If you want to interface with telco, retro, or industrial equipment, you'll probably run into RS-232 interfaces. The Adafruit RS232 Full-Pinout Breakout with 8 Channels of UART to RS-232 Level Shifters is your friend in such cases. It gives you 5 input and 3 output channels of level shifting and takes care of the high/negative voltage generation all in a low-cost breakout board. We use the trusty MAX3243 from TI, a classic chip part of the MAX232 lineage, so you know it will work great for all your RS-232 needs, up to 250Kbps.