Talent Spotting: Nurturing Britain’s future generation of IT Networks professionals
Meet the Exhibitors: MLL Telecom (visit MLL on stand S23)
Contributed
The latest IT and network communications technologies combined with Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things offer huge potential for enabling the digital transformation of all types of businesses and organisations. This includes those in the public sector, such as local authorities, schools and the NHS. Reliable connectivity, innovative IT systems and expert engineering support are essential to delivering the services they provide to their local communities.
MLL Telecom has been delivering essential network systems and managed IT services to public sector customers as well as all the UK’s mobile operators for more than three decades. And we’re still growing our customer base and range of services. We are the managed network provider of choice for many UK public sector organisations across the South East including East and West Sussex County Councils, Brighton & Hove Council, and Surrey County Council.
To maintain our upward trajectory, an inclusive employment and recruitment strategy is essential. Our success is as much down to a highly talented and motivated workforce as the state-of-the-art technologies we deploy. This is why we are driven to support and encourage more people into our industry. The more people there are in the IT marketplace, the more choice we will have in recruiting and nurturing the skills best suited to our business requirements.
Actions speak louder than words
Our track record in this regard speaks for itself. Take Emma Clark for example, one of our Junior Solutions Architects who joined MLL a year after university where she achieved a BSc (Hons) in Cyber Security & Networks. Her initial interest in pursuing a career in IT began while studying Computing, Maths, English and Spanish at A Level and while her love of Spanish could have taken Emma in a completely different direction, she settled on ‘something to do’ with cyber security.
“I could see this was an area clearly in demand and would offer potentially lucrative job prospects further down the line,” said Emma. “As a Solutions Architect at MLL there is a large emphasis on teamwork and reporting, allowing me to have close day to day interaction with the customer about the technologies and services necessary to bring their requirements solutions to fruition.”
Ellie Coome is MLL’s Sales Operations and Bid Manager. An MA in English Language & Communications, she joined our company five and half years ago from GTT, a multinational telecom provider. “I think of my role as being similar to that of a conductor in an orchestra! We’re in day to day contact across all departments with colleagues from sales, the solutions architects, project management, customer services, legal and finance. We’re involved in the whole supply chain which also requires us liaising with carriers, running governance and compliance calls.”
Looking back on her own career so far, Ellie recalls how she ‘stumbled’ into the telecoms industry: “In my last year at Uni I was thinking hard about what I might want to do. I got a job on reception at a telecoms firm and one of the responsibilities was managing visitor access to our data centres. It got me thinking about what goes on in a data centre and the networks and telecoms tech involved.”
Ellie’s advice to those just heading for university or finishing college: “Don’t rule out a career in tech just because you don’t have a tech or STEM background or qualification. There’s a skills shortage so jump in and be prepared to take a leap of faith and apply. The telecoms sector is pushing apprenticeships so going on to higher education isn’t mandatory – at MLL we are running various earn as you learn schemes, including for trainee field engineers and project managers as well as in sales and IT.”
So, whether you’re considering your first career opportunity after school, college or university, or perhaps already established in the workplace with potentially transferable skills, come and see us at Digifest on stand S23. Chat with our team, including a university graduate who recently joined us as a sales executive, an experienced sales manager, and our friendly People Business Partner. We’ll be delighted to hear about your career interests and tell you more about what we do - and offer a few tips on how you could get into the dynamic and rewarding world of IT and Networks.
For further information, see www.mlltelecom.com
