The telecommunications industry marches relentlessly onwards, swallowing other technologies in its path.

As a result there has been a huge expansion in the range of job opportunities in this once highly specialised field. To-day’s telecoms professional is as likely to be a slick marketing executive or creative design specialist as a hardware engineer or systems analyst.

“Telecoms is a huge global industry going through a massive expansion and diversification,” says Chris Earnshaw, vice-president of the Institute of Engineering and Technology. “It’s already absorbed the IT and computer industries and is now moving into media and broadcasting. So a lot of media companies are looking for people with IT skills, while telecoms companies are taking on people with creative media skills. The barriers are all coming down.”

Ed Bailey, the director of Telecoms Technology Recruitment, says: “The jobs market is certainly very buoyant at the moment. Companies are constantly looking for engineers, managers, co-ordinators, sales people and project managers. It seems to be a case of feast or famine. Five years ago the telecoms industry took a big hit and there were a lot of redundancies, but right now there seem to be more jobs than suitable candidates.”

There are few areas of modern life that have not become dependent on telecommunications technology. The financial sector, for instance, has been transformed by the use of internet and telephone banking.

“We have a massive spectrum of opportunities for people with an IT/telecoms background,” says Bob Rickert, director of infrastructure and services at Barclays. “We are expanding and going through a great number of technological changes so there is a huge need for people with those sorts of skills.”

But Rickert emphasises that success in financial telecommunications requires more than just technological know-how.

“It’s very important to have the technical skills, but in addition to that you need to have the communications and engagement skills,” he says. “You need to be able to understand the banking business and engage with people working in other areas of it. Of course we will train you. We don’t expect you to have a PhD in IT and a PhD in economics.”

The mobile company O recruiting IT/telecoms specialists to support its new broad-band service, which is due to be launched later this year. According to Ian Ruddy, the head of HR at O for jobs is highly competitive.

“It’s a very challenging labour market and that requires employers to be more discerning and creative in the way they recruit,” he says. At O this includes running job adverts on gaming and lifestyle websites.

Once again Ruddy emphasises that there is a broad range of opportunities available: technical support; sales positions; management positions; and “the kind of careers that come as part of being a company with 13,000 employees — so the HR positions, legal and financial. From a career perspective, it’s a great time to be in telecoms.”

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