Life without the internet is as unthinkable as chips without cheese or a baked beanless Scotch pie.
It’s become so much a part of our everyday lives that having a fast connection regularly tops opinion polls on the bare necessities of life – beating a nice cup of a tea or even a cuddle.
It’s no wonder then that millions are being invested in rolling out high-speed broadband with the aim of making Scotland a world-class digital nation by 2020.
The ambitious target means telecoms engineers continue to be much in demand – not only to install the telecoms fibre network but to maintain and troubleshoot in years to come.
As with all engineering disciplines, the industry would like to see more women applying for jobs in this sector.
Being a telecoms engineer is primarily about problem solving in a variety of settings – the home, underground and up telegraph poles – and in all weathers. If the thought of climbing a pole in a howling gale and horizontal rain doesn’t bother you, this could be a nice little number.
Working for broadband, mobile phone and landline telephone networks, telecoms engineers are responsible for setting up communications and data networks, installing aerials and satellites, laying and testing underground cabling, and finding and fixing faults.
One day you could be single-handedly setting up a home satellite system, the next working as part of a team installing a large corporate network.
It’s very much a hands-on job and one that requires attention to detail.
Anyone who’s ever watched a telecoms cabinet being worked on – hey, whatever floats your boat! – knows how complex is its tangle of colourful innards.
How does the engineer know which of the hundreds of wires to choose? Or do they just feel lucky?
Well, just as London taxi drivers must master The Knowledge to navigate their way around the city, telecoms engineers need to learn a numbering system for all those wires. Once grasped, it’s straightforward but it does require having normal colour vision.
Factor in broken joints or cables, nesting birds, nibbling rats, falling trees, high trucks, intermittent interference from aliens and you can see why telecoms engineers need top detective skills to get to the source of problems.
But seeing those internet connection lights flicker into life and the relief on a customer’s face when they know they can sit down to watch the Celebrity Masterchef final is well worth the time and effort!
For all the latest Engineering vacancies visit s1jobs.com