Hot Jobs in Telecom

The telecom industry has given a substantial blow to the job bazaar-bigwigs like Nokia Siemens Networks and airtel restructured, eventually leading to considerable job shock! Major telcos namely Reliance, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel were mute over fresh hiring. Recently Tata Teleservices merged its CDMA and GSM divisions and ramped down its workforce. Due to cancellation of 2G licenses, companies like Loop Telecom and Etisalat announced exit plans; and telcos' balance sheets resonate poignant state. Nevertheless, to your surprise job market has not lost its exuberance despite significant job loss; because the telecommunications industry is a vibrant and non-saline ocean even if some gallons of water is discarded. it would hardly make any difference, and the vast ocean offers several opportunities to cheer.

The telecom sector remains at the center of Indian growth story despite the chaos and paleness. The Indian telecommunications market is growing though it is cloudy and it has not attained saturation. The fundamentals of the industry is penetration and we are nowhere close to it-though the mobile penetration has superseded wireline, the active SIM cards are sold are over 600 mn (As per TRAI report, 903.73 mn subscribers as on January 2012); and take the data scenario, India has just over 13.42 mn broadband subscribers at the end of January 2012. Indian customers are also indicating strong intent for technology adoption.

Though there are thicker clouds such as dwindling ARPUs, slowdown on investments in expansion and upgradation of networks and equipments, tariff wars, regulatory issues, etc. Yet, the clouds would pass and clear the sky. As per the media reports, the total revenue in the telecom service sector has risen from `86,720 crore in 2005-06 to `283,207 crore in 2010-11. And the telecom equipment segment recorded `117,039 crore in 2010-11. The telecom sector is very attractive among job seekers and the market is greenfield so there need not be any fret. The sky is the limit for telecommunications engineers in India.

“Technology is changing rapidly and there will be hundreds of opportunities that will be created with the adoption of newer technologies such as 4G, machine-to-machine, NFC, optic fiber cabling, etc. To that extent, the opportunities are mind boggling. So, there is a lateral growth in terms of the size of the business, which in India is great. The second part is the vertical growth in terms of the technology that keeps getting added into the system. But job seekers ought to be very vigilant in choosing product line. The job growth in the telecom world certainly depends on the people who want to be ahead of the pack and they ought enhance skill sets and technology knowledge for perpetual career growth,” says Faisal Kawoosa, senior manager, research & consulting, CyberMedia Research.

As per the data from TimesJobs.com, the demand in telecom industry has increased from 14% in October 2011 to 29% in October 2012.

Tele Job Opportunities

The key jobs in the telecommunications comprise software, hardware, and sales; then the operations, administration, and HRM jobs. According to Vinay Mathews, national head sales and delivery, TimesJobs.com, “There is 30% of demand for software jobs, hardware accounts for 25% demand, and the sales has got 17% of the demand coming in.”

Software

In a telecom software segment, the more demanding jobs are in the space of application programming, chip design, network administration and security. The mobile application market brings great job opportunities-India is the third fastest growing app market in the world. It is estimated that every Indian user spends nearly 52 minutes per-day using mobile apps.

There is an increase in the demand of mobile applications as more and more people are using smartphones. It has been projected that mobile value added services market (which includes mobile apps) will reach `214.1 crore by the end of 2012 from `158.6 crore in 2011. Revenue generated by mobile VAS was `122 bn, as on March 2011. It is estimated to reach `482 bn by 2015, according to a study conducted by Deloitte. Here the demand and supply ratio is inadequate and industry is looking for talented professionals. Planning a career in this industry will surely be a good move.

As known, chip designers work to make faster, cheaper, and more innovative chips that can automate parts or the entire function of electronic devices. Technologies such as light-emitting diode (LED) screens, 3G, WiMax, 4G, NFC, M2M and the need to best optimize the performance and minimize the size of chips have led to increased demand for chip designers.

As telecom networks begin to move from TDM systems to a hybrid of legacy systems and VoIP technology, telecom security is becoming more and more demanding. Security is further complicated by the difficult nature of managing a hybrid voice network. There is lot of information that is going on networks and majority of it is wireless, so securing these networks is imperative. Security is a very big area in terms of job and growth opportunities, said Vinay Mathews, national head sales & delivery, TimesJobs.com.

Hardware

Hardware space has got 25% of the demand coming in. It is also one of the big areas of growth in terms of job because except last mile connectivity everything else is wired. Telecom equipment segment is huge. Telecom support is another prominent area, being able to support various requirements of various kinds of phones lies on service providers. Customers contact service providers by and large, to configure or upgrade operating system/applications or about any glitch, and not the handset vendors. Telcos ought to extend a lot of support on the B2B front also. In the hardcore hardware area, there are 3 basic areas-infrastructure, telecom support, and telecom engineering.

Sales

Staying profitable is at the core of all business establishments. Therefore companies need people going up to that extra mile to sell products or services. Sales and development will always be a big attractor for all industries. Sales account for 17% of demand in job market. Nowadays sales is not only about selling products but about building relationships and community.

Referring to remuneration and attrition, Vinay Mathews, national head sales & delivery, TimesJobs.com states, “As a whole the market is pretty much stable in terms of remuneration. And telecom is one of the better paying industries. Attrition in this knowledge based n information based industry is generally at the high end because there are abundant opportunities and high caliber professionals. Companies are well aware of attrition levels and they manage it skillfully.”

Madhubala Vaidyanathan, general manager (permanent recruitment — services vertical), TeamLease opined, “Telecom job market is getting tuned up as compared to last few quarters. Market is likely to be more stabilized in Q1 2013-14 onwards. Recruitment was basically open for mid level and junior level positions in tower business/ operations business. But now the senior management jobs have opened up. This trend also brings back the confidence on the telecom job market. Earlier high level jobs used to stretch for 3 to 4 months but now they are being closed very fastly. Organizations which were a bit conservative in recruiting are getting stabilized slowly.”

Telecom aspirants mind you it is a highly competitive world. Though there is huge job opportunities yet making the best out of it depends solely on personal capabilities. Currently our education system is not practically driven but that should not impede students from exploring and getting associated with projects and internships to gain practical knowledge and nuances of the job. Job aspirants will be at a greater advantage if they can convince the prospective employer about their capability rather than potentiality.