MOBILE phone adverts are populated by white-toothed youngsters who always have a signal and never have fun without their mobiles. One imagines that life at the Fortune 100 global communications company Motorola Inc is just the same.

For one thing, there’s a host of technical engineers on hand to explain why your e-mail alert has just changed tone without your permission, says Clare Edwards, a UK advertising specialist. She is proof that you don’t have to be a technical whizzkid to work at Motorola. Edwards says that she is neither an early adopter of new technology nor a technophobe but “somewhere in between”. Normal, then.

Motorolans, as the company calls its employees, certainly seem to work in the world of its “HelloMoto” advertising campaign. The company’s mentoring programme is known as MotoMentor and it may be only a matter of time before the tea break becomes the quirky Moto- Minute.

Edwards joined the company as a PR temp in 2001 but was persuaded to stay by “the buzz and the fast-paced environment”. Vanessa Loughlin, the director of leadership and diversity, describes the atmosphere at the company in the same terms. “It’s very upbeat,” she says. “There’s a real buzz about the place. The business has really turned around and it’s been a team effort.”

Motorola employs about 2,400 people in the UK, most of whom are graduates in technical roles such as mechanical engineering and software design. A smaller sales and marketing team connects the IT crowd with the customers.

“We seek intellectually bright people but we have a range: people who don’t have a degree, for example,” Loughlin says. “We accept people who can prove that they have a strong track record of achievement.”

The business of “seamless technology” means that being stuck in an airport lounge is not an excuse for missing deadlines, but the work anywhere/anytime ethos isn’t as harsh as it sounds.

“If you deal with Asia and the US, there will be times when you work on early and late calls,” Loughlin says. “You do it occasionally but not every day.” There’s give and take, she promises: if you work late, you may reasonably start later.

Edwards has taken advantage of the humane attitude to working hours and enrolled in a postgraduate marketing diploma. Motorola is paying the course fees and giving her time off to study. She’s also had lessons in giving presentations from some thesps at RADA to calm her nerves. It’s just one of the innovative training approaches at Motorola. “It was fun,” Edwards says, but what she most enjoys is seeing Motorola’s marketing campaigns brought to life on television and poster boards.

So, would she recommend applying to Motorola? “Go for it,” she says. “There are career paths and opportunities for everyone. (I know) someone who started in sales and marketing who is now working in an engineering role.”

FACT FILE

Go to www.motorolacareers.com for information about careers.

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