A first-week checklist for new joiners in telecom and field technology services

Day one in a fibre outfit is usually a van ride. The newcomer gets a ladder, a cleaver and a job card, and is told to watch the senior. Useful, yes, but gappy. Nobody mentions the rooftop permit, the sharps tin for glass offcuts, or the awkward moment when a householder wants the router on the floor under the TV.

Five working days, in order. It suits fibre installation companies, CCTV installers, network maintenance teams and ISPs with a field force. It sits under the wider telecom and field technology hub.

Day 1  Safety talk. Harness check, lanyard, helmet, gloves, safety shoes. Ladder footing. Rooftop permit to work form.
Day 1  Issue toolkit: crimping tool, cable tester, stripper, drill, torch, power meter. Sign the tool register.
Day 2  Fibre basics on a bench: strip, cleave, fusion splice, protect the splice. Record loss on the power meter.
Day 2  Read a job card: customer, address, plan, splitter location, drop length, ONT model.
Day 3  Ride along on two installations. Observe drop cable routing, clips, entry through the wall, ONT mounting.
Day 3  Observe a fault ticket: no light on the ONT, high attenuation, loose patch cord.
Day 4  Do one install with the senior watching. Take before and after photos. Get the customer sign-off or OTP.
Day 4  Learn the ticket app: acceptance, arrival check-in, closure notes, reason codes.
Day 5  Bench test: splice, shoot the OTDR, label, close the ticket. Ten-question safety quiz.
Day 5  Pick tickets allowed solo from Monday.
Joiner ______   Supervisor ______   Safety trainer ______

• ODF and patch panel: where fibres terminate inside the exchange room or cabinet.
• Splice closure, splice tray and handhole: where a cable is opened and joined, underground or on a pole.
• OLT, splitter, ONT and GPON: the head end, the passive splitter, the box at home and the standard that links them.
• VFL and OTDR: the red-light pen for quick checks and the instrument that shows where a break sits along a span.
• Micro-duct, lashed aerial cable, drop wire clamp and MDU riser: how the last hundred metres actually run.
• TAT, SLA and MTTR: the clocks that decide which ticket is first in the van.

Hang a glossary on the van wall. A joiner who guesses at jargon makes quiet mistakes, such as splicing the wrong tube colour or closing a ticket before the light level is stable.

Most serious incidents in field work are at height or around live power. Show the harness, hook points and a rooftop edge. Practise a ladder lean and a footing check. Explain what to do near a DG set, an electric meter box or a wet terrace. No climb without a named senior on the ground, written on the sheet. For tower and pole work, the joiner does not climb until a separate sign-off.

1. 1

   Fibre drops

   Teach bend radius, clean connector ends, how to read a loss figure and why a kinked drop cable fails weeks later.

2. 2

   CCTV

   Teach camera angles and glare, the NVR and PoE switch, cable runs through false ceilings, and password handling at handover.

3. 3

   Network maintenance

   Teach how to read an alarm, how to raise a vendor ticket and how to hand off a half-fixed fault at shift change.

4. 4

   ISP support

   Teach the customer call script and the dispatch queue before the field joiner meets a customer.

• Ring before arrival and name a time window you can keep.
• Cover shoes at the door. Place a sheet under the drill.
• Explain the router placement and what a speed test will and will not show.
• Never ask for a tip. Never take payment unless the job card says so.
• Take the sign-off on the app, and the OTP where the process requires it.

Walk the joiner through the van checklist: ladder strap, spare drop reels, cable ties, SFP modules, cleaning wipes, fire extinguisher, first-aid box. Explain the morning dispatch call, the lunch gap and the late-evening ticket that always arrives at six. Agree how on-call weekends rotate for outage restoration, and what a joiner does if a cable cut closes a whole street.

Collect ID copies, bank details and emergency contacts in the first week, along with the signed tool register and a safety acknowledgement. Note vaccination or fitness conditions only where the role needs them and the joiner agrees. Record the first week in the employee information system of your CCTV or fibre team so the history is in one place.

If you would like this sheet rebuilt around your own job card and tool kit, use the requirements form to tell us about the team.