A Day In The Life of Scott Brandon, A transition from Office to Field

My current role at Energy Assets as a Metering Engineer involves travelling to different sites/businesses and carrying out the installation/maintenance of AMR’s for gas meters. I have recently just completed my training in maintenance of comms for embedded gas meters and electrical meters as well. The kind of jobs I carry out can range from installing brand new data loggers on to  standard meters- meaning the meter can now be remotely read, installing aerials, changing sim cards, upgrading firmware and re-syncing existing installs. I have come to learn that organisation, time management and attention to detail are key in this role.

Being an Engineer can involve working long hours or travelling to different parts of the country and staying overnight for a couple of days. So organisation plays a key part and planning ahead so I can separate my work schedule and my social life.  I normally plan my next working day’s driving route as soon as I get home so the rest of the evening I can switch off and relax.

Day-to-day I work independently, but I have a good support network in management and technical support that I speak to on the phone most days to assist with any issues I face when on the job.  So even though I work independently there is still a team element to an extent.

Time constraints with travel/traffic, incorrect details and faulty equipment are the three main challenges I face every day. Each one can make the difference between my working day running smoothly or not.

The transition from Office to Field

I spent around 3 and a half years with Energy Assets as an Electricity Planner. After a few unsuccessful interviews and hard work, I finally got the opportunity to transition into the field to work as an operative. So the best advice I would give anyone looking to progress in their career is to persevere and keep trying.  I would also advise try and network within a company as best you can, if there’s a specific part of the business or role you want to progress into then speaking to members of management to show some interest and making yourself known is definitely a step in the right direction.

After speaking to my own line manager when I was a planner about where I wanted to go with my career, they were able to support me in my progression by organising a week of me shadowing a field engineer, which definitely helped in supporting my application for the comms engineer role.

At the beginning of the pandemic, I was still working as an Electricity Planner from home. It was hard to adjust to working from home compared to the usual busy atmosphere in the office and I did miss this at times.  I was thankful to still have a job when other people have not been as lucky throughout the pandemic, so I guess I learned not to take simple things like that for granted.

Starting my new role in the middle of a pandemic was a slightly different experience due to the various social distancing restrictions and travelling restrictions during my training. I had to adapt and learn a lot in quite a short space of time which was challenging but I gave it my full focus. I’m quite a driven person so I like putting myself out there to hit targets and succeed. I feel like the harder I work then the more successful a career I’ll go on to have in the future.

Looking back to my first day at Energy Assets, I’ve definitely evolved as a professional, from working in an office setting to working out on different sites every day. I like the independence of my new role, being able to manage my own working day. I would say I became more assertive and forward thinking because of this.

Next Steps

I’m very ambitious and want to try and take my career within the company as far as possible. Hopefully the next step for me after this role would be going on to be a gas or electrical metering engineer, although my goal would be to step into a managerial position at some point in the near future.