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The reason why I applied for a traineeship was to be on the cutting edge of technology and communications.
That world is constantly evolving, and I want to stay on the forefront of it, and expand my skills.
Carpentry and plastering, once you've learnt all the basic skills, very often it doesn't evolve past that point.
Whereas this is still physical, which I enjoy. You still get out in the field, you do meet customers,
and you are the face of Telstra, so you have a lot of responsibility on that part,
but also, it's back to the technological thing. You're always constantly learning, there's always more to learn,
and I don't feel like I'm stagnating in one position for the rest of my life.
and everyday's a new job. Everyday I go to a different place, a different part of Brisbane,
and that's the part I really enjoy. It doesn't get old.
Now I'm out on my traineeship, a typical day is, you've got your own laptop, you get your job sent to you.
You don't really have a boss to report to, so you start off on your own.
Pick up your first job, and it might be a fault, it could be an install, and from there it can go anywhere.
The job could be real easy, it could go to a great part of town, or...
you can get a fault, and be sitting there scratching your head, just stuck with a problem fault, which is good. It's a great challenge.
We have block training, which is a lot of theory and a lot of prac,
and then Telstra provides their field practice, where they put you with an experienced technician,
and they teach you the tricks of the trade, they show you what they know,
what you're meant to do, how you do it, how you keep everything as safe as possible obviously,
and you go from there. You just stem from the background they give you,
and they constantly put you with new technicians, I've found,
and then you learn a more diverse background, and you learn from different mentors how to go about different jobs.
So at the end of the day, at the end of your 9 months of your traineeship, you've probably got 4 or 5 different tricks to do the one problem,
and it definitely helps, it's great.
Within the next 2 years, I'd like to get my fibre course under my belt, work out my fibre network.
From there, probably stick with that for a year or two, then start taking additional courses.
Become a project manager, get a few guys underneath me, and then look after my own little area,
say Chapel Hill, or somewhere within Brisbane,
and upgrade the fibre network there.
We may work in our own truck and have our own vehicle and do most of the jobs by ourselves, but we are a part of a larger team.
As a team, it's our job to keep the network and the area we live in running perfect.
If you're ever stuck on a job, you can always call for an assist,
get one of your colleagues to come out and help you with jobs.
Sometimes you'll be doing construction and maintenance, hauling cables and setting up a whole new network somewhere
and you need a couple of boys for that.
So, being a part of the team, and a team player, is a big part of it,
because you look after their turf and they look after yours,
and there's always a support network for you.
If you ever have any trouble, you can call upon any of them and they're always there within half an hour. It's great.
The best part of my job is learning. I've got as much knowledge as I want at my fingertips.
They provide you with a laptop, and it's got access to a site called Field Essentials,
and within that is nearly everything you need to know about what Telstra provides,
not just the telephone and services they provide, but how to do it and how to fix those things,
and everything like that. It's an absolute wealth of information, and you've got as much there as you want to learn.
The best thing about working for Telstra is the customers, by far. It's definitely a mixed bag,
and there's a lot of different types of customers out there and you've got to learn how to deal with them all differently.
I enjoy the customer satisfaction part at the end of the day. You have a tough line to build,
and it could be for an old lady who wants to talk to her son, and at the end of the day you can provide that service for her. I enjoy that.