JEE rank at 17, career at 40: Indian professional asks why we still care about an exam taken in adolescence

For someone who has spent years building a career outside India, the idea that a college entrance exam taken as a teenager could still come up in adult conversations may seem unusual.

That is exactly what an Indian professional noticed after returning to Bengaluru following nearly a decade in Germany.

Mayukh, who moved to Germany after completing his master’s degree in India, shared his experience on X after being surprised to find people asking about JEE ranks and the colleges others had attended.

His experience abroad had been quite different. People he met in Germany were generally unfamiliar with Indian undergraduate institutions, including IITs, NITs and Goa University.

After he switched from engineering to pure science, he worked alongside researchers from different universities, making his undergraduate college far less important to his professional identity.

A different way of judging careers

Mayukh said that during his professional life abroad, the things that mattered more were the reputation of his graduate school, his research work, publications, conferences and invited talks.

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That perspective changed when he visited Bengaluru for work. Conversations around him brought back a familiar Indian question: what was your JEE rank, and which college did you attend?

“I had almost forgotten that the JEE was a big deal,” he wrote.

Mayukh said he understands why a strong JEE rank is considered an impressive achievement, particularly when someone earns it at a young age. But he questioned why the exam continues to carry so much weight years after students have moved into their professional lives.

‘Why are we fixated so much on an exam?’

“Why are we fixated so much on an exam taken during adolescence?” he asked.

He said the JEE can understandably matter during the early years of a career, when educational background can play a bigger role. What surprised him was seeing people in their 40s still bringing up an exam taken during their teenage years.

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His observation raises a broader question about how academic success is viewed in India. While JEE ranks and the names of institutions can open doors early in a career, Mayukh's experience suggests that professional achievements can eventually become more important in other academic and work environments.

He ended his post by wondering whether India's lasting attachment to academic achievements from adolescence could be connected to “the regret of a missed childhood”.