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There’s a Future in the ‘Singing Wires’

By David Pego, IMD Contributing editor

If you’re an American Indian, you always are a bit skeptical when the U.S. government comes to visit and says it wants to help.

Sounds like that is what American Indian leaders were thinking again when Federal Communications Commission officials came to talk with them about the problem of communications on reservation communities.

According to the Associated Press, a panel of tribal officials explained how their communities are lagging decades behind other towns when it comes to having telephone service and Internet connections. Some of them suggested that the only way for them to catch up would be to create their own companies and do it themselves.

FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said that 94 percent of U.S. homes have telephone lines but that number drops off to 67 percent in American Indian communities, the AP reported.

Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

It’s not only a problem – but it could be a big opportunity if you act quickly enough.

Right now, many American Indians go into education or counseling programs because that’s where most of the jobs are in Indian Country. But as tribal officials grapple with improving communication capabilities, you can bet there will be jobs a plenty for supervisors and technicians as the government and Indian leaders work to close the communications gap with the rest of the nation.

How would a person take advantage of this inevitable effort to connect Indian Country with the rest of the world?

Indian leaders told FCC officials they are looking to create their own communications companies or at least keep tight oversight over other companies that begin building communications towers or phone lines. That means there will not only be jobs for American Indians who know how to put together telephone networks but for those who will manage the new companies and oversee the communications services once they are up and running.

It is reasonable to assume that tribes will give hiring preference to their own tribal members or to members from other tribes, as they do in other areas of commerce.

Nice salaries in this field

The telecommunications management and tech jobs pay well in the private sector and surely will on Indian communities, too.

How does one get started in this career direction? Check with counselors at your local community college or university to see what type of electronics and networking classes they have available, or see what corporate management classes they suggest would prepare one for being a key decision-maker.

Look for work here, too

Or take a few years off and go to work for one of the big-name telecommunications companies. There are job openings listed here at the IMDiversity site that could prepare you to become a leader in providing phone and Internet services to reservation communities.

And don’t worry about this being just a temporary job as tribes began building their new communications infrastructure. Rather, there will be job opportunities to oversee these networks for years to come. And if you are in on the ground floor, it’s likely that you can quickly work your way up to being a key decision-maker who will be rewarded for your efforts.

You know how valuable the Internet can be – otherwise, you would not be taking the time to read this right now. Think how good it will feel to bring that same experience to many people who can’t contact the rest of the world on a daily basis.