Communications Engineering

Your degree course gives you an understanding of essential facts, concepts, principles and theories relevant to communications engineering. In addition to this academic and technical knowledge.

Over the course of your degree you develop a wide mix of subject-specific and technical skills, you should consider these skills developed on your course as well as through your other activities, such as paid work, volunteering, family responsibilities, sport, membership of societies, leadership roles, etc. Think about how these can be used as evidence of your skills and personal attributes. Then you can start to market and sell who you really are, identify what you may be lacking and consider how to improve your profile.

Prospects

Engineering graduates are well regarded and highly sought-after by a wide range of employers. A 2010 HESA destination survey of 2009 graduates showed that six months after graduating, over 60% of communications engineering graduates had entered employment. A quarter of communications engineering graduates went into IT roles, 13% found jobs in arts and sports sectors and nearly 10% went into engineering.

Destination surveys suggest engineers enter a broad range of careers. Employment is found in the commercial, industrial and public sectors in areas as diverse as sales, advertising, marketing, teaching, business, administration, finance, welfare, sport and culture.

Where are the jobs?

Employers include telecommunications companies and companies providing IT services and software product development. Opportunities exist for communications engineers throughout the engineering and IT industries:

• Engineering - made up of many industries: energy; transport; electronics and telecommunications; defence; the built environment; manufacturing; metals; and medical equipment. It provides a multitude of opportunities for graduates, diplomates and postgraduates with engineering qualifications.
• Information technology - companies vary in size from international corporations employing thousands to small firms with one to five employees. Opportunities for communications engineers are with IT services providers and software developers, and in IT sales departments, throughout the public and private sector.

Jobs directly related to your degree

• Communications engineer 
• Control and instrumentation engineer 
• Electronics engineer 
• Maintenance engineer 
• Network engineer 
• Operational researcher 
• Software engineer 
• Systems developer

Jobs where your degree would be useful

• Industrial/product designer 
• Management consultant 
• Sales executive

Although some of the jobs listed here might not be first jobs for many graduates, they are among the many realistic possibilities with your degree, provided you can demonstrate you have the attributes employers are looking for. Bear in mind that it's not just your degree discipline that determines your options. Remember that many graduate vacancies don't specify particular degree disciplines, so don't restrict your thinking to the jobs listed here.

You can find more about the skills you develop during your course, the jobs listed above, plus case studies and where to find these jobs at Prospects.

Included with the permission of AGCAS. For the latest version of this publication, see www.prospects.ac.uk. For permission to reproduce, contact copyright@agcas.org.uk