Time and again I've taken newbie installers "under my wing" so to speak to teach them a little more than they were taught in their initial "2 week" training...
Guy's that were ready to quit their first week out because they were overwhelmed. I choose my battles carefully though. When I know a guy "gets it" and his determination is there, I'll go all out to teach him as much of what I know as I can. I've seen guys come into this industry with nothing more than pizza delivery as their work exp. and turn out to be some of the best installers. You can tell when a man has initiative and drive and wants to succeed. By the same token you can tell when a man comes in and sees a chance at making a fast buck and doesn't want to listen or learn.. I don't waste my time, I let 'em flop in the breeze.
I respect what I do for a living. Prices suck now and wont rebound but I keep faith in knowing I can deliver a good product and dont go home wondering if the QC man is gonna gig me.
I trained with a guy in '79 that kept a bottle of scotch under his seat. He had me in his truck for three days and then told the Prime I was ready to go! I was like a lost lil' pup but I stuck it out.
Heck it was only 11 channels then, what kind of problems could a kid have installing??
I spent some time over the years in house and learned to splice and balance...some CLI suppression etc.. got involved in upgrade construction so I have a real good idea what goes into building a plant, I can read design and know my way around a fiber matrix (to a degree)...New guys coming in have no idea about forward and return path and ingress and tap values, all kinds of crap that goes into the whole to make it tick..
When I joke about 700 channels and still nothing worth watching, well that's my personal deal.. If they only had 2 channels I'd be happy, Comedy Central (only for the Daily Show) and Court TV...Hey, I install it all day.... don't wanna spend a lot of time watching it at home....
