I believe there are about 3 career paths in RF:
RF designer-making Rf circuits and components (software and/or hardware) :
test engineer- fielding testing components, products or software and :
planning/optimisation-designing and deploying wireless networks and managing(optimising) them.
I believe the first of these require no training other than the university education as such there is rarely any organisation I know of that is into it. Most of the time you get a job and get trained on the job but you must have very strong theoretical understanding of rf circuits, electronic designing (including PCB design) and some exposure to the use of software for such designs.
The second is similar to the first but is often less stringent. There are some easy ones like drive testing a cellular network but that requires previous exposure except the employer is willing to show u( though it is actually very simple). Others are a little more technical but I am not aware of any institution offerring training hence u can get it on the job
The last often requires some previous work experience or specialised knowledge and is mostly Vendor based (i.e Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola etc). You can obtain training in this area very easily. All vendors have training centers in most parts of the world and you can get the adresses easily on the Internet, just use a search engine or guess(like
www.ericsson.com). To get a very good start in the industry I advise that you attend a training with the vendor that has the largest market share in your locality-this increases ur chances and gives you higher mobility. Otherwise attend a training with Ericsson as they have a very large share of the Telecom industry(my personal opinion)
But it is good if you have a job to start with, so try out some of the telecom operators in your locality, anyone will be good for a start. Never mind contract jobs- you need a start, with time you will get a better grip.
To get a good view of the skills, opportunities and current rate of the industry's market go to
www.jobserve.com, type 'rf engineers' ('rf planning engineers' 'rf planning and optimisation engineers' etc one after the other to get max results) in the search box . Pls do that right now
Though no one gives a guarantee but I like to tell you that with some careful planning on your part and hard work you will do very well in a short while. I will be happy to hear of ur success soon
Kirt
