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Career Heroes - Tessa Stewart

Job title

Complex Control Manager

Employer

Openreach

Tell us more about you

When I’m not working, I enjoy playing hockey and cricket. I’m also quite busy with friends and family and I like to be kept busy at the weekends.

What kind of work do you do?

I am a Complex Control Manager and I look after a team of twelve desk-based engineers who control a team of sixty engineers. I assign work to my team and coordinate looking after any emergencies that come in. Every day is completely different and extremely operational.

We have large workstreams, but the job is actually quite exciting. I generally work in the office Monday to Wednesday and from home Thursday and Friday.

Top 5 Skills & Attributes Needed for your job

Accountable

Collaborative

Communicator

Leader

Critical Thinker & Problem Solver

How did you become a Complex Control Manager?

I started off as a Radiographer and worked for a couple of years after I graduated. I later decided that this wasn’t the career for me. I wasn’t getting the job satisfaction that I wanted, and I realised I couldn’t do this for the rest of my life.

I did a bit of travelling in New Zealand for a couple of years then came home to Northern Ireland for the Graduate Scheme in BT back in 2018. I completed the scheme working in various parts of the business before going to their training school.

The Graduate Scheme is a really great opportunity because you can get experience from all parts of the business. I looked after the training school bringing in apprentices and dealing with all the various aspects of training.

I started the Complex Control Manager job in June 2022, which was a promotion from my previous role.

What you do enjoy most about your job?

I really enjoy the people I work with and love that my job is really fast-paced. No two days are the same.

There is good job satisfaction getting people back into their broadband service, telephone service, or doing installs for people. Broadband is definitely the fourth utility these days, it’s so crucial to how we all live and work and there are so many people who would struggle if it went down for longer than a day, especially as so many more people now work remotely or from home.

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

I actually wanted to study medicine, but I didn’t think I could do five years at University. Sometimes I think maybe I should have just gone for it.

I think if I was going through everything now, I would probably do an apprenticeship rather than go to university. There are some really great apprenticeship schemes out there.

What advice would you give someone starting out on their career jouney today?

Don’t panic if it doesn’t go to plan. I went for a career that I thought I was going to love, and I ended up not loving it. There are lots of opportunities out there and you can try something different.

Take your time. If you’re not enjoying what you are doing, don’t struggle on. We spend enough time during our lives working, so you should do something that you enjoy and get fulfilment out of.

If you study at university and it doesn’t work out, don’t panic. Having a degree will hold you in good stead and can still be put to use.

Do something that you enjoy and get fulfilment out of.