A quick survey of the CEOs of South Africa’s top telecommunications operators over the last few years revealed that most of them studied engineering.
In the business world a degree is no guarantee of success, or even a job. However, it does not hurt to have a tertiary qualification to back up experience and hard work.
According to a survey of 17 telecoms CEOs from Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Telkom, Neotel, and iBurst, the following trends emerged:
- 11 CEOs are qualified engineers
- 9 did an MBA or similar post-graduate qualification
The following table provides an overview of the qualifications of recent telecoms CEOs in South Africa.
| Undergraduate degree | |
| Field of study | Number of CEOs (out of 17) |
| Engineering (B.Sc. Eng) | 11 |
| Commerce (B.Com, CA) | 3 |
| Law (LLB) | 1 |
| Science (B.Sc.) | 1 |
| Humanities (B.A.) | 0 |
| – | |
| Postgraduate business degree | |
| MBA or MBL | 9 |
The following infographic shows the qualifications of past and present telecommunication heads. It should be noted that different engineering degrees were all listed as B.Sc. Engineering for simplicity.
Source : mybroadband