Disclaimer: I don't know anything about the telecom industry. Have a family friend who is a recent college grad interested in working as a networking engineer at a telecom company. I think the industry fascinates them. Obviously working for cloud provider would be best, but for someone who wants to experience working in Telecom, which companies would you recommend? Is there a FANG for Telecom companies? Are the big providers AT&T, Comcast etc the best way to go? Or should they look into startups like 8x8?
Stay away from BT (British Telecom) Americas
8x8 isn’t a startup, they’ve been around longer than the iPhone.
Telecom equivalent of FAANG is VAST ( Verizon , att, sprint and tmobile)
I’ve been at 8x8 for years and love it - burgeoning market, broad set of tech, fun and accessible products, and an average 45% YoY growth rate in market cap over the past ten years. It still feels like a start-up; Every individual can make an impact.
Never been in FANG and TMobile is first Telecom company for me (manufacturing before this). not sure I would say any of Telecom is comparable to FANG. But I would say I really like my team/work here at TMO
Comcast is one of the best when it comes to traditional cable companies. I don't know how it compares to the wireless carriers. I speak from the software engineering side, where we work on our TV experiences (XFINITY/X1) and our smart internet product (xFi) and our smart home product (xHome). I don't know what the network engineering is like, but we do have an extensive backbone network to support all our high speed internet customers. But FAANG for telecom? Isn't that like giving Michelin stars to fast food chains? It doesn't change who you're working for or the food you're eating. But if it makes you feel better..
Most big tech companies have facilities or real estate depts which handle their expansion I to new markets which invariably means new offices, which can be epic HQs or smaller Tenant Improvement projects ... and all of which involve some telecom involvement ... and usually these depts have people who either design the telecom (cabling, wifi, audiovisual, security systems, ‘smart’ workplace etc) or manage consultant who do. Look for Technology or Telecom PMs.
Stay away from Five9. Junk