A year ago, when I was 27 – I had finally decided that a career in childcare wasn’t me and I was working as a delivery driver whilst I weighed up my future career options. I knew what I didn’t want to do, but I was incredibly unclear about what would suit me, especially when I knew that I would find being chained to a desk unbearable.
Katy Huddleston, Fibre Broadband Engineer, Hyperoptic
Fast forward ONE year and the situation couldn’t be more different – I am working for a great company as a fibre broadband engineer – I’ve been promoted three times and I’m managing a team of eight people. I have tremendous job satisfaction and I know the future is nothing but bright. Sounds great huh? So great that I wanted to share how it happened.
Entry-level opening
It all started when I spotted an advert for a junior fibre infrastructure engineer. What surprised me was that the company advertising (Hyperoptic) had no entry requirements – the advert stated that they were looking for new recruits that they could train and develop themselves.
I found out that Hyperoptic was building a totally new broadband network. This is a massive undertaking and requires a lot of manpower (it’s infrastructure after all) so it was on a recruitment drive for hundreds of engineers. By removing the barriers to entry, Hyperoptic wanted to open the door to applicants that wanted to start a career in engineering, so that they could teach them the ‘Hyperoptic’ way from the very beginning.
Training up
The role was field based, so no office paper-shuffling (yippee), and it was based across central London, which worked for me. Having nothing to lose I applied, and the rest is history. I started on a competitive salary and went through its ‘Hyper-academy,’ which features classroom and field-based training.
Over the last year my role has evolved from being a trainee myself, to managing a number of new recruits. What I love most about my job is that no day is the same. The main part of my role now is on-boarding trainee engineers, so on an admin day I’ll typically be making sure that my new recruits are settling in well, hitting their objectives and meeting all health and safety guidelines. But when anyone in my team has a problem I’ll be straight in my van to help them – and it could be anywhere within the M25!
Role model
I’m constantly being stopped by members of the public because they like seeing a woman doing what previously used to be considered a ‘mans’ job. They see me in a hard-hat and steel capped boots managing (what’s often) a team of men and they frequently stop to say, ‘good for you.’ It’s wonderful to feel like I’m breaking stereotypes and setting a good example for other women.
I am very excited to see where my job will take me. I have a fantastic support network around me - from both my team, peers and management. Everyone is pulling in the same direction and wants to help each other. Plus, my company just received a cash injection of £250m to fuel its growth – as it scales up, the progression and development opportunities are truly endless!
Tagged in Women At Work