Telecommunications IT: graduate area of work

Projects might include designing and developing new products, product testing, setting up infrastructure and supporting customers.

The goal of the telecoms industry is to make communication possible, wherever you are in the world. There are two sides to the industry: there's everything that the users see, from fixed-line telephones and broadband to mobile devices and apps, then there's the infrastructure behind-the-scenes that makes all of these a reality. On top of that, there's also the infrastructure behind the cloud.

There are so many companies operating in this sector, including hardware manufacturers such as Dell, Metaswitch, Cisco, Juniper and Ericsson, service providers such as BTm AT&T, Three and EE, software companies such as WhatsApp and Skype and IT consultancy providers such as Accenture and IBM. Google and Amazon are also involved and there are a lot of smaller companies in telecoms too.

What you need to know about telecoms careers

A key topic at the moment is the rollout of 4G and 5G. General IT trends such as the cloud, advances in data processing speeds and data breaches and security are also very relevant to telecoms. There is currently a shift away from what we call big iron (custom-made hardware that is developed to be very good at a specific thing) towards commodity hardyware (generic, easily obtainable servers that are less expansive to manufacture and can be turned into any item of network infrastructure).

Another trend is the cointainerisation of virtual machines, which is the idea that you can spin up new machines your data centre by clicking a button, turn them into whatever infrastructure you need at the moment and get rid of them once you don't need them anymore. For service providers, this means they can increase and decrease the size of their onfrastructure according to user demand.

You could work in research and development, technical sales and marketing or installation and technical support. You will almost always work in a team, which will include engineering and IT colleagues, sales and customer support, and possibly design and user experience specialists.

The pace of your workd will depend on your employer. When service providers roll out new technology, it tends to be gradual and measured because they need to maintain reliability for their customers. They also face regulations, particuarly on critical services such as emergency calling. Small vendors, software-based companies and start-ups, particuarly mobile apps, can be very fast-moving as they are trying to launch a product as quickly as possible. Mobility is not required; however, it is possible to work abroad or take on a role that involves frequent travel. There are also always events and trade shows that you can go to.

Who can apply?

Some telecoms companies don't require their graduate to have a related degree or specific technical skills. Others may look for programming and electronic circuit design skills. It's very important, though, to have strong communication skills, logical thinking and problem solving abilities.

Career progression

Most companies run a graduate scheme. Some will rotate you between different areas before you decide which one to settle in, whereas others will start you off in a specific role. Summer internships and industrial placements are also helpful. You could progress to a management or team leader position and, theoretically, you can go all th eway to CEO. You could also move sideways into, say, sales or marketing. The skills you'll develop as a technical graduate will give you a good grounding for moving into other areas if you wish to.

Choose this if...

• You want variety: there are lots of different aspects to the industry and within any one company.
• You like working in a team.
• You'd enjoy knowing that you're doing something practical and making things work for people.

FIONA CORDEN is a technical team lead at METASWITCH. She has an engineering degree from Durham University and has worked in the telecoms industry for 11 years.