Over 100 pre-final year engineering students from five colleges in and around Mangalore came on Monday to participate in the campus recruitment drive by the army in the city.
“I never dreamt of a career in the Indian Army. I pursued engineering to get a job with an IT firm where one is locked in a cubicle or tied to a design board. The prospect of being an engineer in the Army is the best thing to happen to me,” said Ashwin of St Joseph’s College of Engineering, Mangalore.
Close to 300 students are waiting to get a chance to be recruited to the Army at similar drives at Canara Engineering College, Bantwal; Vivekananda Engineering College, Puttur; and Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal.
“The campus recruitment drive by the Army has elicited a good response from young engineers. This was the first stop of the drive. My colleagues in the Army working in two more groups will be holding similar drives in other parts of the state,” said Colonel Suresh Gigoo, who is heading the group that is holding recruitments in the southern districts.
“All the new recruits would be first soldiers than army engineers. They will know how to stand up and fight for the country when they are required. They will be trained at the Indian Military Academy (IMA) at Dehradun before they would be formally inducted into the Army. They have to hone the skills for protecting the country in their capacity as engineers” Gigoo said.
Principal of the host college, Nagesh Prabhu, said: “I have gone through the recruitment process and found it very elaborate. There has been a slowdown in the employment market. This trend has been amply reflected in the reduced numbers of campus recruitments by companies. But with the Army coming up with a campus recruitment drive, the chances of more students getting employed has brightened.”
The new recruits will start getting a stipend of up to `21,000 per month after their recruitment in the pre-final year. Later, they will get their full salary of up to `65,000 per month. This will happen only after their final induction into the service after they pass the Services Selection Board tests and training at IMA.
“ The army could match or even better the offers made by the many MNCs to the aspiring engineers. In addition, there are many other benefits that will follow during the course of the service. Importantly, the young engineers will be serving the country,” Gigoo said.
Shivendu, an electronics student from Bihar who is studying at St Joseph’s College of Engineering, said: “I would like to join the Army. The best part of the service in the Army is that you lead a disciplined, motivated and purposeful life”.
Major M Thimaiah said the recruiting group is expecting to get more than 200 students from three nodal centres in Bantwal (Canara Engineering College), Puttur (Vivekananda Engineering College) and Manipal (Manipal Institute of Technology). The recruitment group will then move on to Shimoga, Hassan, Chikmagalur and Kodagu.The recruitment group from Bangalore will recruit in Mysore and adjoining places.
source: http://www.dnaindia.com / Daily News & Analysis / Home> Bangalore> Report / by M Raghuram, Place:Bangalore, Agency:DNA / Tuesday, November 06th, 2012