Should college students majoring in communications switch to the Internet?

Latest update time：2021-09-01 16:01

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As we all know, the communications industry is on the decline, and this is an indisputable fact.

Many students majoring in communications are concerned about the following issues:

Can we continue down the communication path?

The Internet is so popular and everyone is changing their careers. Should I change?

Today, let’s talk about this topic.

Overall, the rise and fall of the communications industry follows its cyclical patterns.

This cycle is the iteration of communication standards . For example, 2G in the 1990s, 3G around 2008, and 4G around 2013. Each time a new generation of technical standards matures and becomes commercially available, it will set off a wave of investment and construction in global communication networks at that time.

Once this money flows into the communications industry, it will drive the development of technology and support companies and practitioners in the industry.

Building a network costs money, but it’s impossible to buy a new one every year, right?

The investment in a communication technology standard takes many years to recover. During this period, companies in the communication industry chain, especially equipment vendors and engineering subcontractors, can only rely on network maintenance and some service and function charges to maintain business operations and support employees.

At present, the large-scale construction of 4G has been completed, and the construction of 5G will not begin until 2019 at the earliest.

Moreover, communication network services are now relatively complete, and there is almost no rigid demand or new functions (VoLTE can barely be counted as one) to stimulate industry investment and construction.

Therefore, the entire communications industry will be in a downturn for the time being (at least for the next three years) . Communications companies can only look for new business opportunities in the Internet of Things and tap into market orders from enterprise network users and government users.

On the other hand, competition in the communications industry is too fierce.

The rise of Huawei and ZTE has broken the long-term monopoly of foreign communication manufacturers, reduced communication charges and brought benefits to users, but it has also turned the entire industry from a high-profit industry into a low-income industry .

In the entire industry, vicious competition and price wars have become a common phenomenon. It is common to bid at super low prices, 1 yuan, or even give away for free.

The communication giants are all badly hurt, not to mention the small and medium-sized enterprises in the industry, which can only go bankrupt one by one and wail in dismay.

If times are tough for the business, times for the employees certainly won’t be good either.

There are not many companies in the industry that can really be said to have high incomes. Even companies like Huawei, although they seem to have high incomes, are at the cost of high workload pressure. To put it bluntly, it is very difficult to make money.

To make matters worse, in addition to "internal troubles", we also have to face "external troubles".

With the development of technologies such as virtualization, the impact of the IT industry on the traditional communications industry is growing.

In the era of virtualization, telecom equipment vendors' dedicated hardware is gradually being replaced by X86 general-purpose hardware. The hardware technology barriers built up over the years have collapsed by half (the core network has been fully virtualized, and wireless is also possible).

Not only the hardware is impacted, but also in terms of software, it is questionable how much chance telecom companies have of winning against the IT industry's jackals and tigers represented by BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent).

There is no need to say much about the IT industry, especially the Internet industry. It has developed very rapidly in recent years. There is investment, technology, and talent. Even in the capital winter, it has only returned to some rationality and slowed down a little.

What I have said before is the overall status quo of the communications industry.

Now let’s talk about the specific issue…Where is the future for communications majors?

For college students majoring in communications, I suggest you avoid vertical selection and focus on horizontal selection.

Vertical selection refers to selection by industry, such as the communications industry, IT industry, and Internet industry.

Horizontal selection refers to selection by layer, such as application layer, network layer, access layer, and terminal.

Please look at the following picture first:

From bottom to top, they are:

Terminal layer : Simply put, it interacts with users and collects/distributes user data.

Access layer : It is to send the data collected by the user terminal to the network, or send the network data to the user terminal.

Transport layer : It is the pipeline for data flow.

Core layer : It is where data is stored and calculated.

Application layer : What exactly the data is used for and how it is used is up to each company. This is the server side.

IT and CT are already one. No matter what major it is (computer science, software engineering, network engineering, communication engineering, electronic information engineering...), they are all looking for their own position in the entire ICT ecosystem.

In the traditional sense , communication engineering mainly refers to the access layer and the transmission layer .

However, as you can see, these two layers are " pipelines ".

Pipes are important, but they are worthless ! Only the content of the data itself has value.

Big data and cloud computing are all about data content, such as users' shopping data, travel data, location information data, health data, etc. Only these data can bring commercial value.

The operators only see the bit stream (a bunch of 0s and 1s) and no data content, which makes them very anxious but helpless. (This is why operators are very afraid of becoming pipes.)

As for pipelines, the only thing we can do is to make the pipes thicker, transmit faster, and lay them wider, and then ensure safety and stability. There is nothing else.

Therefore, the potential and development space in this area will become smaller and smaller.

Do you understand? We must avoid building pipelines and find ways to move towards data content and data applications.

There is a saying that is often said nowadays, " Software is the future ", which makes a lot of sense.

For pure hardware, the development space is mainly limited to technology and materials. Software is different. The development space of software algorithms is much larger. Artificial intelligence is a typical example. Software has infinite development potential in application scenarios, efficiency improvement, and user experience.

So, does communication engineering represent hardware or pipelines?

it's not true.

As a professional name, the term "communication engineering" is actually unreasonable and very confusing.

The concept of "communication" is too large and general. The courses of "communication engineering" are numerous and difficult. It seems that everything is learned, including computers, electronic information, software, and hardware. However, not many people can clearly explain what it is about.

Look at "software engineering", at least its clear positioning is to train software engineers, either front-end program development (Android/IOS) or back-end program development.

Let’s look at “network engineering”. At least everyone knows that it deals with computer networks.

The result of the vague positioning of "communication engineering" is that students are easily confused and end up learning nothing well.

In the communication network involved in communication engineering, different modules are very different. The core network part is close to computer network or network engineering majors. The wireless air interface part is close to wireless communication majors. The communication terminal part is more related to electronic information engineering majors.

Therefore, regarding the study direction of communication engineering, Xiaozaojun's personal opinion is:

1 If you are looking for a job after graduating from a college or university, it is best to find a job at the application layer or terminal layer (either close to the data content or close to the user), and avoid working in the "pipeline" direction (access or transmission), especially in low-tech positions in the "pipeline" direction (such as engineering). Even if you are employed in this position, you should be aware of the transitional nature of this position, which can only be used as a stepping stone and cannot be a lifelong position.

2 If you want to develop in the "pipeline" direction, you must work hard to further your studies and improve your academic qualifications (the higher the better). Only when you become one of the top 20% of talents in this direction will you have room for development. Otherwise, your future will be bleak.

In short, when studying communications engineering, you must have a strong sense of crisis.

Please note that a sense of crisis is meant to motivate you to work hard to make progress, not to make you give up on yourself, nor to encourage you to change careers blindly.

What determines your future is definitely not your industry or major, but your ability.

The grim situation in the communications industry does not mean that it is all useless, nor does it mean that all people in the communications industry have no future. Similarly, no matter how prosperous the Internet industry is, it does not mean that you can just lie down and make money if you go there.

For example, the top 20% of people in the communications industry and the top 40% of people in the Internet industry can live very well. This means that if you don’t work hard and are in the bottom 40%, you will have a hard time wherever you go. You will eat what others have left, and you will be a low-end talent. You will not even have the qualifications to complain about the industry.

If you spend some money and take a JAVA class, you can get a job in the Internet industry. Does that mean you have a golden rice bowl?

Students with clear minds can figure it out with their toes.

If you are a student majoring in communications engineering, please find your focus, learn it down-to-earth, and strive to be specialized in multiple fields. The specialty should be deep enough, and the field should be practical enough.

The cellular Internet of Things is just starting out and has a lot of room for development. 5G will be here in a few years (maybe just in time for you to graduate), and no one can tell whether communications will make a comeback by then . Instead of worrying about the industry, it is better to build your own professional competitiveness now and train yourself into a high-end talent. The old saying will never be wrong - "Opportunities only belong to the prepared mind"!

The above is Xiaozaojun’s personal opinion and is for reference only. Welcome to criticize and communicate.

Thanks!

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