Sumita Gupta Sharma didn’t set out from India with a bachelor’s degree in economics planning on building telecom networks, but today — with nearly two decades of experience — she has built a kind of home in the industry.
Following her masters in computer applications, Sharma first found an unexpected opening with an equipment vendor working as a sales engineer, where she took an opportunity to move to London. But in 2008 when the recession struck, Sharma — like many throughout the world — was out of work.
Despite a rough bout of bleak job prospects, she was able to find a role as a network planner — a completely different side of the industry focused on designing and building networks rather than supplying the means to do so. She loved the change.
“It was not just about equipment; it was actually connecting people,” Sharma told us in an interview. “I thought, this is where I want to be. This is where I want to grow my network.”
Currently Director of Network Planning and Build at Arelion, it’s now been nearly 20 years in the industry helping plan and build broadband networks.
“It's a great place to work. You get to meet people and [seeing] yourself making an impact is really rewarding," she said. "You’re actually contributing to helping people get connected.”
Sharma also wants newcomers to understand the vastness of the industry's opportunities.
“There are a lot of roles,” she explained. “It only depends on what an individual is really interested in... it’s up to you in what direction you want to go and how willing you are to learn and move on from there.”
And even though it's all about broadband network technology, that doesn’t mean every job is all that technical.
“You can have technical roles, you can have semi-technical roles, you can have very detailed engineering roles,” she described. “[But] I think there is a preconceived notion about how highly technical or difficult it is, but that is not right. It is just taking the first step.”
The first step
Alongside the misconception that network roles are exclusively technical, Sharma says many jobs will only require an introductory level of network knowledge — which can often be self-taught.
“I think a basic knowledge of network infrastructure is good enough to get an entry into these roles,” she reflected. “I have people who have not come from engineering backgrounds but have really developed themselves. And I have people who [have worked] in the field and moved on to architectural positions as well.”
But with so many people unaware of the openings within broadband, the opportunity will be for those who are willing to take that first step and learn the basics.
Sharma noted that technician roles, as an example, are “always short of demand” at Arelion — positions they frequently outsource.
That’s why there are so many openings for technician roles — be it in fiber, cell tower or network capacities. There is simply a lot of infrastructure to maintain, and it’s only going to grow.
Data centers for instance — which are essential to the high data traffic of today’s broadband infrastructure — have expansive requirements for power, cooling and network equipment. “There is a lot of demand in terms of maintaining the sites,” said Sharma.
A long road ahead
As someone who’s been in the game for nearly two decades, Sharma explained that telecom has long been a male-dominated industry.
“Women in this space are few still... It is changing. I would say from the last 20 years, I’ve seen it change, but it is still not changing at the speed it should,” she explained.
George Floyd’s murder and the protests that followed catalyzed a rise enterprise Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) practices since 2020. But last year, fears of recession sparked rounds of layoffs from many tech companies — revealing how hollow some of those commitments were at first sight of a stormy economic outlook.
While there remains an effort for gender parity when hiring from companies like Arelion, Sharma believes there is still a long road ahead with the work. Although, she did note a profound vitality to the cultural diversity within her area of the industry.
“Because we are building networks and networks are from city to city, country to country... the kind of people you get to work with and the diversity of the people, the cultures, is just unbelievable,” Sharma expressed. “We share our cultures; we share our experiences. Everyone's coming from such a different perspective... It makes it so much more interesting."