MD of PIET, Mr. Rakesh Tayal teaches meaningful lessons of life to the current youth

Mr. Rakesh Tayal is the Managing Director of PIET (Panipat Institute of Engineering and Technology). He has studied Multinational Finance at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff UK. Apart from this, he has completed his studies from Hansraj College, Delhi University and MASD public school Panipat.

“Do not run after your syllabus, no one is going to ask certain formulas in your life.        What matters is, how much knowledge you have and how much you have enjoyed            with learning.”
-Mr. Rakesh Tayal

Being the MD, kindly tell us about your experience in the education industry and what makes it the best industry to work in?

Education industry is where you get to interact with the learned people on a daily basis. You are involved in shaping the careers of the students and it is very exciting if you look at that aspect. This is a very respectable profession and respectable industry. When some students just pass out from your institution are placed out or that person starts their own set up which is now a reputed company or job level at which he/she is working at and you get a lot of respect in return if you go and visit that particular person. That is where the beauty lies. It is not in the number, it is in their eyes when you look into them and if you have made some kind of a difference in their life, respect is what you get in return. It is one of the good industries to work in.

What is your philosophy of leadership? How would you describe your leadership style?

Leadership is like leading by example, I can say. So, giving your team support whenever it is required. Giving them a very good vision about what you think and how far we have to go, which particular targets we have to achieve. So, if you know how your tomorrow is going to be, then you can always help your team to reach that particular point in a stipulated time. So, this is what I think if you have to lead some team you have to focus on your weak areas, your strengths, and your opportunities available and how you can convert weakness into strength which you have to bring into reality and you have to lead involving everyone into the process. It should not be like, only 2 or 3 people are chosen for certain task and rest everyone looks up to you for their chance to come. Keep everyone united and take all of them together.

Any of the significant challenges you faced as the Managing Director of PIET?

Every day I have a different challenge in PIET and now days, you see the security is becoming more and more challenging. It is taking a lot of your energy and you have to do a lot many compliances related to security because in the private sector you are supposed to take care of each and everything but if you are related to government sector you are not questionable. This is the biggest challenge and the norms are changing very quickly with time. Another challenge is if you do not cope up with the time, if you do not understand how the future is going to be, then you will have nothing in your hands. Because I have seen many of the institutions going from the top to the bottom in a span of five years. So, we are lucky enough to be rated as one of the best institutions in Haryana and Delhi-NCR and our popularity is rising with time. This has only been possible because we are flexible enough and we look into the system like what is required next to come and we are more proactive to learn the thing.

How do you create a student-centric environment in your university?

I very much get connected with the students through social media and we have many platforms on which students come up and share their experiences and their aspirations. We have allocated time for students to take appointment and they can come and talk to us. We have a proper feedback system which takes place through ERP if any student is facing any problem so he/she can directly write on that platform and then we can come to know in which areas changes are exactly required. We are more than happy to look into their problems because looking into the smaller issues help the management and the college to avoid big issues.

So, sometimes people do not look into smaller issues, which eventually lead to bigger ones and then you face problems. Students want a happy environment where they can learn, conducive environment where they can grow as individual. They should be given all the opportunities where they can show their talent and good opportunities must be given so they can be placed in good companies. Students from business background should know how to invest in a business and how to start a business. Even if they are joining their family business, they should have effective training in that aspect as well. We are just not concerned about getting the student placed in companies. We have the biggest number of companies coming to our campus but apart from this entrepreneur cell is there which takes care of how to start a new venture and a new business.

How do you look at the placement opportunities offered by your institution and how do you plan to push the envelope further?

We have been offering the best placement opportunities, let them be the government establishments like Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force, they come and recruit students from here. Students get very handsome packages at companies like Direct eye, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Flipkart. All the big companies have been visiting PIET on yearly basis. They have been getting good students from here and that is why they are coming again and again for recruitment. Apart from this, companies which offer mediocre packages also visit the campus. Package for companies like Direct eye is around 20 lacs, Flipkart is giving 13+ lacs, Amazon is giving around 11-12 lacs, Microsoft is giving 16 lacs. Then there are companies like Hitachi which is giving around 5-6 lacs. There is a company Trident which is giving around 9 lacs in Textile Industry. There are generic companies which offer 3-3.5 lacs as well. We have companies coming to our campus very regularly. We do have Solo Campus Recruitment as well as Joint Campus Recruitments. Once we are through with the Solo Campus Drive, we go for Joint campus drives in which a lot of students from different colleges come and participate in these drives.

What according to you are the top qualities that an engineering aspirant must possess?

A lot of researchers have researched on this. Technical skills are required 20-30%, but the rest of the skills like interpersonal skills, personality, how you communicate are more important. Other things include-how practical you are in your studies, practicals, etc. This is the main key where they fail. If the students start doing their projects, themselves and they have vision about what exactly they have to do, target particular companies like Flipkart, Amazon, Google or Microsoft, then they can identify the certain areas where they have to make the project and if that project suits a particular company which they are applying in the campus, then you limit their areas from where they are going to ask question and the success rate increases alarmingly and you get a bigger jump. They have the things in control because someone has whole access of everything, they can talk about anything and ask anything. The probability is more than you will not be able to answer certain questions.

But if you limit it to particular thing like this is my research and project and the other person will be more than happy to ask if it is a genuine project done by you. So do not copy and paste, learn thoroughly and understand things. Do not run after your syllabus, no one is going to ask certain formulas in your life. What matters is how much knowledge you have and how much you have enjoyed with learning.

“If you believe in something, you can handle all the things easily and nothing can stop you in taking the right steps at right time.”

MD's position requires intense time management. How do you manage your time?

If you start loving your profession then everything comes automatically. So, you do not have to plan for it and the things get settled more easily.  You become more accommodated and more settled and you can do multitasking side by side. If you believe in something, you can handle all the things easily and nothing can stop you in taking the right steps at right time.

What goals do you have in your mind for your Institution for the next few years?

The quality aspects need to be improved. We need to change theoretical aspects into practical one. We need to revise syllabus in curriculum thoroughly. You have to bridge the gap between the industry and the academia and that can only happen when you have syllabus which is more industry-oriented than the theoretical one. That is only possible if we move towards our own autonomous status. That objective can only be fulfilled if we have the liberty in our hands to choose the curriculum you want. We are an institution moving towards having more industry-oriented system.

“Do not waste your time and energy on useless things when you have to exercise your time to join a particular course or stream you have to be more practical.”

Any suggestions you would like to give to the current youth and the aspiring students?

The message is to do not waste your time and energy on useless things when you have to exercise your time to join a particular course or stream you have to be more practical. Whenever you going for a job or a college, just ask yourself this question, what you want out of your life?  Do not do it because you want to do something, do it because you want to do it. Do not choose any profession because someone has told you to do, go and meet people who are already in that profession. And then if you think that profession is the type of life you want to live then go for it. Invest quality time in learning and options.