Telecommunications Technician
Lewis' job title is Climbing Technician at Vodafone
I install and repair cabling and network equipment. I work all over the Southwest of England, indoors and outdoors at different sites. I also go to cable landing stations where the submarine cables come in from all over the world, telephone exchanges and Vodafone’s own network sites. What I do from one day to the next can vary hugely.
Hear more about Lewis's role by watching the video below...
Some days I’ll be climbing so I will spend all day outside. Other days I will be working indoors, for example doing a wifi installation in an office. There are also times I work at night - for example on a telephone exchange, migrating customer circuits and broadband for businesses onto new equipment.
We usually know our schedule a few days in advance so we can order parts if needed. My day is usually 8.30am to 4.30pm. In the morning I pick up parts and then do my jobs for the day and I’m normally home by 4.30pm.
There’s a surprisingly small number of young people working as technicians – it’s mainly an ageing workforce.
The variety! I do so many different things each and every day.
Although I am part of a small team, we also work with other teams that are adjacent to us in different fields. Everyone has a different expertise. It’s interesting because we work with different Vodafone departments based in India and Portugal, so you also feel like you’re on a global team.
It’s a good feeling whenever I can solve a problem. I like the mobile side of the work, working in cell sites. Sometimes a cell site might be down because a microwave link has dropped due to a broken radio. I pick up the parts in the morning, drive out there and figure it out on site; I swap it out and bring it all together again. It feels like an achievement.
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