CAREERS IN TELECOM
TRENDS, DIRECTIONS, CONVERGENCE, TECHNOLOGY, TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS, TELECOM VALUE CHAINS, JOB OPPORTUNITIES
SANJEEV GOEL
IT | TELECOM | MANAGEMENT TRAINER
ONLINE BUSINESS CONSULTANT
IT & TELECOM HR CONSULTANT
1 OPPORTUNITIES FOR CAREERS IN TELECOM
The focus of this guide is on the emerging telecom careers with the telecom service providers, integrators, vendors and across all industrial sectors deploying telecom backbones. The aims is to:
Explain the relevance of the digital revolution to telecom careers.
Provide the reader a guide on various components of a broadband telecom infrastructure
Provide guidance and awareness on the various telecom careers.
Provide the tutorial information on the emerging electronic architectures of the following various sectors:
SECTOR Telecom Infrastructure
AVIATION Communication, Navigation & Surveillance – Air Traffic Management (CNS ATM )
Aeronautical Telecommunications Network
( ATN )
Implement Future Air Navigation Systems
( ICAO FANS Architectures for safety )
PORTS & TERMINALS EDI Based Technologies for Capacity, Productivity & Efficiency, faster turnaround of ships
HEALTH TELEMEDICINE
PUBLIC UTILITIES E- GOVERNANCE , Smart Cards
GOVERNMENT E – government & government intranets
CORPORATES & MANUFACTURING
Reduced Transaction times (Electronic Supply Chains), EDI networks, Bar Coding of products
Railways Safety Systems, Computerization & Ticketing, Smart Cards
Road Transport Use of GIS based digital maps, Intelligent Transport Systems, electronic road pricing at borders
TELEWORKING Using telephones, Fax, E-Mail, bar scanners, computer networks, Kiosks, debit & Credit card authorizations. Distance learning
POSTAL SERVICES Increasing use of VSATs, sale of tickets at ATMs
EDUCATION SECTOR Distance Learning, K 12 Architectures
General Security Systems Remote Surveillance Networks.
Provides a focus on the career opportunities in the above sectors and a definite need to understand their telecom infrastructures for a progressive career in the specific sector.
Highlight the international telecom trends & deployments during the next decade.
The guide takes a macro view & will develop awareness among the participants of the investment opportunities in the various sectors in the present global scenario. It will also energize the participants of the opportunities & the possibilities of taking the appropriate technology decisions understanding the international initiatives.
1.2 What we need to do for career developments in telecom
Gain knowledge of the upcoming technologies & develop an awareness of their deployments.
Align your career around the globally used jargons like ICT, broadband infrastructure, E-business, Technology Marketing.
Understand industrial expectations related to a specific technology or the total supply chain of a business you wish to join & develop your career.
Examine ways of handling your interviews accordingly.
There must be a complete strategy behind targeting a particular industry. That means, understand what attracts you the most & search ways to achieve the required knowledge levels to achieve professional progress in that industry.
In short, there must be a clear understanding of technologies & business processes in the age of digital revolution. i.e. the entire supply chains that will be described later.
1.3 The Digital Revolution & the Impact on Telecom Careers
Information & Communications technologies (ICT) are opening up enormous possibilities for everybody looking for careers in telecom all over the world. The digital revolution is spreading its roots everyday creating an impact on telecom careers.
2. THE DYNAMICS Of THE TELECOM INDUSTRY
Telecommunications is a global industry. There are combined impact of technological, market change & the effects of deregulation on the industry. Due to a number of external and internal factors, the industry is always in a state of flux to introduce world class products and services facing high market uncertainty.
The Telecom Value Chain
At the deliveries end of the value chain:
Tier 1 application service providers and large telecommunications enterprises exist to provide voice and/or data communications services to their customers.
Tier 2 equipment providers represent the hardware and software infrastructure needed to support the Tier 1 service providers. An extended infrastructure of sub-contractors and suppliers has grown up to provide specific capabilities.
One example of how companies collaborate to deliver innovative business solutions is where tariff/pricing, billing, and service options are supplied by a Tier 1 company and bandwidth, content and equipment are supplied by a number of Tier 2 providers.
Tiers 3 and 4 represent the extended supply chain for the design and manufacture of the hardware and software elements.
New Technologies also create opportunities for small firms for the customer services like providing internet.
There is also a cross ownership by multinational operators in segments like cable, wireless and fixed lines to secure themselves in all markets.
Data communications are growing & have taken over voice communications. The costs are going attracting operators to provide data services.
Mobile phone subscribers are increasing manifold.
Internet traffic is doubling in every few months.
Product Development times have been shortened from 3 years to few months.
2.1 CHALLENGES FOR TELECOM EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURERS / SERVICE PROVIDERS / INTEGRATORS
Telecom Companies have ‘inherited ’or obsolete skill-sets which do not match the current requirements.
Telecom companies have difficulty mapping their market plans with the skills availability to execute the plans as the latest skills are in short supply & face recruitment, problems in locating the desired skills.
Existing manpower is too inflexible to more on different projects & cannot easily gear up to the market demands & competition.
Telecom companies are struggling for improved speed of response to the market having old-fashioned internal management models.
Entry of new firms due to market growth opportunities & exit of these firms due to inexperienced and not up-to-date manpower, market uncertainty itself & regulatory problems.
The migration of skills to competition & other countries as they become experienced with time.
Telcos are striving hard to reach closer to the customer putting pressure on the value chain thereby creating a situation where the definition of a particular type of firm is blurring resulting in market convergence.
Telcos inability to create an environment, of being a continuous learning organization as teams are mostly trying to leverage their marketing efforts. since they have problems in being techno-commercial due to lack of a mix of training inputs, their pure marketing efforts do not give any fruits.
Telcos depend heavily on equipment suppliers for tasks like designing , installation & customer support. They try hard to provide the role of “turnkey solution provider” or “ Total solution providers” in building value to customer services.
Technology Marketing becoming more important than the technology itself & requires “hybrid skill sets”.
2.2 CHALLENGES FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (HRM)
Large firms in telecom are moving beyond from their bureaucratic HR processes to more flexible & informal ways of defining skills as it is impossible to plan beyond 2-3 years.
Small firms plan on a project-by –project bases for each new project but the availability of the skills at that moment is highly uncertain.
The Equipment Suppliers are looking for skill expertise in “open solution ‘to integrate different technologies.
The Integrators need skill expertise in converged voice & data solutions.
The Network Operators need skill expertise for marketing a range of Services to enterprises & home users.
The local loop Owners need skill expertise for provisioning & maintaining the last mile & for increasing the market share.
The Mobile operators need skill expertise for planning their services, technical planning of the network, & achieve ways to retain the subscribers for enhanced revenues.
The fiber optics infrastructure providers need skills expertise for managing the bandwidth requirements according to the market demands.
The Network Test & Measurements ( T & M ) companies need skill expertise in a very broad areas of Network testing & look for professional who have umbrella knowledge of every protocol & device domains & can fit in their equipments techno-commercially.
The Call Centres need skill expertise in Computer-telephony integration & communication skills.
The common point in all the above Telcos skill requirements are in network engineering & Provisioning, Application Planning & deployment, service Marketing & revenue generation
The real challenges are to find expertise with broad skills of handling end-to-end infrastructure.
2.3 THE CHALLENGES FOR ENGINEERING, MANAGEMENT & THE WORKING PROFESSIONALS
Telecom Developments are entirely changing the age old career concepts & attitudes. You need to differentiate telecom from IT and concentrate on ICT (Information & Communication Technologies) based careers.
Telcos are looking for broader skills than purely technical & marketing skills.
Telcos are expecting you to be aware beyond your academics like technology trends, customer needs and be able to handle projects independently.
Telcos are expecting you to be flexible in the profile otherwise your days are numbered in the organization.
The present & future telecom managers are expected to be through with the capabilities of broadband technologies & services & with stand the challenges when implementing them in various domains like Home Networks, Enterprise Wide Networks, Access & Metro Networks, Backbone or Core Networks.
The present & future telecom mangers are faced with a number of complex challenges & choices in the following technology areas:
Broadband connectivity
E-Business continuity & Disaster recovery
Telecommuting & Remote office connectivity options
Campus gigabit Ethernet
Multimedia Networking & VPNs
The telecom managers need to have a solid Project Management Understandings & be able to define the following:
What are the telecom project’s objectives?
What are the project deadlines?
Who could be the key players in the project like users/ equipment suppliers/ network operators/regulators?
A through cost-benefit analysis.
What technologies best satisfy the needs of various users?
How to connect corporate network to the branches & telecommuters?
What access technologies can be deployed?
How are VPNs going to be helpful?
What are the new applications & services on broadband networks?
What are the total cost of ownership & return on investment calculations?
What are extranets & intranets & the associated components?
What are the best practices globally for connecting sites?
What are the quality of services (QOS) & class of services (COS) associated with a particular technology & protocol?
What is the overall bandwidth required according to the applications desired & traffic generated?
These are just few samples questions you may face in the industry & are not exhausting & in serial fashion. These are mentioned here just to kick start & trigger your thought process towards the direction where you can act, like a telecom mangers.
You need to have a global outlook to developing your career in telecom.
You need to be thorough of the telecom related E-Business developments in the sector you wish to join.
You need to understand the market shifts and employment trends in the particular sector.
The later section deals with the Convergence phenomenon that, you need to be aware of for being successful in the infocom industry.
3. UNDERSTANDING TELECOM IN INFRASTRUCTURE & CAREER BUILDING
Developments in Telecommunications have a major impact on all industries resulting in
E – Business environments. With telecom developments, we have been able to improve basic connectivity, achieve mobility, increase bandwidth and reduced tariffs.
We see the deployment of the informatics applications based on a broadband telecommunications infrastructure for reduced transaction times & costs associated with trade & customer services.
Apart from deploying business to consumer (B2C) applications, deployment of business to government (B2G), government to government (B2G), government to citizens (B2C) are the priority internationally.
We are urgently decongesting & modernizing our infrastructure sectors like ports, airports, railways & surface transport, public utilities, citizens access to government services, international trade links & supply chains for Corporate & SME’s.
Telecom & Applications are defining the quality & safety of life parameters for the citizens with strong emergency response systems deployment & on-line access for utility services.
3.1 UPCOMING ELECTRONIC ENVIRONMENT
Do you now understand the importance of the telecom pipes in our day to day life?
4. 21st Century Telecom Careers & Development
Rapid deployment of telecom technologies & deregulation continue to transform world economies & global telecom careers. The wide spread installation of fiber optics & growth of wireless networks with advanced switching equipments, intelligent networks & user applications, employment opportunities in the telecom industry are expected continuously for the individuals with strong techno-commercial skills having ability to move on projects with flexible profiles & with a willingness to accept the various responsibilities in the organization.
The following figure depicts the evolution of Technology & career opportunities:
There is an urgent need for electronics, telecom, electrical, computers science engineers, business management students looking for careers in telecommunication to understand:
Academic qualification & industry requirements
Convergence technologies & industry specific opportunities
Technical, Business, industry & Marketing skills
Telecom skills as total network solutions including tests & measurement (T&M).
New Networks Infrastructures & E- Business environments
The following figure shows end-to-end communications network architectures:
The present day requirement for developing telecom career is to have domain skills & knowledge expertise in end-to-end network infrastructure having connectivity from customers premises / enterprise to service provider involving a number of technologies & protocols in the path.
We need to develop professional expertise for providing solution to clients by understanding their requirements & matching the company’s products for the client. The boundary between Sales/ marketing & technical professionals is fast blurring & giving rise to techno-commercial persons.
Technology convergence resulting in industry convergence is creating the need for professionals with converged skills. He / she should be able to understand telecom investments, evaluate tender documents & vendor offerings, handle solution presentation & understand industrial trends for the company’s diversification & for handling competition.
4.1 A CAREER PATH MODEL
Telecom Industry expects the candidates to have project management skills with the domains as shown.
A candidate building up the above knowledge base will have an edge in the interview for any job profile. And then, he / she can fix the job responsibility in one of the specific functional categories as defined by the OSI Model.
The ability to handle & move up & down as in the OSI Model is what I see as the successful telecom career in the 21st century. According to the CEO of a company in mobile services – “Since both telecom & software were my interests, I targeted myself towards this sector. At my entire job, I took extra initiative in creating new business opportunities although I was in the software development arena & not in sales & marketing. I looked towards opportunities where I would constantly be customer or market facing.”
Telecom sector will not be the only one to provide job opportunities. Aviation, transportation, biotech, automotives, governance, construction enterprises deploying e-business solution will also be adding to the job opportunities as a whole. Please visit www.career-space.com for the hot jobs in telecom and related industries according to a survey in Europe.
4.2 THE HOT JOB PROFILES FOR THE NEXT DECADE
Technology Marketing Professionals, Consulting Engineers, Enterprise Support Managers, Network Design Consultants, Global Program Managers, Network Operations Centre Executives
( NOC ), Wireless Field Engineers, RF Planning Engineers & Consultants, E- Business Consultants for IT Systems Management, Telecom Applications Software Developers.
Are you ready up to their expectations? Yes, if you can keep track of information on where the technology is going, where the industry is headed with technology, what the characteristics of the available jobs are, what skills are needed & how to upgrade.
You need to handle your telecom career based on the principle of 3R’s of a repeater device. That is:
1. Restore the knowledge levels
2. Reshape for the global career opportunities
3. Retime with the industrial expectations
There will ultimately be the job opportunities under the two headings:
1) Telecom Manager – Soft Infrastructure
(Handling Multimedia Application Development & Deployment on Telecom Networks. Specializing in the top 3 layers of the OSI Model)
2) Telecom Manager – Hard Infrastructure
(Handling Network Planning to Implementation & Management. Specializing in the bottom 3 layers of the OSI Model)
Both the profiles will be handling total project management in their domains with cross domain knowledge of the other 3 layers in the soft or hard infrastructure domains. That’s what I call SKILL CONVERGENCE!
Precisely, you need to develop a career vision to be able to handle, navigate & demonstrate your expertise in the interview or to your top management. You need to show your flexibility of handling various projects which is actually an integrated broadband network with many components. The following figure is a checklist of your skill capabilities to be demonstrated to the telecom industry.
4.3 SKILL INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENTS
4.4 ELECTRONIC INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENTS
You need to understand and demonstrate skill knowledge from planning to implementation of electronic infrastructures for a sustainable career development. The next chapter outlines the challenges for the present and future telecom managers.
SANJEEV GOEL
IT | TELECOM | MANAGEMENT TRAINER
ONLINE BUSINESS CONSULTANT
IT & TELECOM HR CONSULTANT
www.telecomtraining.in | training@telecomtraining.in |
+919811841782
