Career Heroes - Leanne Watson

Tell us more about you

I’m a happy-go-lucky person who enjoys the outdoors and anything physical. I play for a ladies’ football team - Comber Rec Ladies - and surround myself with friends and family in my spare time. I don’t enjoy my own company and instead love to be in the company of others.

What kind of work do you do?

I’m involved in Fibre to the Premises Provision (FTTP) for broadband and repairs for customers for 220+ service providers. On a day-to-day basis, I provide the final installation of broadband to customers or business premises, installing new lines from poles or from underground to the relevant building.

I’m a field engineer, which involves working outdoors. I go to a telephone poll or a JF4 underground in order to plug in the fibre broadband connection to the relevant premises. I help to install fibre equipment at the customer end as well, ensuring fibre installation is complete and ready to be used.

The majority of the work I do will be based outside but there is work to be done internally also, within the premises. I do between two to three FTTP broadband connections in a day. Each day is different. I get to solve different problems for different customers. I’ve had the appropriate training so I do find what I do to be reasonably straightforward.

Working outdoors in Northern Ireland means I’m often battling against the elements. Sometimes if you’re doing a job underground you get covered in mud head-to-toe because of torrential rain, and so you’re often soaked right through.

How did you become a FTTP Engineer ?

I completed my degree in Sports Studies in Hartpury in England and worked as a Sports Instructor with a large cruise line before I began my career at Openreach. My time on cruise ships came to an end when the pandemic hit. After a stint in catering, which really was not for me, I saw this job advertised online and decided that I wanted to pursue a career closer to home.

Seeing the job description, I knew that working outdoors and the challenges Engineers face on a day-to-day basis was the perfect job for me. I actually enjoy climbing telephone poles!

If you could do-over, What would you do differently?

I would have applied for my current position many years ago if I had the opportunity to do things differently. I’d definitely have applied for this a lot sooner if I was aware of this line of work. I probably would have finished school and gone straight into an Apprenticeship after my GCSEs instead of finding the career that was perfect for me when I was 30.