Career Options For Freshers In The Telecom Arena

Telecommunication is one sector where India has always held a stronghold. The Indian telecommunication sector is amongst the oldest in the world. It will be fair on our part to say that the inception of the telecom sector in the country can be traced way back to 1851 when the first telegraph lines were established in Diamond Harbour.

Since then, to this day (when the revenue from the telecom sector stands at Rs 2.20 lakh crores), a lot has changed. Yet, as a nation we have held our stance as a telecom superpower. As of March 2018, India has the second largest base of internet users in the world. Needless to say, in order to have an infrastructure that is big enough to support this huge customer base, a lot of manpower is necessary. The growing number of jobs in this field makes it a viable career option for many.

In order to pursue a career in this field one needs to have a quest for knowledge. The fact in consideration is that telecommunication is a field that is constant evolving. From the era of trunk calls to that of landline, from cellular phones to VoIP, things are moving and you can survive here only if you are game for this change. Read on to know more about a career in telecommunication.

• Job Scope

As is evident from the dynamic nature of the industry, there are a lot of career opportunities available in this field and qualified people will not find any dearth of job opportunities. In the last couple of decades, the drastic increase in the number of commercial establishments and individuals using telecom services has ensured that lucrative jobs are available both in the private as well as in the government sector.

In the private sector companies like Airtel, Vodafone and ACT Net employ thousands of people. Speaking in the context of the government sector, jobs are available in places like BSNL and MTNL.

• Qualifications

The basic qualifications that are required for an individual to join this field as a telecom engineer would be that of a BE or BTech. During their undergraduate days, specialisation in electronics & communication (ECE), electronics and telecommunication (ETC) or computer science (CSE) should suffice.

Having an advanced degree or years of experience in this field makes you eligible for sales, marketing, customer service and administrative roles. For freshers there are a number of technical support jobs that are on offer.

• Roles Offered

The telecom industry is one that offers a whole array of roles for qualified people who are interested in this field. The roles range from that of telecom researcher and field manager to that of product manager, network manager and radio frequency manager.

There are also immense opportunities in the world of telecom design. The roles include hardware designer, electronic designer and network designer, amongst others. Network architecture is another field where there are immense job scope and growth opportunities.

• Skill Gaps

As high paying as this profession is, the world of telecommunication requires one to be updated with the changing technology. If they do not do that, there is an impending threat of not just stagnation but also losing the job in extreme cases. In order to prevent such a thing from happening, what you can do is to go for skill development activities throughout your career. There are a number of short-term skill development courses offered by national and international organisations.

If you are pursuing a full-time career and do not really have the time for things like this, you can opt for distance education programs. Distance education programs in this sector are offered by organisations like IGNOU and SMU-DE. If you are already working with a company you can also consider looking for options wherein your firm will sponsor your skill development course. Taking up those courses will put your career in the right track of success and unprecedented growth.

• Salary

As of 2018, the mean salary for freshers in this profession stands at somewhere close to Rs 50,000. However, if the said person possesses industry-recognised specialisations, the starting salary may be as high as sixty to eighty thousand per month.

For people with ten years of experience in this field, the mean salary stands at somewhere close to Rs 1,20,000 per month. Due to the increasing use of telecommunication services like cellular phones, wireless phones, high-speed broadband and cable television amongst the consumers, the sector is progressing by leaps and bounds. For the last 5 years, the salary in this sector has been growing at a steady rate of 12 per cent on an annual basis.

• Growing In The Career

For a field that is growing this rapidly, the chances of making individual growth is also high. All that you have to do is settle in the career initially, and after a year look for opportunities of growth. This can be achieved by choosing your area of interest and then specialising in the same.

The areas where we can predict a notable growth in the coming years (in the context of telecommunication industry) are planning, sales, marketing, finance, manufacturing and design. Needless to say, opportunities in human resource also exist and one can pursue a career in that field as well.