Chance Walker

• Overview:

Each job involved pulling a relatively delicate fiber optic cable through a network of underground street vaults, locating a buried conduit without a map by digging for clues, bringing the exposed cable from the sidewalk to the outside unit on the home, drilling an entry point in the home, securing the cable running into the home, teaching the customer how to control the system with their cellphone and then trenching and burying the entire line back to the street. I usually did this twice or three times a day.

• The most important part of this process was communicating with the customer. Developing a plan that suits their aesthetic preference and meets their usage needs even when those goals may often appear to conflict. Then in turn communicating your progress so the customer knows when they will be needed to give or be given information needed to make an informed decision.

• The second most important part of the job was managing our inventory of tools and supplies. Many essential tools were expected to be shared between technicians so in order to do the job in a timely fashion I had to develop an ability to quickly assess the overall situation and predict what challenges I may encounter specific to a given jobsite upon arrival. Hoarding everything to yourself was not an option so communication and prior planning was absolutely key.

• The final the most important skills I learned were patience and integrity. Despite all the pressure and incentive to do each job as quickly as physically possible I learned there's only one way to a job which is the right way. If you let momentary pressure leave a permanent mistake you will come to regret the consequences every time. If you take the time required to do it right the first time, every time, you will never regret it.

I started loading semi-trucks. Basically a hardcore workout at an intense speed. Moving between 110 degree+ trailers constantly and using safety methods to stay alive. I learned from painful experience how to manage the risk of heat exhaustion and stretch to avoid injuries.

Later I moved to air load. That was more specialized and required learning how to strictly implement a very specific set of rules to quickly identity different hazard labels and properly arrange separation between the packages based on the type of hazard. It was all about attention to detail and knowing the standards by heart.

Everything at UPS was about balancing metrics and safety. You wanted to have good metrics, but you also didn't want to injure yourself by going past your limit. You had to find the right balance between the two.