Is there an Openreach Engineer in the house?

Is there an Openreach Engineer in the house?

Author
Discussion

Deanno1dad

593 posts

224 months

Monday 9th June 2014
quotequote all
I've been an openreach engineer for 14 years.
Starting salary may be quite low..I believe it's 5 years to reach the top pay scale as an engineer.
depending where in the country you are,inside the M25 you will get at least £2k more London weighting.

Most engineers I know earn over £30,000 with Overtime..If you can park at home as well you have no travel costs getting to and from work..try and be flexible and take as much training as you can.
Contrary to others opinions we are not all brain dead fools..the job can be very challenging in the winter and working in rural locations looking for Fibre and ADSL synch issues can be tricky but rewarding when done right.

Decent enough set of tools to work with..try not to let the stats get you down,If you do a good job your manager will know you make the effort..it's certainly more than a pair of wires..just try to get skilled on ISDN,Underground network broadband and fibre boost techniques..you can PM me for any questions..some parts of the network are in need of investment,as an engineer you cannot change that...good luck

MissChief

Original Poster:

7,098 posts

168 months

Tuesday 10th June 2014
quotequote all
Deanno1dad said:
I've been an openreach engineer for 14 years.
Starting salary may be quite low..I believe it's 5 years to reach the top pay scale as an engineer.
depending where in the country you are,inside the M25 you will get at least £2k more London weighting.

Most engineers I know earn over £30,000 with Overtime..If you can park at home as well you have no travel costs getting to and from work..try and be flexible and take as much training as you can.
Contrary to others opinions we are not all brain dead fools..the job can be very challenging in the winter and working in rural locations looking for Fibre and ADSL synch issues can be tricky but rewarding when done right.

Decent enough set of tools to work with..try not to let the stats get you down,If you do a good job your manager will know you make the effort..it's certainly more than a pair of wires..just try to get skilled on ISDN,Underground network broadband and fibre boost techniques..you can PM me for any questions..some parts of the network are in need of investment,as an engineer you cannot change that...good luck
Thanks Deannodad. I may take you up on that. I'm of the opinion that once you understand something without too much thought its time to learn something else so I would put my name forward for any training available! Do you think there's any benefit in working for an ISP in technical at the moment?

Deanno1dad

593 posts

224 months

Tuesday 10th June 2014
quotequote all
Cannot speak for the other ISP's..do you mean a more office based role..as openreach are the only guys that work on the field..except for maybe Qube,but that's only cust site issues.

MissChief

Original Poster:

7,098 posts

168 months

Tuesday 10th June 2014
quotequote all
ISP tech support, fault logging to Openreach for SFI's and line faults. I guess it doesn't hurt to know some terminology!

Cossie1104

1 posts

117 months

Saturday 26th July 2014
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Sky installers 22k if your lucky and you meet your targets running cable all day any Monkey can do that! talk talk installers 18k,virgin installers 19k,fitting boxes all day paid per job temp contracts or 18 month contacts kellys/quinns paid per job running around all day like a sweaty monster, as a bt engineer I earn 27k with no overtime 32k with few extra hours here and there I work 8am to 4pm everyday don't work weekends multiskilled underground overhead fibre broadband buisness networking all via bt for free good tools good equipment laptop,phone,x2 testers,van,x2 fuel cards loads of wet weather clothing etc good network records free 80mb broadband and tv cheap shares super pension I know were I'd rather be. look in a bt car park at the cars that will give you an idea of how much we earn! Any one that slags off working for bt are mad the grass is never greener on the other side.

AB

16,974 posts

195 months

Saturday 26th July 2014
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A classic example of an engineer.

Yikes.

MissChief

Original Poster:

7,098 posts

168 months

Saturday 26th July 2014
quotequote all
Should have updated this. Apparently I passed the tests but they've taken those who scored highest. Which wasn't me but my details are there if they need more people.

zollburgers

1,278 posts

183 months

Sunday 27th July 2014
quotequote all
Snapper7 said:
Had no idea the money was so bad... How can an engineer be on so little money?
The term 'engineer' is not protected in this country and so anyone can call themselves an engineer. If there is no possible way to become chartered, then it's not engineering.



Zad

12,698 posts

236 months

Monday 28th July 2014
quotequote all
Because of over-misuse, Engineer is seen as old hat now. Every £17k a year support drone is now a "Consultant". The same way we no longer have schoolchildren or pupils, we have students. Who graduate. Sigh.


MissChief

Original Poster:

7,098 posts

168 months

Friday 15th August 2014
quotequote all
Got an email today saying they have 'identified opportunities I my area' so was on that like a fat kid on a birthday cake. Will keep this updated.

MissChief

Original Poster:

7,098 posts

168 months

Tuesday 19th August 2014
quotequote all
Got an interview on the 26th. Need to bring both parts of my licence. Can I find the paper part? Can I hell! Also looking closely at my Photocard licence it appears to have expired. Oops.

BMR

944 posts

178 months

Tuesday 19th August 2014
quotequote all
Hey MissChief.. I am exactly in same position.. got initial email saying I had passed but there were others being interviewed, and I got the email on Friday asking me to interview. Confirmed yesterday I am going for mine on the 27th.

I'm assuming like me you have no technical experience, or have worked in a hands on job before? I don't know whether this is something to worry about but in anycase my aim is to go along armed with plenty of questions, to try and impress the interviewer!

MissChief

Original Poster:

7,098 posts

168 months

Tuesday 19th August 2014
quotequote all
Good luck mate. I currently work in Broadband and Talk Tech support for Sky so have some theoretical knowledge and some knowledge of Openreach but nothing too technical. I'm hoping my slightly relevant experience will help. smile

Brigand

2,544 posts

169 months

Tuesday 19th August 2014
quotequote all
Interesting to see there are people on here who signed up to the recent recruitment drive by BT.

I applied for an Engineer position recently, and after passing the tests and having a great interview, I sadly got an email last month saying that despite meeting the standards, there weren't enough positions available in my region and that I would be held on record in case any posts came up in the future. I'm not holding out for anything coming from this, but given my background in the field and a few years working alongside BT engineers, I was somewhat gutted to hear that I wasn't getting the job.

I will admit to being a bit annoyed at the way they worded the pay though; the initial ad I applied for stated the pay was £20-22k, but when attending the interview and going through all the paperwork, it said there that the pay was actually £17-19k, with it rising to the above values only with overtime and various bonuses.

Good luck to you though with your application OP!

Zad

12,698 posts

236 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
quotequote all
Interesting, that makes 3 people so far who have been turned down then accepted at a later date. It does make you wonder what is really going on!

MissChief

Original Poster:

7,098 posts

168 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
quotequote all
I think I'm going to have to pass on the interview. Looked for my Passport. Nowhere to be seen. Looked for my Birth Certificate. Nowhere to be seen either!! Paper licence copy is nowhere to be found as well!

ooo000ooo

2,529 posts

194 months

Tuesday 26th August 2014
quotequote all
Zad said:
Interesting, that makes 3 people so far who have been turned down then accepted at a later date. It does make you wonder what is really going on!
I applied for a temporary job as an operator, got turned down then offered a 6 month contract as a CA by them the next day. Still here 26 years later!
Once you get your foot in the door there's plenty of opportunity to progress as anyone can apply for any job regardless of grade as long as you meet the criteria.
Team I'm on at the moment is a mixture of lifers like me, ex apprentices, clerical and some geeks. In a couple of months our grade will be decided, some of us will either be staying same grade or hopefully moving up a grade and an extra couple of grand a year, some of the younger ones will be moving up a lot of grades and an extra 10k a year.

Halb

53,012 posts

183 months

Saturday 23rd May 2015
quotequote all
Can anyone here advise me on the likely window of my cabinet being upgraded to fibre?

MissChief

Original Poster:

7,098 posts

168 months

Saturday 23rd May 2015
quotequote all
Halb said:
Can anyone here advise me on the likely window of my cabinet being upgraded to fibre?
Really depends on about fifty reasons. Have you looked on www.superfast-Openreach.co.uk ?

You can also try dslchecker.bt.com for info.

Halb

53,012 posts

183 months

Saturday 23rd May 2015
quotequote all
MissChief said:
Really depends on about fifty reasons. Have you looked on www.superfast-Openreach.co.uk ?

You can also try dslchecker.bt.com for info.
Yeah, I've been checking the website for a while, my cabinet was on, 'Enabled area', it's now slipped back to 'Under Review'. There are some new builds that have just gone up near the cabinet, they all have underground connections. I asked the last BT engineer over there what the deal was, but he wasn't internet/openreach.
So I'd keen to chat to someone that can see the system. biggrin