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Stephen Hughes

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Stephen Hughes

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COMPANY: Carphone Warehouse Networks

  • 400 plus employees
  • Brand new building, open plan, catering facilities, fitness room.
  • 70% male 30% female

The company was formed by Niel Mcauthur and Graham Chisnall and originally started as an engineering firm back in 1981 in a little shed down a dirt track. Over the last 27 years the company has got bigger and bigger and has changed names and types of work a few times. 12 years ago they went into the telecoms industry. The company is now one of the biggest telecommunications company’s in the UK.

JOB TITLE: LLU Plan & Build Field Engineer

The Field Engineer’s job is to go to all of the sites that have equipment installed on them and carry out installation work, fault repairs and testing. My role is to attend sites and carry out imported Quality Assurance (QA) checked on newly installed MSAN’s. Upgrade the Msan’s so that new customers can be provisioned onto the MSAN’s. I also help with the proof of concept programmes that establish if a new piece of equipment will work to improve the network.

EDUCATION:

No degrees.
I did get an HNC in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in my 20’s

WORK EXPERIENCE:

I am 45 years old and was born in Liverpool in 1963. At the age of sixteen, I was involved in a school boy’s expedition to the sahara in1979. During the trip I was given the task of assistant to the expedition mechanic. As a result of this, one of the teachers had a friend in Liverpool who own a domestic appliance shop and recommended me for a job as a domestic appliance engineer.

After about two years I left and joined a small company who produced a computer system that was designed to work with an information service called “Prestel”. It was here that I met two gentlemen. Dave Waine and Clive Dorseman where student electronic and software engineers who worked on the computer systems with me.

Two years later the company folded and we all when are different ways. Three month’s later I was invited by Dave Waine come up to Irlam and do some work for a tiny company called Thurnall Engineering owned by Niel Mcauthur and Graham Chisnall, based in a wooden building which we called “THE LITTLE SHED DOWN A DIRT TRACK”. The company was getting bigger and bigger over the years and we had to move out, so we built new premises on Brinell drive. Our footprints are in the foundations of this place.

I left Thurnall Engineering after working there for six years to work in the security industry, then ten years later there was a knock on my door. It was a lady called Edie who knoked on my door. Edie was a secretary for Thurnall all them years earlier and now was a senior MD of a new company called Opal Telecommunications. Edie had come to ask me if I would like to come and work for them in the telecoms industry. I said yes. I started working again for Niel, Graham, Dave, Clive and Edie.

I have been with the company for 10 years now. The company has had a few changes of name since I have been back and is now known as “THE CARPHONE WAREHOUSE NETWORKS”

I have had many rolls with in the company from fitting auto diallers to customers telephone lines to the maintaining of the electrical support systems of the company’s telecoms infrastructure. I now have a major role in the plan and build department which is responsible for the development of the company’s “NEXT GENERATION NETWORK” or NGN.

I enjoy my work with company as it always changing. I get involved with new developments al of the time. Things are changing so fast in the telecoms world.

I got to name our new building which we call “NORTHBANK HOUSE”.

Recently I was awarded the accolade of “UN-SUNG HERO 2008” by my colleagues and friends in the company for the hard work I had put in over the last twelve months.

The morel of my story is to always work hard. Try to enjoy everything you do. Learn as much as you can and then pass it on. You never know what opportunities lay round the corner.

SKILLS REQUIRED FOR THE JOB:

  • Team player.
  • Consciences.
  • Enthusiastic.
  • Attention to detail.
  • A logical train of thought to identify faults or potential problems and then to suggest a solution.
  • To be able to explain to others a procedure.
  • Time management.
  • A good understanding of electrical systems.

BENEFITS OF THE JOB:

  • Flexible hours
  • Social environment
  • Offers part-time roles if required
  • Good pay with good career prospects.
  • Good canteen facilities
  • Fitness centre
  • Company pension
  • Heath care plan
  • Melon. A company web site with loads of other benefits.

CAREER GOALS:

Carry on doing what I do best to support the company.

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