Fibre Jointer Review

Mr role is so varied and completely different to what i expected! (In a good way) I am responsible for building and maintaining the fibre network. This consists of; rodding and roping to prove the route for the fibre cables, clearing blockages to enable the installation of the fibre optic cables, building nodes and splicing the fibres to connect the required cables together to deliver the country fibre to the premises.

I previously worked at a nuclear PowerStation and as you can imagine going from that to building a complete fibre optic network was a massive change for me. Pretty much every aspect of this job is or was new to me from climbing poles, installing dropwire to working in footway boxes.

I am really enjoying my time at openreach so far and don't really have a bad word to say about it! i was made to feel so welcome from my very first day. There is obviously a lot to take in so i naturally have a lot of questions and every single engineer i have met is more than willing to go above and beyond to answer and demonstrate for you.

Th training received so far has been to a very high standard, my time in Yarnfield was very enjoyable and it gave me a good insight of what was to come. The downside to the training for me was that when completing training like the fibre course, the room was too small which meant all of the nodes were in one footway box which made it very hard for m to understand why i was doing what i was doing. In my opinion the nodes could be in a bigger area and more spaced out and/or in different boxes to fully replicate what its like in the real world.

I receive a lot of support from my managers, absolutely anything that i am unsure of or anything that i need the respond straight away and always do what they can to support me. There has been one case were i really enjoyed the way that one of the engineers was teaching me so i asked if i could be buddied up with him for my "buddy" period and he said yes straight away which has helped me learn a lot quicker and easier.

I receive as much support as i could possibly want, i am currently working on apprenticeship standards were i need to obtain a lot of pictures of me doing each step of multiple tasks and everyone is more than happy to take the time out to picture me doing these tasks. One thing i do wish was different is that when you first start your buddying, that you get put onto low pressure jobs to start with as the best way to learn is to get hands on but as a lot of the time the jobs are time sensitive the experienced engineers would take over to get the job completed quicker which then left me with less experience and confidence.

100% absolutely everything that i am doing in my apprenticeship helps in my day to day role. Everything from how to correctly build the network to who that i need to contact in case of any health and safety related issues or queries that i may have. i have already learnt a lot and continue to learn every single day.

I have been told that there are usually social activities to get involved with at work like team bonding, including going out for meals, xmas meals but because of covid thi has sadly been put on hold until we are allowed to do these things again. We are also given days off incase we would like to do any fundraising activities.

Yes

It has been an incredible experience for me already and i have only been with the company since December 2020. From meeting new people on training (that im still in contact with) to meeting my team who are all very friendly and helpful to all of the benefits and incentives that we get. This is by far the best job and THE best apprenticeship i could possibly ask for. I just wish that i made this move sooner in my life!

For the video interview make sure that you are smart, presentable and polite. Make sure that you are health and safety oriantated and have a good mindset towards it. If you get to the assessment centre make sure that you a remembered in a good way and for the right reasons, even if its for something simple such as your name or even your beard! sounds silly but you will be the one that they remember for even small reasons like these. Be courteous and again make sure you shine when it comes to the 2 interviews as for me this was my time to shine and impress them as much as possible! Lastly, don't give up!