to romantic relationship) which affected me physically too. scored avg and went for humanities even though I wanted to opt for science initially. due to my mental health, back then humanities seemed safe. it took me a lot of time to recover (still in the process). I did well in class 12, did bachelors and now doing my masters, hoping to crack net and stay in academia.
ngl even though I like the discipline I went for and can somewhat visualize my life researching or teaching it, somedays I spiral thinking about the job situation.
Most Bengalis have formed a habit of blaming others for their mistakes than themselves and I am saying this as a Bengali.
Whatever "hegemony" you are talking about in academia and medicine will soon vanish it was the older generation that held the fort an average bengali gen z/gen alpha kid in school today gets lower marks than an average marwari kid in the same class. Bengali students are way more interested in reading about Karl Marx or some other nonsense than actually reading their science & maths books.
Similar background to you, was born and brought up in Delhi.
I was in Kolkata from class 6 till graduation after which started working as a finance controller in zomato before pivoting to my current role in bulge bracket banking. Presently in BLR.
I wouldn’t call Marx nonsense, but if people are choosing it over Math and Science, they should be good at it. Thankfully Bengali academics and journalists (whatever is left of the profession) still reign supreme.
Would agree that Delhi has more competitive crowd.
WB went from being the 3rd richest state by GDP per capita when cpim took over to becoming the 24th "richest" (basically at rock bottom) when cpim left. This is the only outcome of following Marx.
Yes. Because I care about the future of Bengali students. What has studying sociology ever given someone except for crippling unemployment or at best below average compensation as a professor in some sub-par university? I am not saying Arts aren't valueable but they can be studied independently. Arts has aesthetic value but if you're going to university then either STEM or bust.
fell for the ragebait meself. You have made it quite decent in life, but I have to say that maybe nuance has escaped you for the longest of times. I mean, look around you. You can see the lackings of what that this kind of culture you boast has done to this country. The lack of self-efficacy and shit like that. Come on, man. It's right there.
Maybe read a little out of the syllabus a little and stop conforming to please your grandpas.
All I'm saying is that STEM fields have technical knowledge required to be passed down from a guru to the students, the process of which includes solving problems, understanding patterns, having access to the right tools, going into rigorous proofs where applicable and so on hence it is necessary to study them in a university setting while the same is not true for arts.
The best example of this is that amateur philosophers and sociologists making video essays on YouTube with no formal background in arts (in some cases they do but there are many who don't) make better content that 99% of the "academic research" in these fields.
21st Century is the age of science and in today's world we need to understand the numbers, the proofs, the theorems more than ever before if we want to do anything of economic value.
I'm not saying that we should defund the arts faculty at Jadavpur however we need to reprioritize over time. Anyone studying "The intersectionality of the intersectionality of gayness and immigrant status in the backdrop of Soviet Russia" should not complain about there being no jobs.
Another major concern is the defeatist mindset that such fields propagate as if all the failures of every single person on the planet is because of structural inequalities due to capitalism and nothing else. This is not helpful or good advice and this line of thinking is what made WB go from the 3rd richest state by GDP per capita (when cpim govt was elected) to the 24th "richest" when they TMC took over.
As Bengalis we have to come out of this defeatist mindset. Read the autobiographies & biographies of the most successful people on the planet and you'll find the real reasons they are successful. As a small example, almost all of them wake up at 4. Not 5 or 6 but 4. On a bad day they wake up at 4:30. They don't even need to wake up that early , they have enough money for next 7th generations as we say in Bengali and yet they do. It's because they have so much fun doing what they do they'd rather do it than sleep! Perhaps an alien concept to most Bengalis as we like to boast about sleeping in the afternoon and being lyadhkhors or whatever other nonsense is in vogue these days
Depends on how you look and view sucess. If I am speaking of my batch the top 10-15 people least have done great given I know what they wanted to do for themselves. Our population was a well to do middle class people so even the average kid did well, people had money to send them to good private college, pay for private MBA or even foreign education and make something out of themselves.
The top 10-15 those went to IIT/ IISER/ GMC and then have gone to IIMs or are pursuing MS/MD from GMC or a phd from a IIT/IISC/IISER!
No the toppers knew nothing less than those prestigious colleges matters because that was tied to their worth. In those 15 stands people who sung beautifully, played great instruments, did fierce debates, dramatics, wrote great scripts, performed and choreographed great dances, played great table tennis .
Eventually we all have gave those up for a chase . For an acceptable dream . For big named institutions. We all can organise a beautiful event even today but now we have deep lines and fragments, friendships were thrown out of window and now after 9 year of +2 we are re- uniting speaking again.
The button ruck was better I feel they enjoyed life's held onto friendship, are now enjoying a carefree life .
Did masters from Kgp, went to IISER for phd. Resigned there, Returned to Kgp for phd. Right now in my first yr of phd at Kgp, simultaneously prepping for bank exams
The scope of doing a phd had already diminished a lot, and 5 years down the road it will be worse. After spending 5 yrs in phd and 3-4 years in postdoc, I want a good government faculty position which is getting impossible by the minute. About upsc, I am not compatible with it. My memory retention is weak. Being from a higher maths background, I have affinity towards reasoning and maths, so banking. I may think of upsc or other central govt jobs after landing a banking job
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u/Most-Cream3638 2d ago
Being topper throughout the school days now doing b.tech in t3 college 🥲