Toby Thurler

I gained a lot of experience being a cable technician, not only everyday tasks in the cable world, but also life experiences. I worked on my own everyday without and supervision, I had to make my own decisions on what was the best way to help customers and solve problems. Installing and repairing cable infrastructure, working with aerial lines, buried lines, and inside lines was the main job, but also troubleshooting outside issues after storms, power outages while following struck safety protocols. I was called to help repair tornado damage in Nashville TN. Also, spent some time in Detroit MI training and helping technicians in that area work more efficiently.

Reading different cable plant schematics and maps was part of my everyday duties, and knowing how the system worked from the headend to the home or business.

My position as a Telecom tech involves a variety of tasks, that vary from day to day. On a normal day, I would report to our office and warehouse by 8:00, then the first task would involve logging into my laptop and tablet to access different applications, such as Microsoft teams, email, field service app, which is where I can access the schedule for the day, and more. The schedule will show how many jobs I have assigned to me for that day, it’s usually between 3-5 per day, and it will also show me customer information, phone numbers, address, notes, etc. Now that I’ve accessed the work order, I will determine the equipment, and tools I will need for each job. The equipment that use mostly everyday would be rmodems, routers, power supplies, battery backups, cameras, wifi extenders, and more. The material I would need is Cat5 and Cat6 cable, conduit, power wire, drill, bits, hand tools, and much more. Once I arrive at a residence or commercial job site, I will make contact with customer and verify what needs to be done. Sometimes it’s as easy as installing a router and setting up wifi, and other times it involves running new lines, replacing lines, data jacks, power supplies, troubleshooting existing lines and equipment, etc. Once everything is installed or fixed, then I engage in customer education, answer questions or provide a summary of work that’s been done. This is a description of a average day to day process. On other days, I will do other tasks such as burying fiber optic lines to homes or businesses, splicing fiber, running lines in cubicles, offices, and different areas of the business. I also utlize a bucket truck to do aerial pole work. Everyday, and every job is different, I have to be prepared and have knowledge of various skills and techniques that is used in telecommunications.