Dr. Anindya Chatterjee
Paperback
289 Pages
Notion Press
Unemployment in India is no secret, but do we truly grasp its enormity?
Picture this: a 120 kilometre long wall, lined with one closed door every metre. In front of each door stands a crowd of 200 decently qualified candidates, all waiting, all hopeful, but only one will be allowed in. At average Indian driving speed, you need two hours just passing the queues of job-seekers. If you suddenly realise you’ve been waiting at the wrong door, correcting that mistake may cost you an hour long taxi ride - just to join yet another intimidating crowd. This is the reality of unemployment in India - too many doors, too few openings, and an exhausting, uncertain wait for your turn.
So how do you ensure you’re standing at the right door, at the right time, equipped to move ahead while millions remain stuck? Even after you do land a job, how do you survive and grow in a world where 1.5 million new engineering graduates flood the market every year, each younger, hungrier, more equipped, more updated and willing to replace you with lower salary?
This book takes you straight to the heart of that problem, offering answers grounded in clarity, empathy, and decades of real experience. Drawing from years of teaching at IIT Kanpur and some other prestigious technology institutes, industry insights, and a deep understanding of India’s evolving job market, the author delivers what students and young professionals desperately need but rarely find - a long-term, practical, actionable roadmap for career survival and success.
Instead of promising shortcuts or fashionable hacks that fade quickly, the book aims at simple proven ways - durable skills, long-term value creation, and meaningful professional evolution. With excellent relatable analogies, accessible explanations, and engaging discussions on the wage-rate pyramid, employability cycles, risk, patience, and the constant need to keep rising, it becomes a survival manual for the few decades of your career.
Clear, honest, and deeply motivating, this book is about building a stable, fulfilling, future-proof career in a fast-changing competitive world. Though written primarily for engineers, its fundamental principles apply effortlessly to every profession.
If you are willing to climb, instead of getting wet, this book shows you how.
About the Author:
Dr. Anindya Chatterjee is a professor of mechanical engineering at IIT Kanpur. Earlier, he studied at IIT Kharagpur, the University of Florida, and Cornell University, and taught at IISc Bangalore and IIT Kharagpur. He is concerned about the career prospects of the present generation of young Indian engineers. He believes that we must face facts, avoid irrational hopes, understand probability, build superior competence through sustained efforts, and rise steadily in our profession, if we are to achieve career growth and stability in the coming decades. His work as a consultant to some companies, which has shaped his thinking on engineering design, is reflected in his writing.
