39% engineers earn below Rs 7 LPA, 30% MBA graduates below Rs 10 LPA: Is India’s engineering dream turning into a house of cards?

Students who grew up in the 1990s and 2000s know exactly what the engineering dream looked like. Even today’s generation can still feel its weight. What was sold as a dream for some became a nightmare for many others.

All engineers could relate to the line, “Give me another chance, I wanna grow up once again,” from the film 3 Idiots. Many felt their childhoods being submerged under the weight of aspirations that were never truly theirs, under the burden of books they did not choose.A grand house, a stable life, a hefty salary package, and unmatched social prestige — it was all about “engineering, engineering, and engineering.” A few years later, the combination of an MBA and an engineering degree became the ultimate formula for success. But let us ask the uncomfortable question now: for all the sleepless nights, relentless pressure, and hunched shoulders inside coaching factories like Kota, was it truly worth the price?The belief became so deeply embedded in the country’s middle-class imagination that entire childhoods were organised around it.

Engineering was never merely a profession in India; it became a national survival strategy.But is it really worth it anymore? If there is one thing today’s generation knows how to do, it is question inherited promises. According to the Unstop Talent Report 2026, nearly 30 per cent of MBA graduates are earning below Rs 10 lakh per annum (LPA), while 39 per cent of engineering graduates earn below Rs 7 LPA. The report, based on a survey conducted between January and February this year involving over 37,000 students and more than 500 HR leaders, exposes a stark paradox.

Yet the numbers alone do not fully explain the crisis. To understand why this matters, one must first understand what engineering once represented in India: hope.

The degree that became a family dream

Few countries turned engineering into mythology the way India did. The rise of the IT industry in the late 1990s transformed engineers into symbols of modern Indian success. Suddenly, middle-class families watched ordinary young graduates travel abroad, support ageing parents, buy apartments in cities, and alter the economic trajectory of entire households.Engineering colleges became factories of aspiration. Then came the explosion. Private universities multiplied across highways and suburbs. Coaching hubs like Kota became parallel cities built entirely around competitive examinations. Families with modest incomes spent astonishing portions of their savings chasing admissions because the logic seemed unquestionable: the sacrifice would eventually pay off.And for many years, it did. But somewhere along the way, India confused expansion with transformation.The country produced more degrees, more campuses, more MBA seats, more engineer, but not necessarily more meaningful opportunities. Now, the consequences are beginning to surface.

The uncomfortable question graduates are scared to ask

What happens when the degree that defined your identity stops guaranteeing security? That question now hangs over thousands of graduates entering the workforce.Because beneath the carefully curated LinkedIn announcements and smiling placement photographs lies another reality, one of underemployment, shrinking salary premiums, delayed financial independence, and growing anxiety about whether the educational system truly prepared students for the economy they inherited.An engineering graduate earning below Rs 7 LPA is not simply confronting a salary number. Often, they are confronting years of expectation attached to that number.Parents who invested life savings expected stability. Students expected mobility. Society expected success. Instead, many graduates are entering an economy where the degree itself is no longer enough.And perhaps the hardest part is this: Students are slowly realising that employers are no longer buying qualifications. They are buying adaptability.

India’s classrooms are teaching one world, the market is demanding another

The report reveals a profound shift in hiring culture. Nearly 95 to 98 percent of students surveyed believe hiring has already become skills-based.

Employers seem to agree. Around 64 percent of HR leaders now define premium talent through skills such as AI/ML, Data, Cloud, and Cybersecurity rather than traditional academic pedigree alone.This changes everything. For decades, India’s education model revolved around clearing examinations, memorising concepts, and acquiring credentials. But modern workplaces increasingly reward people who can solve unfamiliar problems, learn quickly, communicate clearly, and adapt to technologies that did not even exist a few years ago.And that mismatch is becoming painfully visible. Many students spend four years mastering theoretical curricula only to discover during placements that recruiters expect industry-ready skills they were never adequately taught. Others realise that their expensive MBA degree carries far less market power than previous generations assumed.The tragedy is that many followed the rules exactly as society designed them, and still found the finish line shifting beneath their feet.

AI has entered the anxiety economy

The pressure is intensifying because the competition itself is evolving. The report found that nearly 80 to 86 per cent of students are already using Generative AI tools for job applications and interview preparation. AI is no longer some distant technological concept discussed in seminars. It has entered everyday survival.Students are using it to refine resumes, prepare answers, practise interviews, and compete harder in an already unforgiving market.But beneath that adaptation lies fear. Because young graduates understand something instinctively now: the market is becoming less patient.Companies want employees who can contribute immediately. Employers increasingly expect technological fluency, communication skills, emotional intelligence, and problem-solving ability, all at once. The old comfort that “the company will train you later” is fading.

The emotional cost nobody measures

Employment reports often talk about salaries, packages, and skills gaps.They rarely talk about exhaustion or guilt. Or the humiliation some graduates feel when reality does not match the dream their families invested in.There are students who spent years believing that an engineering seat would automatically bestow them with a cushion against economic uncertainty. There are MBA graduates grappling to justify education loans while watching social media celebrate only elite success stories. There are parents who still introduce their children proudly as engineers even when the emotional certainty attached to that title has weakened.India’s education crisis is no longer simply about employability. It is about trust. Trust in institutions. Trust in the promise of upward mobility. Trust in the idea that hard work alone guarantees stability. And that trust is beginning to fracture.

A generation rewriting success in real time

Maybe it is no longer a story of only pride but of adjustment.

The report found that more than 90 per cent of students are willing to accept lower salaries if roles offer stronger learning opportunities and long-term growth. Meanwhile, 82 per cent of B-school students now prioritise in-hand salary over glamorous perks.Young Indians are becoming more realistic, more financially cautious, and perhaps more emotionally aware of how uncertain modern careers have become. Because for millions of Indians, this is not just about engineering degrees losing value or MBA salaries flattening out.It is about an entire generation slowly discovering that the dream they inherited from their parents belongs to a different India than the one they are entering now.