Which placement path would you take?

Hi Guys,

Faced with a bit of a tough decision lately and looking for some opinions about what people would do in my situation. I have started my second year at university and been going at it for around 7 weeks now. The next year of my course will be a placement. Now I am torn between two very different paths. I currently live in the UK.

The first path is an opportunity over in Australia. Now there is a friend of my step-mum that owns his own business over there. It is around 6 people large and is a wireless ISP. They provide wireless access to customers along the coast in Queensland as opposed to your standard DSL. Currently there isn't really anybody there apart from himself that has any solid technical knowledge. He knows I am doing a networking course and will be CCNA certified by the time I start. There isn't that strong network engineering knowledge currently. The role would mean I would be taking a lead role on the non-radio things, coming up with designs, challenging each other and bouncing ideas of each other, and implementation. As well it will be doing things such as network monitoring, maintenance, analysis, and providing suggestions from network prospective. I would get an all round experience of the operations of a wireless ISP.There would be a lot of study involved as well where he is happy to allocate time to this such as security related aspects, and potentially CCNP material. As well they are looking to expand into the VoIP area whether this is something they do themselves or outsource, but is something I would be involved with.

The other side of the coin is pursuing the larger companies in the UK. The most prominent so far being Cisco themselves. The internship is working in the Cisco labs on their test environments. I have spoken with some CCNP guys from my uni who both did this internship and it does sound really good as well, and they think I have a good chance of getting it if I went for it. I have spoken to the recruitment guy from Cisco face to face after he came to do a presenation on the internship. He said he was very impressed with my LinkedIn profile.

The problem is I cannot be sure whether I would secure the Cisco one, and by the time I will know if I have it would be too late to decide to do Australia. So its either pick Australia now not knowing what could be available in the UK, or leave Australia and gamble that I get somewhere good in the UK. It's a really tough call to make.

I have spoken with multiple people but the main one sticking out is someone from university (the placement staff member) who is heavily involved in the networking career side of things said Australia might not be the best career move with what is potentially available in the UK. But it would provide amazing life skills and there is the chance it would be amazing networking and career wise as well. However the opportunities in the UK are equally amazing.

The UK ones if you get in as a placement and do well, would potentially lead to to graduate opportunities if they like me. Although the Australian one also has the potential to go back after graduation.

Looking for some insight into what people think. From a career perspective would it be more impressive working for a year with a company like Cisco (if I get it in), or taking the lead networking role for a wireless ISP over in Australia? Both routes lead to potential graduate opportunities as well. The Australia one seems amazing but at the same time not as established as some of the larger UK businesses like Cisco.

Sorry for the long post!

Thanks in advance for the assistance

Kind Regards
-Luke Smith

Reply 1

username1799249

Hi Luke, Don't fret too much about where you do your placement. It doesn't hold too much credence when it comes to choosing your eventual career path. Indeed the world of technology is such that you can sidestep pretty easily at any time as long as you can demonstrate ability. If it is any consolation, my placement was as the IT bloke for a small traffic consultancy. Since IT was such a small part of my time, I ended up designing roads instead! I now develop CAD software ironically.

If it was me, I would go for the Australia gig. What a superb opportunity to work in a foreign country and for a company where you will have a large influence to make a real difference. I really don't understand the huge desire for grads to clamour over themselves to join large grey entities when there are also such a wealth of exciting smaller enterprises that tend to give you that personal touch.

Either way, like I said above, don't worry too much about making "the" right decision. It is only for a year, then your finals, then you have the same decision to make all over again. And even then there is plenty of opportunity to start over in the future.

Good luck!

PS - you might wish to ask if it is ok to work in Aus by your university. My placement involved a visit by someone from the department. A train fair from Brum to Manch is one thing, but a plane ticket to Sydney for a 1 hour chat is another. :-)

Reply 2

Jon_6_sk

Having worked for Cisco before (sorry, don't know anything about their internship program specifically), I would come down on the side of Cisco. It's a great place to work and you will learn more than you will ever need there.

Reply 3

jamesbonds

If you are looking for the work placement in Australia, then visit Intern Gateway.This placement allows the student to develop their work experience in wide range of skills.