which job shall i take: Scientist B (level 10-Group A) vs Design Engineer at CDAC(3 year contract job).

I recently got selected for C-DAC Design Engineer E1 through on-campus placements.

The role is on a 3-year contract, and they mentioned the pay is around ₹1.5 per month before tax/deductions. From what they told us, the contract usually gets renewed and the projects they are working on also sound quite interesting.

The only issue is that they haven't told me which exact team I’ll be allotted to. In the interview they mainly asked me about compilers, RISC-V/processor concepts, OS and other system-level topics, even though this is a software role. The only designation they have given is “Design Engineer”.

I also have another option - Scientist-B at NIC , which is a Level-10 government job. The current monthly pay would be around ₹1.3–1.5L, and it may increase further after the next pay commission.

To be very clear, I’m looking at this mainly from a long-term money & career growth point of view. The main reason I’m considering C-DAC over NIC is that I’m thinking I could get good processor-related experience there and later switch to semiconductor companies like Qualcomm, SanDisk, AMD, etc., where the salary growth could be much higher.

But I honestly don’t know how valuable this “Design Engineer” role is in the private market. In software, for example, development roles generally have a different career path compared to testing roles. In the same way, I’m not sure what kind of work this designation usually leads to or how useful it will be for switching later.

And also thinking from the AI Layoffs pov .. is this Design Engineer a good role?

So if anyone has experience with C-DAC Design Engineer roles or has moved from C-DAC into semiconductor/system companies, I’d really appreciate your opinion.

Purely from a long-term financial and career-growth point of view, would you choose:

1. NIC Scientist-B - permanent government job, stable career
2. C-DAC Design Engineer - contract role, but potentially better systems/semiconductor exposure and switching opportunities-> high salary in future.

Would really appreciate some practical advice from people.

TL;DR: C-DAC Design Engineer E1 (3-year contract) vs NIC Scientist-B (permanent govt job). I’m leaning C-DAC mainly for future semiconductor switches and higher earning potential, but I’m unsure how valuable the role actually is in the market.

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