What is the point of it all ??
It has been 7 years since I graduated from a core branch in old IIT with a 9.xx CGPA... I was placed in the first round itself and worked little more than a year at Deloitte... I did the grind at IIT... Back in my day, I collected two paid internships after fourth and sixth sem, PoRs in techfest, recos, co-author, the complete package...
Being from a middle class family in Uttar Pradesh, my family convinced me to go for Civil Services... Gave 5 attempts, 5 mains, 1 interview at UPSC.... Got selected in UPPCS twice in between... Currently working in state service, will switch to the better service in January 2025... This was my background...
In my "sarkari job" I basically work as a CASH MULE... My official sarkari job description may say a lot of rosy and idealistic things starting from 'gazetted', but my actual, real job is to collect money from people who come to get their sundry work done and distribute its share to the higher ups... Another part of my job is to distributing commission on official bills to higher ups as per the percentage fixed by them... Yes that's the taxpayers' money that is allocated for various works... Basically it's Embezzlement 101...
When I was new at job and tried to do the right thing, the IAS officer sitting above me initiated harsh disciplinary action against me... Because I did not take the right cut in commission to him... I have come to terms with the fact that politico-administrative set-up in India is corrupt to the core... Actually corruption is not the right word, 'way of life' is the right phrase to describe the process in India... But that's not what I'm worried about...
I'm worried about what I've deduced from my stay here... After distributing the share of higher ups, I'm left with some fair amount... I'm good at Excel, and true to my engineering background I'm quantitative to the core... I keep a track of the flux of money passing through me... And I've realised that my current yearly in hand earning at this mediocre sarkari job is double my CTC at Deloitte!!! My DM earns around ₹ 4-5 crore per month... That's the median salary of a tech MNC CEO in India... And CEOs are in their mid to late 50s... my DM is in his late 30s... My SDM earns around ₹50-60 lakh per month... That's the salary of a Google L-5 engineer... I know this because I'm their cash mule... I'm the one, amongst many, who deliver those cash bundles at their bungalows... And I'm posted in a small district... DMs in mining areas, big districts, NCR area earn upto ₹10-15 crore per month easily... Yes, PER MONTH.... And I'm not even counting the perks... Palatial bungalows, personal staff of 20-25 people, 10-15 servants, free transport, free medical, free education for kids, no tolls or parking, and junior officers take care of all your daily expenditures...
In classrooms and hostel corridors we were always sizing things up... how much this CEO earns, how much that guy earns, how much this company pays... We chased excellence, to ultimately chase money... But now I wonder if you want to earn money, why do science or engineering or medicine... Just cram some low effort humanities stuff and go for civil services... I could easily have earned this 2x (CTC of Deloitte) with a IGNOU BA degree and clearing PCS... As a matter of fact, I could have done that IGNOU BA with just one hour of studying daily and crammed this GS crap in rest of the day, and then cleared PCS just after graduation...
What was the point of busting my ass at school, then for JEE and then at IIT when I can easily earn much more than the best IIT IIM campus placement, with handsome perks with low effort work of clearing sarkari naukri??