Coffee talk with a Telecom Engineer

Nirav Rawell is an Electronics and Telecom engineer who joined the telecom sector after finishing BE in telecom from RV College of Engineering in 2005. In this interview he shares some of his opinions on this sector.

What are you working on now?

I am currently working on 3.5G/4G protocol stack development for mobile handsets.

Why did you decide to take up this career?

I was always interested in telecommunications. So I decided to do my B.E in telecom. After passing out of R.V.C.E, the most obvious choice was to work for a telecom company!

What are the different career options available for someone who aspires to study this course?

There are a lot of options available in the field of telecommunications. It will be impossible to list them all, but a few of them are:

1.       Wireless Protocol development and testing (Mobile Handset/Network)

2.        Design and testing of various wireline systems like Routers.

3.       Chip design and testing

The scope is really wide and the opportunities are available in plenty.

What is the potential in India? And abroad?

There is a lot of telecommunication work coming to India. Even in Europe there is a lot of demand for telecommunication professionals, especially for those working on 3G technologies.

Which are the best universities for this course as per you? <Pls mention a line or two about ur college/univ for this branch>

Most of the colleges under VTU have a separate branch for telecommunications.

RVCE and PESIT are the best of the lot in Bangalore. The placements at these colleges are also very good.

Being from RVCE, I have seen at firsthand, the kind of companies that come for placements and the kind of jobs that telecommunication students get into and it is simple amazing.

The telecom dept in RV is really good with competent faculty,  good infrastructure. It even has a PG school for further studies in telecom.

What are the advantages of this career?

I think this is up to the individual.

What are the drawbacks of this career, if any?

Same as above :)

What is the hot thing in this field right now?

UMTS is a hot field currently and there is a great demand for people with UMTS knowledge, both in India and abroad.

 
What is the future of this career 10 years down the line?

The future is certainly bright.

More and more countries are deploying 3G networks and the number of people needed to maintain them will only go up!

What are the kind of specializations available?

There are a lot of fields that one can select to specialize in. 
 

What are the kind of companies that hire people who take up this course? Give egs.

A lot of MNCs come for campus recruitment. Even in off-campus there are lots of opportunities.

Companies like Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Nokia, NXP, Samsung are just a few of them.

 
What is your advise to children who wish to see this field as an option?

If you are interested in the field, then just go for it!!