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Gauri Chhabra
Government jobs in engineering are the most sought after today. And the road to them can be an arduous one given the stiff competition. The top of the league exams for these jobs in India is the Indian Engineering Services Exam(IES).
Indian Engineering Services (IES) exam, also known as Engineering Services Examination (ESE), is a national- level recruitment exam organised by the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC). The Engineering Services Examination is conducted for four main branches of engineering namely;
Engineering officers for the Government of India are selected on the basis of the combined three-stage recruitment process — IES Preliminary, IES Main and Personality Test. On the basis of merit of candidates in the IES exam, they are recommended to the Union Government for the available posts. The nature of work for an engineering officer selected through the IES exam depends on the engineering branch and the cadre s/he is recruited for.
Who can apply
To be eligible to appear for the IES exam, a candidate must be either:
IES educational qualification criteria as defined for the UPSC requires the applicant to have cleared one of the following criteria:
Pattern and Marking
The exam is conducted in offline mode in 3 stages- Preliminary, Main and Personal Interview carrying 1300 marks.
Stage I: Stage I is a preliminary stage that is a pen and paper-based test. There are two papers in the prelims exam that have multiple-choice questions and will be conducted in different sessions.You would be provided OMR sheets for both the papers, wherein the correct answer needs to be coloured. Paper 1, of 2 hours duration tests General Studies & Engineering Aptitude has 100 questions of 200 marks.
Paper 2, of 3 hours duration, tests Engineering discipline and has 150 questions carrying 300 marks.
As far as marking is concerned, you will lose one-third mark for each incorrect answer in Prelims which is a qualifying exam for appearing in the Mains.
Stage II: IES Main Exam is conducted in offline mode i.e. it is a written examination. It has two descriptive papers of 300 marks each, with no negative marking. Both the papers will have questions from the opted engineering discipline (Civil Engineering/Mechanical Engineering/Electrical/Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering). There will be 8 questions as an option, out of which you will have to attempt 5 questions. Up to 5 per cent marks may be deducted in case of illegible handwriting. Credit will be given for exact, to the point answer.
Stage III: The final stage is the personal interview stage. Only candidates qualifying the written exams are called for the interview round which is of 200 marks. It tests skills like physical and mental alertness, leadership, intellectual curiosity besides an interest in current affairs.
To clear the prelims stage it is necessary to get at least 15 per cent marks in each paper, i.e., 30 marks and 45 marks respectively.
The shortlisting ratio for Mains Examination is considerably higher depending on the vacancies and is generally around 1:6-7 i.e. 6-7 persons are shortlisted for 1 post. The minimum cut off marks to clear the Mains stage is 20 per cent in each paper, i.e., one needs to score at least 60 marks in each of the papers to be eligible for the Interview stage.
The calling ratio for personal interview is generally 1:2.5 i.e. not more than 3 candidates will be called for filling up 1 post.
Preparation strategy
The preliminary exam covers topics like logical reasoning and analytical ability, engineering mathematics and numerical analysis, general principles of design, drawing, importance of safety, standards and quality practices in production, construction, maintenance, and services,
Furthermore, you also need to be thorough with the basics of Energy and Environment: conservation, environmental pollution, and degradation, climate change, environmental impact assessment, project management, material science and engineering, information and communication technologies (ICT) based tools and their applications in Engineering such as networking, e-governance and technology-based education, ethics and values in Engineering profession.
ARE YOU READY?
If you are currently pursuing your BTech, then you have sufficient time, so I will advise you to read directly from standard textbooks and NPTEL. Discuss doubts with college faculties and friends. Please make use of your college time and get serious about your career goals from this point otherwise it might take you some extra years to achieve it.
If you have completed your graduation and don’t have clarity about the basics, then it is strongly advised to join a coaching institute or solve previous years’ papers. While preparing any subject or making notes of any subject you must keep in mind that you need to prepare the subject from both points of view i.e., objective as well as conventional. Try answering questions to depth, marks will not be allotted for mere superficial knowledge.
Where would you work?
After the final selection, you would be posted in various Ministries and Departments of GOI such as Railways, Telecom, Border Roads, CPWD, CWC, CPES, NHAI, Naval Armaments, IDSE, MES, Ordnance Factories, etc., however can move to any cadre, organisation, agency, department, ministry or PSU of the Government of India. All these final selected candidates are designated as class-1 officers or class-II officers.
Important IES Exam Dates 2020
Events Exam Dates
Notification Sep 25, 2019
Applications Sep 25 - Oct 15, 2019
Preliminary exam January 5, 2020
Main exam June 28, 2020
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