E85 - Vikash Ramnewash at Deutsche Telekom

On today’s episode of The Route to Networking podcast, Ben Davies, a Principal Network Consultant here at Hamilton Barnes was joined by Vikash Ramnewash, the Managing Director at Deutsche Telekom. Vikash has had an interesting history in the Networking space, being part of some impressive organisations such as BT and Juniper Networks.

Vikash started his early days in the legal sector by studying law at university. The first step Vikash took was stepping up and establishing what his ambitions were and got

the ball rolling from there. He took on some internships with law firms and then eventually moved to BT and started to become more technical and this is where his Networking journey began.

From BT, he moved his way up into a variety of roles and landed his position at Deutsche Telekom. The CEO decided to split the unit into three product units and Vikash decided he wants to lead the one in the Netherlands. He went through the entire process, had some interviews, planned around what went well and what needed improving, and became the Director of Telecommunications and Security Services in the Netherlands. Half a year into the job, they wanted to split and reorganise again. From that point forward, they became a separate legal entity in the Netherlands for the Networking space, where he became the Managing Director.

Proudest achievement…

Last year his team had a huge customer with whom they had a strong relationship on the IT side caught up in an emergency situation. His team flagged the issue to them and ensured they didn’t have to use them but advised them to do something about it. Grateful for the advice, they immediately began to look at resolving the situation. They had to onboard so much in a short period because they did not have the solution in place. They had to build their own solution, put a network operation centre in place, build a cloud environment to support the solution and finally implement it.

Together they made it a great success and in under three months migrated it without a single incident. This was a huge achievement for him and his team and he felt a massive sense of pride.

Sharing some of his concerns within the industry, a big one for him is the lack of diversity in the space, women, and especially young talent. It is not easy finding the right people with the right level of experience but Deutsche Telekom, they are looking to start a program for young talent for people coming out of college to do a graduate program.

When hiring at DT, they have got to fit into their culture. Something he takes incredible pride in is the team and the culture they possess. The person may have all the right skills but if they don’t fit in the team, they have to make a really tough decision because ultimately if they don’t get on with the team, it’ll cause trouble. Another thing they look for is self-starters. If you are able to step up yourself, get involved and become your own success, then you would be the right fit for their team.

For Vikash, he never planned out his career or saw where it was going to go, and it led him into something he loves. From this perspective, he shares some advice on where you should start if you want a career in the Networking space. Tune in now to hear what he says!