From half to two-thirds: More and more engineers take up civil service jobs

In a first, the UPSC last week made public names and marks of candidates who made it to the interview stage of the rigorous exam but couldn't clear the last hurdle

Nearly two-thirds of those rejected at the interview stage of the civil services exam this year were engineers, underlining the increasing desire among those with degrees in engineering to join civil services.

The general trend over the last few years is that of at least half of those filling the vacancies in the civil services - IAS, IPS, forest and foreign service, and other central services - or rejected at the interview stage, are engineers.

The latest data put in the public domain indicates that engineers may have come to comprise not just half, but two-thirds of the annual intake in the civil services, with the only a third of the vacancies being filled by those with degrees in humanities, pure science and medical science.

In a first, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) last week made public names and marks of candidates who made it to the interview stage of the rigorous civil services exam but failed to clear the last hurdle.

In all, 1,994 candidates qualified for the interview/personality test stage of the 2018 civil services examination, concluded in April of this year.

Of these, the top 812 candidates were recruited to fill as many vacancies this year. Of the remaining 1,182 who made it to the personality test/interview stage, the UPSC has made available names, date of births, exam scores, academic degrees and emails of 939 of these candidates on its website.

This was done in accordance with a decision of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), and “with a view to providing a useful database to other employers to enable them to identify good employable candidates”. Details of only those candidates who were willing were shared under this disclosure scheme.

This is the first time the UPSC has disclosed data of candidates of civil services examination. This "disclosure scheme" has already covered some other UPSC conducted exams, including medical, defence, economic, forest and statistical services examinations.

According to the data released of the civil services examination 2018, as many as 667 of the 939 candidates had bachelors or masters in technology (B. Tech/M. Tech) or bachelors in engineering (B.E.). Thus, candidates with engineering degrees comprised nearly 70 per cent of those who reached the interview stage.

The UPSC is yet to release data of the educational backgrounds of those who qualified, or of the 243 candidates rejected at the interview stage who were unwilling that their details be put in in the public domain.

Data from civil services exams of previous years, available in UPSC annual reports, bears out the trend of the increasing success rate of engineers. More candidates with engineering degrees get recruited in the civil services examination than those with degrees in humanities, pure science and medical science.  

According to the data in the UPSC’s 68th annual report (the year 2017-18), engineering graduates and postgraduates comprised 59.3 per cent of the 1209 vacancies filled through the 2016 civil services examination.

The number of engineers who made it to the interview stage that year but rejected was similar. As many as 59.58 per cent of the 1,747 candidates who were rejected at the interview stage in the 2016 civil services examination were engineers.

According to the data in the UPSC’s 67th annual report (the year 2016-17), 642 of 1,164, or 55.15 per cent, of those selected in the 2015 civil services examination were engineering graduates and postgraduates.

The figure for those rejected at the interview stage was similar – 56 per cent of the 1,628 candidates who could not qualify the interview stage in the 2015 civil services examination were engineers.

In the 2014 civil services examination, 51.2 per cent of 1363 who qualified, and 52 per cent rejected at the interview stage, had graduate or post-graduate degrees in engineering.

The UPSC is yet to release its annual report for 2018-19, which should contain comparable data of the 2017 civil services examination.