Here particularly I will talk about Engineering. How to choose a branch and college to have a great career.

1. Choose branch over College. Because you have to spend 20–30 years of career in that branch. Some Branches like Computer science , Electronics have huge market demand whereas so called Evergreen branches like Mechanical, Civil have become saturated and obsolete
2. Work on Cutting edge technologies where lies the job like AI, big data or machine learning have huge demand in future market.
3. Future of Jobs will be multidisciplinary like a Computer science engineer would be working in Life sciences or psychology. So always broaden your perspective. If you want to be an entrepreneur this is a must
4. When you get into IIT or NITs or any other colleges you have to start from 0. You are competing with equals. So always work on yourself. This is just beginning of your journey.
5. Build network. If you want to go ahead along with skills you need network. You can see this easily in college placement or funding of startups. Always build network based on your competence. This ensures long term relationship.
6. Keeping aside the College study focus on what you want to pursue in career in long run. Invest time in that. College is the best time to begin it
7. Keep a hobby. Pursue it. Soft skills help to build network. You will realize this later
8. Work on Interpersonal skills. Hard skills or engineering skills are one thing, but if you want to go to the top of the ladder then Soft skills help you a big way.

For more you can go through My YouTube Abinash Mishra