Openreach engineer
Discussion
Most field guys start work at 7:30-8ish, knocking off at 4ish, having completed up to 3 different repair jobs in the day. Jobs will typically be at either or both of a client site, and the telephone exchange.
There are two types of staff.
Those unionised in their 40s/50s/60s enjoying very generous conditions (£40k salary, bonus, good pension, share options - £70k value in the most recent scheme) who work their hours as required under union agreements, with no chance of redundancy. There is little aspiration to progress, and most just want to 'do the job' until they can retire.
Those recruited recently are on much less generous terms in common with most other jobs today. The share option scheme is still there but the golden years have passed!
There are two types of staff.
Those unionised in their 40s/50s/60s enjoying very generous conditions (£40k salary, bonus, good pension, share options - £70k value in the most recent scheme) who work their hours as required under union agreements, with no chance of redundancy. There is little aspiration to progress, and most just want to 'do the job' until they can retire.
Those recruited recently are on much less generous terms in common with most other jobs today. The share option scheme is still there but the golden years have passed!
Will this be joining as an apprentice or have you got previous experience? I only ask because this’ll dictate what you start off on in terms of salary.
I worked at BT until just over a year ago (I joined as an apprentice in 2004) although I was a field technician within a different division of BT and not in Openreach so I can’t give you a precise overview but I’ll do my best. I worked in the exchanges and had broadly the same style of job, i.e. mobile field technician in a van driving around BT sites. I rubbed shoulders with the Openreach guys all the time so have a good overview of what their life is like.
Sideways sid is correct in saying that the terms for new employees are not as generous as for those who are ‘lifers’ but I think you’ll find this is common across most ex-nationalised industries and probably everywhere else for that matter. Annual leave allowances aren’t as generous and the pension schemes are now all annuity based investment schemes rather than the good old fashioned final salary company schemes. Again, this will be the same wherever you go.
It was still pretty good when I joined but unfortunately they revised the T&Cs for new starters shortly before I left. Most Openreach field technician jobs were paid at what is known as B2 grade which tops out at around £28k. If you’re entering as an apprentice you’d be starting on less of course (probably around £15k) and working your way up the incremental scale. The highest technical grade was D1 at around £37k but this wasn’t very common at all. I was C3 grade (couple of grand less than D1) but this was generally only people like myself who did the more specialised internal roles. These jobs were hard to get and was I was lucky to end up being trained for one.
Again, I don’t know what the current situation is but just before I left last year the management had pushed through alternating early and late shifts and they were able to flex people on and off as they saw fit i.e. compulsory overtime! Having a Saturday as part of your rota is almost a certainty. On the plus side most people worked a rota pattern with a week day off every other week. Expect a fair amount of anti-social hours.
Pros? Plenty of fresh air and exercise, generally pretty varied work and you’ll always be out and about. Although it gets routine after a while some of the exchanges are quite interesting places and you’ll get to see stuff the public don’t. You’ll probably be customer facing which may or may not be good, depending on what your feeling is towards that!
Cons? There was (and no doubt still is) a heavy emphasis on performance management and customer service. Your work day will be dictated to you by computer and they always know where you are and more to the point where you should be (GPS trackers). There’ll be targets to meet and the managers are on performance based pay, so they do like to wave the big stick around.
Just to echo sideways sid's comments there were an awful lot of ‘lifers’ who struggled to adapt to the fact it was no longer the 1970s and some were totally inflexible and arguably made a rod for their own backs. This caused all sorts of unnecessary friction and resentment and it was easy to be influenced by the negativity at times. Not everyone was like that of course and I generally got on very well with my colleagues and enjoyed the banter and camaraderie. That's one thing I really miss in my new job!
In terms of perks I had free broadband and line rental (the latter because I was on standby) and you could participate in the company share scheme. I made a very tidy sum out of that!
I would go with an open mind and use it as an opportunity to see what they’ve got on offer and whether it’s something you fancy doing. BT is a massive company and once you’re in the door there’ll be other opportunities within it.
I worked at BT until just over a year ago (I joined as an apprentice in 2004) although I was a field technician within a different division of BT and not in Openreach so I can’t give you a precise overview but I’ll do my best. I worked in the exchanges and had broadly the same style of job, i.e. mobile field technician in a van driving around BT sites. I rubbed shoulders with the Openreach guys all the time so have a good overview of what their life is like.
Sideways sid is correct in saying that the terms for new employees are not as generous as for those who are ‘lifers’ but I think you’ll find this is common across most ex-nationalised industries and probably everywhere else for that matter. Annual leave allowances aren’t as generous and the pension schemes are now all annuity based investment schemes rather than the good old fashioned final salary company schemes. Again, this will be the same wherever you go.
It was still pretty good when I joined but unfortunately they revised the T&Cs for new starters shortly before I left. Most Openreach field technician jobs were paid at what is known as B2 grade which tops out at around £28k. If you’re entering as an apprentice you’d be starting on less of course (probably around £15k) and working your way up the incremental scale. The highest technical grade was D1 at around £37k but this wasn’t very common at all. I was C3 grade (couple of grand less than D1) but this was generally only people like myself who did the more specialised internal roles. These jobs were hard to get and was I was lucky to end up being trained for one.
Again, I don’t know what the current situation is but just before I left last year the management had pushed through alternating early and late shifts and they were able to flex people on and off as they saw fit i.e. compulsory overtime! Having a Saturday as part of your rota is almost a certainty. On the plus side most people worked a rota pattern with a week day off every other week. Expect a fair amount of anti-social hours.
Pros? Plenty of fresh air and exercise, generally pretty varied work and you’ll always be out and about. Although it gets routine after a while some of the exchanges are quite interesting places and you’ll get to see stuff the public don’t. You’ll probably be customer facing which may or may not be good, depending on what your feeling is towards that!
Cons? There was (and no doubt still is) a heavy emphasis on performance management and customer service. Your work day will be dictated to you by computer and they always know where you are and more to the point where you should be (GPS trackers). There’ll be targets to meet and the managers are on performance based pay, so they do like to wave the big stick around.
Just to echo sideways sid's comments there were an awful lot of ‘lifers’ who struggled to adapt to the fact it was no longer the 1970s and some were totally inflexible and arguably made a rod for their own backs. This caused all sorts of unnecessary friction and resentment and it was easy to be influenced by the negativity at times. Not everyone was like that of course and I generally got on very well with my colleagues and enjoyed the banter and camaraderie. That's one thing I really miss in my new job!
In terms of perks I had free broadband and line rental (the latter because I was on standby) and you could participate in the company share scheme. I made a very tidy sum out of that!
I would go with an open mind and use it as an opportunity to see what they’ve got on offer and whether it’s something you fancy doing. BT is a massive company and once you’re in the door there’ll be other opportunities within it.
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