No matter where you live in the world today, when you turn on your local news station it's clear that the economy is strained. Maintaining your current position if you have one, is not enough; going above and beyond is expected and necessary to stay viable in your career. If you are looking to secure a position, demonstrating your commitment to continued professional development can aid your efforts. Essential steps to building your career start with the pursuit of continued professional development. Consider making a concentrated effort to:
1. Take courses - learn new things in familiar and unfamiliar technical areas
2. Attend conferences, workshops, and local technical meetings
3. Read journals, transactions, books, and magazines regularly
Upcoming Training Course:
Introduction to Professional Wireless Communications
25 September 2012
9:00am - 4:30pm EDT - online
Instructor: Lee Vishloff
$300 non-member; $250 IEEE/ComSoc member
Register by 17 September.
The objective of this training is to provide the student with an adequate system level understanding of key wireless terms, technologies and products. The focus would be threefold:
1. Understanding of the Cellular/Wireless/Mobile Techniques
a. A bit of history: from smoke signals (Greece 150 BC) to 5+Billion mobile users (2011)
b. RF aspects: propagation, antennas, base stations, and wireless vs. mobility
c. Key industry drivers (KPIs): capacity, bandwidth, coverage, latency, speed and throughput.
2. Understanding of the prevalent Products and Standards
a. Cellular: GSM, UMTS, LTE, WiMAX, etc.
b. Broadband and Satellite systems
c. WLAN/PAN: WiFi, Bluetooth, RFID, NFC, home RF, sensors
3. Understanding Devices, Services and Applications
a. Services and applications: from SMS/Voice to Mobile Multimedia video/gaming/browsing/location
b. Devices (mobile phones, tablets, embedded modules
c. Wireless web and wireless platforms (Android, iOS, ..)
Review the ComSoc Training calendar for a complete list of upcoming courses.
Another way to stay ahead of the curve is the tried-and-true, meet and greet. In today's virtual climate we have the ability to connect with individuals we normally would not in our day to day work flow but with that, placing a name with a face, is somewhat lost. Attending a conference has various benefits. Checking out the tradeshow floor it's fun to see what the competition is doing as they show off their latest products and talk about their new services. Sure you can watch youTube to learn about it -- but there's something fun about actually touching the product and learning directly from an expert what the answers are to your questions. That's true on the tradeshow floor as it is in the classroom if you attend workshops or technical sessions. Two places you are sure to find ComSoc Staff this fall are 4G World taking place 29 October - 1 November 2012 in Chicago, IL, USA and Globecom which will run from 3-7 December 2012 in Anaheim, CA, USA. Getting active with your local section if you are an IEEE ComSoc member is a great way to meet other professional in your area.
Reading is fundamental. Use your IEEE account information to log in to the Digital Edition of the IEEE Communications Magazine for latest reading materials on communications.