In an industry like broadband, where mistakes can be costly and time-consuming to fix, the importance of proper training cannot be overstated, Kelly Weissmann told us in an interview.
Currently the Director of Technical Training and Field Support at Clearfield, Weissmann has worked across telecom and fiber as a jack of all trades — and she has witnessed the industry’s temperament around training change a lot.
“We don’t have time to train you,” Weissmann recalls hearing. Lines like that have floated around from industry employers for years. “But we have plenty of time to send you back 100,000 times to fix it,” she countered. “So that reasoning just doesn’t resonate with me.”
Investing in good training from the start pays off, and while some companies will understand this more than others, it will still be chiefly up to your own motivation for self-development to have the most rewarding and lucrative career.
“Invest in yourself and go learn,” she urged. “Get a head start on it because you don't know what [employers] are gonna provide to you when you get there.”
Even with decades under her belt, she sticks to the learner mindset. “I've been doing this for 36 years and I learn something new every day. It’s always changing and you’re always learning."
Learning habits: the good, the bad and the ugly
There is a prevailing reality in telecom today that just about all the training is on the job, but in Weissmann’s vast experience working with different fields techs, she has often found herself asking workers, “Are you being trained properly?”
“Wow, I don’t know, Joe told me how to do it. Joe told me how to do it his way. Joe taught me his bad habits so that I can carry them on into the next generation,” she typified. While mentorship is extremely important, picking up bad habits is exactly why it is important to diversify and balance your sources of training.
While she noted there are many ways to pursue learning online, she highlighted the Fiber Optic Association (FOA) as a strong source. “That’s where I send people, that’s who I was certified through... This type of training is like our degree,” she emphasized.
And proper training does take time. It’s not meant to be “an easy, quick thing,” Weissmann added. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth the time, as you end up gaining it back in the work you do — and the issues you don’t end up needing to fix.
“I always tell people at the end of my trainings, think about what you're going to create and how you're going to create it,” she explained. “Because if something goes wrong, you might be the person who has to come back here and fix it.”
Plus, the time required pales in comparison to how long it takes to get a college degree (not to mention the money). A new fiber tech “can come out of high school without college debt and have a career that’s gonna raise a family,” she said.
‘Tools and Impressions’
Along with working with the weather, Weissmann said two things that stay constant on the job are “tools and impressions.”
Working with tools “is a must” to ensure you can effectively do the technical aspects of the work, but you also equally need to be able to communicate well, with colleagues and customers. “You really are the face of your company when you're out working in the field.”
This is yet another reason why getting multiple, informed sources of training can be so helpful, especially when it isn’t a traditional classroom setting. “If you want to learn in this industry, it’s not necessarily reading a book telling you the play by play. It’s different every day,” Weissmann added.
While the work may be different every day, the spark that’s kept Weissmann around has stayed the same.
“My passion is training. I’ve always devoted myself to training and to teaching people everything I know... I wanna give them a taste of what is bad so that they understand the difference,” she explained. “And then the light bulb turns on and they’re like, ‘Oh, I get it.’ And that’s my favorite part of the day, and that’s why I’m still here, because I know that I can still make an impact on that.”