“Although it’s (becoming a civil servant) better than being a goon, even that is a poverty of aspiration. I mean, at the end of it, why even… if you must dream, surely you should dream to be Elon Musk or Mukesh Ambani. Why did you dream to be joint secretary? You’re not dreaming of being Sachin and Binny Bansal of Flipkart. Yeah, so that’s the point I’m making,” he said, adding that “too many young kids” were wasting their time trying to crack the exam.

Thoughts? In fact, there are a lot of NLU grads preparing for UPSC and a lot of comments on LI claiming that being an IAS is better than being a law firm partner.

https://theprint.in/india/about-serving-country-ias-officers-aspirants-respond-after-economist-calls-upsc-prep-waste-of-time/2016109/

No, he never tried for the IAS. He did a PhD in economics from Oxford, wrote a lot of best-selling books and is advising the government on economic policies. Beats being a glorified clerk.

Also, his son is a finance grad from the UK who is now a professional MMA fighter --- which reinforces the point about chasing your passion.

The majority of UPSC aspirants are from the Hindi belt or from rural India, where economic development is low and there are few private sector jobs on offer. A government job in such places is seen not only as a prestigious option, but also the ONLY option. What Sanjeev Sanyal is saying is that we need to come out of this and encourage youngsters from all over the country to aspire to do better jobs, requiring creativity and innovation.

Are people here downvoting Sanjeev Sanyal, because of what he said or because of who he is ideologically, i.e. a centre-right economist and historical commentator who is symapethic to the BJP? I suspect it's the latter. Maybe for once you guys should stop seeing everything through your dogmatic woke lenses?

Hes not wrong. For most people who try- this will not work out. For smart people, for good test takers, for people who have had advantages in life- for them- spending year after year writing this examination will not work out. Just because you get all these attempts doesnt mean you should keep trying and wasting away the most productive years of your life. I dont mind anyone trying once or twice- or trying while they work on the side. But spending years in a hostel somewhere trying to cram inane trivia to pass a ridiculous examination- which you most likely will not- all to end up with an okay job where you still wont have as much freedom or control? Why?

I had a few friends try for UPSC after law school. It was their only plan. Out of all of them- one in my batch succeeded. The others just had years of CV gap with nothing to show for it and came into the workforce too old and tired to get as much of a running start. It was objectively a terrible decision for 90% of my batchmates to pursue this.

The upside to winning this lottery ticket- is still not that much of an upside. Maybe for someone from interior rural india who only craves some stability - sure. Sarkaari Naukri is good. But most people can find stability better by employing their talents elsewhere.

I have my closest friend preparing for UPSC - I wish I could tell them to not fuck around with an exam with barely 500 good opportunities for which 15 lakh+ people are desperate each year. You really need to be in the doldrums or have reservation to have the motivation and chance respectively to get IAS/IPS/IFS.

It baffles me that IPS, IAS, IRS and IFS use the same exam to recruit - it is complete bs. Do an American style recruitment minus the regular flittering around of such officials to private sector on hefty salary, Tf will I do with so many optionals? It is of no use beyond the exam itself, and the failed aspirants soothe themselves by presenting themselves as knowledge reservoirs later in life, as though anyone with an internet access & curiosity couldn't get the same information. Such posts do not even pay well enough to justify staying years on end - why tf will I give the exam if I plan to quit the job in a few years? I lot of IRS officers/SEBI officials end up joining law firms as partners.

Make the job with a lucrative salary and a better selection process. Take the IRS out of the Government's control., beyond them just setting taxation rates. Make the promotion system based on performance rather than seniority and make it faster - the longer someone is at the helm, the better stability we have - rather than the current bs of changing every 2-2 years

Objectively speaking, most of the people who flunk UPSC have the skill set of call center employees. They have simple graduation subjects and spend most of their lives chasing one exam or the other. Becoming successful, either in the realm of entrepreneurship or in UPSC, requires a certain degree of clarity in life and excellence at work that most people don’t have.

I mean. Its easy to think that people who failed were silly and stupid and ofcourse youre not like them. Youre like the people who succeeded. But Id tell you of the folks who tried UPSC year after year in my batch- some of them were extremely talented and smart and got top tanks in CLAT and were good at quizzing and debating and other extra curriculars, they won prizes for them, they made good grades in law school too. They even got a top firm job after law school but decided to quit to try to do UPSC. And then failed. For years. Nothing to show for those years either. Sitting in a hostel trying to learn things, getting close, clearing mains even, and still failed. Nothing about this person was not excellent- it was the same dude who did so well in law school and his firm- but when you have 500 odd spots for lakhs of people- its just not some purely meritocratic process. There is a ton of luck involved. And nobody should leave a well paying job and career to spend years on exam prep. Its okay to try the exam while youre working- no harm no foul. But its not a good choice to put your career at risk and hoping this works out.

Compeletely agree with sanyal

We should stop glorifying UPSC because at the end we all know they just remain political pawns in service and also a judge is enough to show IAS/IPS his status so saying that UPSC is most powerful job is BS. Few UPSC passouts do corruption at large at behest of politicians. Remember the case of a lady IPS who is now in jail for some scam in Jharkhand during BJP and Soren Government ?

Its my personal opinion that if you want to get a job of diplomat through UPSC then truly you should attempt it.