When I came out of my technical Engineering course I never ever tried to sneak into a company. Reason being, I was technically sharp. I was always hungry for technology. And I was as hungry as a hungry shark. Ever since I was a child I was keen in peeking into the insides of the latest technical gadgets.

If I repaired a few gadgets with my limited technical supply I ruined a many with my limited dose of technology. However, I fixed their problems later with my technical brains after getting a small description about the technology used in them. As a technical geek, the first gadget that I tried to repair was a small alarm clock. And when I say repair, I literally mean removing all the gears and replacing them again. It took me two complete days to render the clock completely useless after cutting a small important copper coil inside it. And I never felt sorry for that. Because I got a chance to peek into the technology as used in small alarm clock. And today I know how the 555 timer technology is used for designing an alarm clock. And this is a very simple technology which many Engineers are not acquainted with even after graduating out of their technical courses.

The topper of my class had once attended a campus interview. The interviewer asked this technical Electric Engineer a small basic technical question, “Which of the following is a good conductor of electricity: Copper or Aluminium?” And it was not very unusual to see a blank face when the question was heard. Quite surprisingly a Civil Engineer answered this question and also justified his answer with a technical explanation. And this technical guy was a below average student! And this is the difference when it comes to differentiating a technical guy from a non-technical one.

The first advantage that you get as a technical guy is that you need not bother about joining a company. You can literally create your own company and earn millions of bucks. There are too many Bill Gates’ in this world. The only reason why they are not as successful as the other Bill Gates is because they dream of only one thing in their lives: Working under the other Bill Gates. Technical students hate joining a company. If at all they join one they do it because they need experience and capital to start their venture.

I personally feel that a technical engineer has the right potential to start a company and make it big. The biggest example of such a technical guy is the founder of Infosys: Mr. Narayanmurthy. When I say technical geek I mean to say a guy or a girl who has complete technical details of a particular gadget of product. The software companies are filled with non-technical staff of workers. Those who are technical usually score low because they are interested in understanding technology and not memorizing it. And that is exactly how a technical geek should be. He should keep himself updated with the latest technology around and not just learn something by heart just to score higher in a course or two. Take a look at the following situation:

An uncle of mine had started his business as a computer vendor and was ready to hire a few technical students as employees. A guy who had a 80% score sheet in Electronics Engineering stepped in. My uncle started the interview with a few technical questions like:

What are bad sectors? Which technology is used in CD burning? What technology is used to eliminate bad sectors in a disc?

Quite surprisingly the guy knew about a compact disc but did not know anything about sectors! My uncle was so disappointed with the answers that he just lost hope. The next interviewee was a merely passed out Diploma holder in Electrical technology and knew all the answers to the above said questions. My uncle had planned to roll out a payment of Rs4000 per month. But the sheer technical brain of the student gained him another 1000 extra bucks.

This is exactly what the knowledge of cutting edge technology gives you. A chance of ruling the world. There is one more example. A guy had joined a computer course at my uncle’s office. He had joined the course at a time when he did not know even the basic definition of a computer. Today he is a technical software Engineer and gets a contract of nearly 10,00,000 bucks every six months! Keeping in touch with the latest technology is very helpful, especially during the recession times when you are thrown out of a company. You can literally do anything if you stay in touch with the latest cutting-edge technology.

Have a technical life.

By: Surendra R Kumar

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