Metallurgical Engineering - My Choice
Suman Kumar Mandal
I joined Metallurgy at NIT Durgapur in 2001. It was natural for me because I was born and brought up in Burnpur (WB) which is known for its steel industry and coal mines. In my family, few of my relatives are also in the steel sector. So, from my childhood, I have been listening about the industrial processes and products from my surroundings. I had the inclination and fascination towards the steel industry ever since.
When I was in 12th, I realized how the TATAs , Jindal, Essar etc are shaping the economy in a progressive way. This attracted me even more towards the manufacturing industry, particularly the steel sector. So I decided that I would do an engineering course from a reputed institute in metallurgy. After I gave the West Bengal joint entrance examination (WBJEE), I got a seat at NIT Durgapur through counseling.
I was fortunate to be a part of the NITD metallurgy dept. which is known for the faculty and alumni in the industry and R &D. 2 3 years down the line I realized that my decision to take up metallurgy was good, since by then, Indian steel market boomed once again and the manufacturing industry was revived as there was a tremendous demand of steel structures in the global markets.
During the course of engineering, I studied physical metallurgy, mechanical metallurgy, thermodynamics, foundry technology, iron and steel making, extractive metallurgy, and few more specialized papers which gave a holistic view of the metallurgical industry which I still find very fascinating.
As a metallurgist, you can join pure metal industries like Tata steel, Essar steel, Sterlite, Jindal , Ispat , Nalco etc. In this industry, a metallurgical engineer typically gets posted in one of the depts. of the company like steel / iron melting shop, heat treatment shop, forging shop, core and pattern making shop. Girls are favoured in the laboratories and R&D units. Automobile industry is also a destination for metallurgical engineers. Companies like Tata motors, Ashok Leyland, TVS motors, M&M , Maruti Udyog ltd. and many more recruite them from campuses. The work is basically R&D and testing related. Also, the PSUs like DRDO, ISRO, Indian oil corporation Ltd., HAL , HEC Ltd. are major recruiters of Met engs.
I worked with HEC Ltd for some time. I was responsible for handling all the steel melting platform activities like raw materials handling and consumption, process monitoring and improvements, process optimization etc.
Few students , after getting a job from campus decide to go for higher studies like M Tech in metallurgy or material science from IITs or IISc and MS from foreign universities. Nowadays, metallurgical engineers are also getting jobs in the IT industry. Companies like Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, TCS, IBM, Satya, Canbay, Oracle etc. have recruited Met Engs from NITD.
After speding some time in the industry, I decided to do a management degree from any reputed institute and hence I joined NITIE , Mumbai as this is a preferred destination for all engineers.