I Came to Engineering College to Become an Engineer — Not Just a GATE Aspirant

By Aman Kumar Happy
September 10, 2026

There are some things you don't say immediately.

You think about them. You ignore them for a while. You try to convince yourself that maybe you're looking at things from the wrong angle. Then, slowly, after enough experiences pile up, you realise there's something you need to say.

I've been thinking about my engineering college journey for a long time.

About what I expected when I entered B.Tech CSE. About what I actually found. About the kind of engineer I want to become. And about one question that keeps coming back to me:

What does engineering really mean?

When I got admission into B.Tech Computer Science Engineering, my expectations were pretty simple.

I wanted to learn engineering.

I wanted to build things that were actually useful. I wanted to understand modern technologies, participate in hackathons, find internships, connect with people from startups and industry, work on projects, explore new ideas and, eventually, get a good placement — whether that happened on campus or through an off-campus opportunity didn't really matter to me.

More than anything, I wanted these four years to turn me into an engineer.

Not just someone who completed a degree.

Not just someone who passed semester examinations.

And definitely not someone whose entire identity became one examination.

But college had a different plan for me.

An Engineering College… But Where Is the Engineering?

This is where my experience becomes complicated.

On paper, our college has the things you'd expect from an engineering institution. There's a Startup Cell. There's a Coding Club. There's an innovation ecosystem.

The problem is what happens beyond the names.

Our Startup Cell exists, but we've had very limited activity — perhaps one or two events, and even those sometimes felt more like formalities than a continuous startup ecosystem.

The interaction with industry leaders has also been extremely limited.

Then there's the Coding Club.

When I look at what has actually happened through it, I remember a C programming test and an internal SIH 2025 hackathon.

And that made me think.

If a college has a coding club, a startup cell and an innovation ecosystem, then what should students realistically be doing throughout the year?

Because engineering cannot simply become:

attendance → classes → syllabus → semester exams → repeat.

There has to be something happening in between.

There has to be room to build.

August 25: The Hackathon We Tried to Build Ourselves

One of the experiences that really made me think about all this happened on August 25, 2026.

We organised a hackathon under the Coding Club, and I was heavily involved in putting it together.

Around 70 participants, including coordinators, were involved.

The goal wasn't complicated. We wanted students to actually experience what a hackathon feels like — thinking under pressure, building something quickly, working with a team and presenting a solution.

But even arranging basic things wasn't straightforward.

We asked the college for funds for snacks and were told there wasn't a budget for them.

So the coordinators pooled around ₹1,150 from our own pockets and arranged snacks ourselves.

We also wanted to provide printed certificates. That would've cost roughly ₹700.

Again, there wasn't support available.

So we continued anyway.

Because at that point, the choice felt simple:

Either we create the opportunity ourselves, or the opportunity doesn't happen.

The hackathon happened.

And honestly, I'm glad it did.

AWS Student Builders Group and a Bigger Question

I'm also leading the AWS Student Builders Group on campus.

When we wanted an auditorium for our inauguration event, we were told that the auditorium was reserved for “big events.”

That sentence stayed with me.

Because I couldn't stop thinking:

What turns a student-led technical activity into a big event if students aren't even given the space to start?

An ecosystem doesn't appear magically.

Someone has to start it.

Someone has to organise the first event, invite the first speaker, bring students together, build the first project and create momentum.

Students need that opportunity too.

Then We Missed SIH 2026

For me, Smart India Hackathon isn't just another competition.

It's one of those platforms where students can take an actual problem, form a team, build a solution, test their ideas and see how they perform against students from across the country.

So when we missed SIH 2026, it hurt more than I expected.

Maybe because opportunities like that are limited.

Maybe because I already felt that our technical ecosystem could be much stronger.

And maybe because when a student is actively looking for opportunities, missing one major national-level platform feels much bigger than it might look from the outside.

Somehow, Every Road Kept Leading to GATE

And then came the part that made me question things even more.

The repeated conversation about GATE.

I kept hearing things like:

“Everyone can make it happen through GATE.”

Or comparisons around companies, locations and packages — for example, the idea that if a company like TCS comes to Patna, perhaps one student might get selected at around 4 LPA.

I understand the intention behind such advice.

GATE is a legitimate and strong pathway, especially for students who want higher studies and the opportunities that come with that route.

But I started asking myself a different question.

Does every CSE student really have to want the same thing?

One student wants to become a software engineer.

Another wants to work in cloud computing.

Someone is interested in cybersecurity.

Someone else wants AI/ML.

Another student wants to build a startup.

Someone wants to do research.

Someone wants an off-campus software engineering role.

Someone wants to study abroad.

Someone wants to prepare for GATE.

Someone wants all of these things at different stages.

So why should an engineering career have only one template?

My Problem Isn't GATE

I want to make that clear.

I don't have a problem with GATE.

I have a problem with the idea that GATE should become the default answer to every engineering student's career.

A student who wants to prepare for GATE should get proper guidance and support.

Absolutely.

But a student who wants to focus on coding, internships, hackathons, projects, cloud, startups, open source or placements should also have an ecosystem around them.

That's the point I'm trying to make.

Four years of B.Tech should create room for exploration.

Not force everyone into one predefined route.

What About Placements?

I didn't take admission into engineering college thinking, “I'll complete the degree and figure everything out later.”

I wanted a good placement.

On-campus or off-campus — I genuinely don't care.

But placement preparation doesn't happen in isolation.

Students need exposure to companies. They need awareness of internships. They need technical communities. They need projects. They need to understand what current industry roles actually look like.

A CSE student today can explore software engineering, cloud engineering, DevOps, cybersecurity, AI/ML, product development, startups, open source and many other areas.

College should help students see that world.

Because sometimes the biggest limitation isn't a student's ability.

It's simply not knowing what opportunities exist.

The NIT Patna Recognition That Never Got Mentioned

One experience that still bothers me was something completely different.

At a national-level innovation and IDE bootcamp, we received recognition from NIT Patna.

We came back to college expecting, at minimum, some acknowledgement.

Nothing happened.

Not even a small mention.

And honestly, this wasn't about money.

It was about recognition.

When a student leaves the campus, participates somewhere, represents the institution and comes back with an achievement, I believe the institution should at least acknowledge that effort.

Because when students represent the college outside, their achievement isn't completely separate from the college anymore.

The IIC Experience Made Me Think Even More

Last year, during a regional IIC meeting, the college had to present its achievements.

That experience made something very clear to me.

Student achievements shouldn't end with certificates sitting inside a folder.

If students are building projects, participating in national competitions, representing the college and earning recognition, those achievements should become part of the institution's larger story.

A college's achievements aren't only what appears on an official notice or presentation.

Student achievements are college achievements too.

Then I Had Another Reality Check: Judging a Hackathon

Ironically, one of the strongest lessons came from our own hackathon.

I built a prototype around helmet detection, smoke detection and crowd detection.

We had four hours.

So I built what could realistically be built in four hours: a working demo where an image could be uploaded and the system would return a result.

But during judging, I got questions like:

“How did you train the YOLO model?”

“How will it detect a helmet at 180 km/h?”

“How will this work in real-world conditions?”

Now, questions aren't the problem.

Actually, good questions are useful.

The issue was the context.

This was a four-hour hackathon prototype being evaluated in a way that sometimes felt closer to evaluating a production-ready system.

A hackathon prototype isn't supposed to pretend it's a finished commercial product.

The purpose is to demonstrate the idea, build a proof of concept and show what can be done with limited time and resources.

We still gave it our best.

We didn't win.

We didn't finish as runner-up either.

That's completely fine.

You can't win every competition.

What stayed with me wasn't losing.

It was the atmosphere.

Sometimes it felt like the judging was happening because it was part of the event, rather than because someone genuinely wanted to understand what students had built.

And when someone stays awake all night working on a project, I think the least that person deserves is genuine curiosity about the work.

I'm Not Writing This Because I Didn't Win

This is important.

I'm not writing this because I lost a hackathon.

Winning and losing are secondary.

I'm writing this because I genuinely believe engineering students need an environment where they can explore different paths.

A student who wants to code should be encouraged.

A student who wants to build a startup should have support.

A student who wants to participate in hackathons should have guidance.

A student looking for internships should know where to find them.

A student preparing for GATE should receive proper support.

A student preparing for placements should receive the same seriousness.

And when students work with communities like AWS, Google, Microsoft or other technical organisations, that effort should be recognised as something valuable.

Not ignored.

Yes, Sometimes I'm Frustrated With My College

I'll say this honestly.

Sometimes I feel frustrated.

Sometimes it feels like “technology and innovation” becomes more about forms, documentation and formalities than actual building.

Sometimes it feels like students have to step outside the college to discover opportunities.

And sometimes, it feels like if students don't take the initiative themselves, many activities simply wouldn't happen.

But there's one thing I've learned from all of this:

My career cannot depend completely on my college ecosystem.

That's probably one of the hardest lessons I've learned so far.

And maybe it's also one of the most useful.

So What Am I Going to Do Now?

I'm still going to build.

I still want to become an engineer.

I still want to work on innovative ideas.

I still want to participate in hackathons.

I still want internships.

I still want to learn new technologies.

I still want to explore startups.

I still want to prepare for placements.

And yes, I want to keep looking for off-campus opportunities too.

At the same time, I respect the student whose goal is GATE.

Their path is different from mine.

That's all.

I just don't want to spend four years of engineering preparing for one examination at the cost of everything else.

I want to experience what engineering actually feels like.

I want to build.

I want to fail.

I want to compete.

I want to learn.

I want to meet people.

I want to work with technology.

I want to create things that didn't exist before I started.

I want to live engineering, not just earn a degree in it.

Maybe This Story Isn't Only About My College

That's the twist I keep coming back to.

Maybe this isn't only my story.

Maybe students across many engineering colleges are experiencing something similar.

The infrastructure exists, but isn't fully used.

Clubs exist, but activity is inconsistent.

Opportunities exist, but students don't always know about them.

Students are there, but the ecosystem around them isn't strong enough.

And then students are told:

“Go do something.”

So we do.

We organise events ourselves.

We sometimes pool our own money.

We build projects ourselves.

We search for internships ourselves.

We join communities ourselves.

We learn technologies ourselves.

We teach ourselves.

And after doing all that, one question still remains in my head:

If students are building their own ecosystem, then what exactly is the role of an engineering college in that process?

I don't have a perfect answer yet.

Maybe I won't have one for a while.

But I do know one thing.

I came to college to become an engineer.

Not just to become a GATE aspirant.

Aman Kumar Happy