Reading graduate Sophie Lupton has been celebrated as a rising star in telecommunications with a triple award win. She shares with CONNECTED her career journey and her passion for encouraging more women into STEM careers.
In 2024, biomedical engineering graduate, Sophie scooped three prestigious awards in recognition of her exceptional contributions to the telecommunications industry – she was crowned the Institute of Telecommunication Professionals Graduate of the Year, SCTE’s ‘Rising Star’ and Virgin Media O2 Graduate of the Year.
Reflecting on her triple win, Sophie said: “It was definitely a surprise to win anything, let alone three awards in one week! It was a very emotionally chaotic but wonderful week.
“I felt very humbled to win. The best thing was having my colleagues there cheering me on and feeling part of one big community.
“I won these awards primarily for the voluntary work I do alongside my job, including with the Virgin Media O2 Women’s Network. I felt empowered winning in recognition of these activities because it helped reinforce how important these initiatives are.”
Finding the right course
While Sophie is currently thriving in her career, things weren’t always clear for her – and she shares that it’s OK to feel uncertain.
Sophie explained: “I wasn’t sure what to study at university so I didn’t apply during the UCAS cycle, instead deciding to take a gap year. However, when my mum found the biomedical engineering degree at Reading – which didn’t require a physics A-level – it looked like an ideal route into engineering for me.
“When I saw that clearing was still open I went for it. I already lived locally, so it was fairly easy to make a last-minute decision to start that year. In fact, I applied and started at Reading within a week.
“My degree was perfect for my interests – it covered a bit of electronics and a bit of mechanics, but all applied to healthcare systems, such as rehabilitation prosthetics and robotics.”
Sophie shared that she had a positive experience at Reading: “With the department being fairly small I got to know everyone really well and my tutor and my dissertation supervisor were both fantastic. Overall, I had a great experience.”
Getting the edge
Sophie emphasises that studying a course with a placement year was key to her graduate career success.
She explained: “I did my placement year with Virgin Media O2 and my manager at the time motivated me to think about my career on a serious level – what do I want to achieve, where do I want to end up, and to feel confident on my journey.”
Towards the end of her placement Sophie successfully applied for Virgin Media O2’s graduate scheme, and at the end of this scheme successfully applied for her current role. She said:
“My placement year really was critical in giving myself a step up the career ladder.”
The placement year also helped Sophie with her final year at Reading. “The placement year taught me valuable skills,” she reflected. “I learnt to be more organised, to manage my time better when working independently, and to implement a 9-5 work schedule. This gave me a much better work/life balance and this, combined with knowing I had a job waiting for me, made my final year much more enjoyable.”
Providing connectivity
Sophie is currently working as a technologist – which she describes as being a technical project manager – with Virgin Media O2. She acknowledges that telecommunications can be a complicated industry to understand, but is one which everyone relies on.
Sophie said:
“Our wider company purpose is literally providing connectivity for people. What we do as an industry is really meaningful and hugely impacts on people’s lives. Telecommunications is linked to everything even if it’s not immediately obvious how.”
The team Sophie works in focuses on government-funded trials, where different companies take part in competitions to encourage innovation within industries including telecommunications.
Sophie explained: “One of our team projects is utilising Open Radio Access Network Architecture (RAN), which aims to open up the Radio Access network – which is part of the equipment needed to run our mobile networks – to more vendors. It currently relies heavily on Ericsson and Nokia. By opening up the network and creating standardised open interfaces we can encourage vendor competition and innovation, aiming to enable more efficient building of the network in the future.”
Sophie’s team also carries out proof of concept trials to assess technological ideas before potential roll out across the network. She explained: “For example, you might be in a stadium with 5G coverage, but because it’s a really congested network due to high capacity at events, your mobile data experience may be poor. In these environments, we currently deploy trailers (temporary sites) to help improve capacity and customer experience.
“One of our current projects tests the Open RAN network architecture where all the components can be created by separate suppliers – as opposed to being all specific to one supplier as in traditional networks – within a trailer to improve customer experience.”
Changing perceptions
Alongside her technologist role, Sophie has thrown herself into extracurricular volunteering roles where she has really shone.
She said: “Many technology industries have a lack of young people and women entering them. I was lucky that both my parents were engineers and instilled in me the belief that I could succeed in this industry. But I’m aware that not everyone has that support or confidence to step outside of their comfort zone.
“It can be daunting to be the only woman in a room with 15 men, which was the ratio on my internship. I got involved with the women’s network as I’m passionate about bringing more women into technology and changing perceptions.
“Telecommunications might not appeal to many – it’s not very sexy – but it can be really interesting. I want to give other women confidence and to spread awareness that we can do these jobs.”
Another role Sophie has undertaken is President of the Future Careers Committee. This is a team dedicated to representing the voices of the early career employees of the company. Sophie took on this role to gain some leadership experience. She said: “This was 100% a great experience. It pushed me out of my comfort zone, I gained new skills, and I made connections which I wouldn’t have made in my day job.”
Sophie’s success is testament to her dedication and hard work. So where does she see herself in the future? “I think that eventually I’d like to give a leadership role a go,” Sophie said. “But the most important thing to me is to enjoy the roles that I do – and maybe one day I’ll take that gap year!”
Read more about the inspiring women in our alumni community.
