“Waste” of IIT/IIM

So this is something I’ve heard a lot and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

“Why did you do B.Tech if you wanted to join IAS?”

And even more – “Why did you do an MBA if you wanted to join IAS”?

Honestly, this ranks among the most frequent questions I’ve heard but since it’s so common I thought I’ll talk about it.

I’ll give not one, but two answers – a long one and a shorter one.

Long Answer

Claim: “IIT/IIM is a waste if you want to join the civil service”

I’ll ignore the cliched “diversity”, “new perspectives” stuff – I don’t believe in that myself, you can find it elsewhere too – you don’t need to go to IIT/IIM for that.

I’ll show you the assumptions behind this claim and explain why I don’t agree with them.

1. You can’t apply anything you learnt in IIT/IIM in the civil service
   1. I don’t agree. I’d taken courses on public policy, Infrastructure development, Indian Economy, Business, Government & Law in my MBA
   2. I think I might get to apply what I learnt in civil engineering. Take a simple example that’s bugged me – if you wonder why you face so many red lights one after another, it’s because the traffic signals aren’t optimized for the actual flow of traffic. One small change can save millions of man-hours everyday.
2. You actually apply what you learnt in college in your job
   1. I don’t think it always works that way. Sure, if you’re lucky, you might, but I’ve also seen many of my friends who aren’t lucky – most of them, in fact. I wasn’t unhappy, but I didn’t feel that I was using what I had learnt in my job after my MBA.
3. You’re absolutely one hundred percent sure there’s nothing else you want to do other than join the civil service
   1. I’ve never understood this, and always felt envious/sceptical of those who’ve been so sure
   2. There are hundreds of opportunities open – how could I ever shut them all off and say, “I only want this one”?
   3. I’ve changed minds so many times in childhood (another story), I couldn’t ever imagine fixating only on one path and ignoring the rest.
4. You’ll “waste” years and money – it won’t give you an “edge” in your civil service career
   1. If “becoming” IAS is all you want, then yes, I’d advise you not to go for IIT/IIM.
   2. I don’t want to “be” someone. I want to “do” things. That’s why I took the path I did, and I don’t have any regrets. Chasing a job wasn’t my motivation for IIT/IIM (that’s also a story for another time).
5. You identify completely with your job – A job is all you are, you have no identity beyond that
   1. Again, I don’t subscribe to this view. There’s more to life than a job, even if it’s IAS, and I’ve found that everything I’ve learnt is something I use in my daily life. If you read my posts, you’ll see I draw from everywhere.
   2. I didn’t use much of what I learnt in MBA in my job as a risk analyst. But when I started writing books, when I created this site – everything I read about came to life in front of me. This was one of the most fun things I’ve done, and this was what I felt I’d gone to IIM-A for, not a big salary.
6. You believe in sunk costs and think your past determines your future
   1. Most of those reading would be preparing for UPSC. So perhaps this example might explain what a sunk cost is.
      1. Imagine you pay Rs. 25,000 for coaching and you find out the class is a complete waste of 3 hours, but you can’t get a refund. What would you do? I’ve seen most people still keep going, just to “get their moneys worth”.
      2. I think that’s indescribably stupid. That’s essentially saying, “I’ve wasted my money on this useless coaching, and now I’m also going to waste my time.”
   2. So I don’t believe in letting my past determine my future. Most people are the same, but they usually won’t admit it – how many civil engineers really do civil engineering?
      1. Many people think it’s “bad” that engineers aren’t pursuing their core subjects. If you are such an engineer, don’t let it affect you. Why would you bind yourself for your whole life to a decision you took at the age of 17? It’s mindbogglingly stupid.
      2. If you enjoy your subject, you might want to make a career out of it. If you don’t, then there’s no compulsion whatever that you “have” to anyway – why would you let one choice the next fifty years of your life?

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

Steve Jobs

This is essentially what I’ve come to believe. I’ve seen quite a few people with their lives completely mapped out – that’s good for them, but I wouldn’t and couldn’t ever do that.

The past doesn’t bind my future choices. And my future isn’t predetermined either. So I gave up wondering “What will I be when I grow up?” – a question that haunted me as a kid. I answered it in my own way, which I’ll talk about another day. And I never had an answer for the cliched, “Where do you see yourself in 5/10 years?” beyond “I don’t see myself anywhere, I look that far ahead.”

Now for the short answer.

Short Answer

The short answer is I don’t really care whether someone thinks it’s a waste of IIT/IIM or not.

I don’t base my life decisions on what complete strangers would think of them. It’s a matter of irrelevance – neither approval nor praise matters. It just doesn’t register in my mind, I simply can’t bring myself to devote any thought to something so trivial.

And the truth is – those who criticize the loudest, claiming a seat was “wasted”, are also the ones who wouldn’t make it anyway – they just want someone else to shift the blame on. Those who succeed are the ones who don’t have time to waste on trying to pull down complete strangers; they’re too busy building themselves up.

The more you focus on others, the less you retain of yourself. If you’re devoting your time and energy to what an utter stranger like me chooses to do with his life, you probably don’t have enough going on in yours.

The reason I’ve written this out isn’t to defend myself – I don’t need defending (nor praise). It’s so that those who are in a similar position can break through these fallacies and make the choice they want.

Whatever you do, someone will criticize you.

If you go abroad for higher studies, you’ll be denounced for deserting your country after it subsidized your education – never mind that you might come back in the future or add value in your chosen field.

If you work in the private sector, you’ll be criticized for “making money” or “selling soap” – never mind that if you sell enough soap, you can help your firm grow and create jobs, you can improve people’s health and hygiene, and your taxes can contribute to people’s welfare.

If you join the civil service, you’ll be condemned for “wasting” a seat by the same people who will bemoan that “our best minds leave / only make money”.

If you become an entrepreneur, you’ll be told that you’re only interested in money, or that you will fail so you shouldn’t even try, or your idea isn’t even that good, fifty people are already doing that, “can’t you think of something better?”.

Don’t let any of this affect you. Criticizing is easy, and there’s no personal risk, no skin in the game. It’s easy to say a book sucks; it’s much harder to write one that doesn’t suck – you have to expose yourself to public criticism if you want to do that, which means you’ll have skin in the game, because your work is now out in the open.

Someone will always criticize you. If you let that affect you, you’ll never be able to do anything. You might then sit at home vegetating like a plant – and even then you’ll be criticized for doing nothing. So if someone will always be unhappy, no matter what you choose, why not make yourself happy?

That’s the only thing in your hands. I know far too many people graduating from the best colleges – those whom the outside world thinks have everything going for them – miserable and unhappy.

Don’t be one of them if you can help it. And you can always help it.