What it’s like to work for Actavo on the Sky Team

I have been in the field for over 15 years because I love the job specification. As a growing child, my area of interest was to understand how electrical appliances work. I was always curious about it and so I played with old electrical devices with the intention of fixing them and putting them back to use. When I joined the Sky Team of engineers, and saw how things worked during the training period, I just loved the job. There are more technical details in the background, but to simplify the process, aligning a dish to receive a satellite signal and using a cable to link the dish to a decoder was already interesting and, to finally see the images and sound on the screen, is always a pleasure!
 

My current role is a Team Manager, but I started as a field engineer.  With years and experience in the bag, I was selected as a mentor for new engineers. I have also had a role in onboarding new starters, supporting them in their journey to becoming a professional Sky engineer. There are opportunities to progress within the business, as I have experienced.

What I love about the job as an engineer is mainly the flexibility of the role and the freedom of being able to manage my day. The ability to move about (not stuck in an office) and meeting with different customers. I particularly enjoy bringing a smile to others and I love it when the customer comments and acknowledges the effort that I put into completing their job. This is one of my key motivators in going the extra mile to do a neat job, bringing the customer in on decision making on where it will be best to position equipment for overall good and uninterrupted service experience.

There are challenges, as you would expect in any role in life.  Things like difficulty in finding a signal due to obstructions, or difficult access jobs. There can be long distances to travel but not too often, and additional workload in very busy and peak periods. Sometimes a customer issue is down to lack of information or experience, which can be overcome politely with good people skills.

There is plenty of support from colleagues on the field, mentors, and Team Managers. The training is done in a good and comfortable environment, and the trainers are very good, with lots of experience. There are many other specialist training and personal development programmes for interested candidates.

I like being challenged and enjoy the feeling of fulfilment that comes each time I overcome known and new challenges. There is plenty of online support from the Sky engineer forum and I do get regular updates from there.  There are lots of benefits and rewards, ranging from free Sky subscription to other discount and bonuses.

The truth is, this job is not for everybody because of its physical challenges but the reward is there too, and it outweighs the pain. There is a great focus on safety at Actavo, and I believe it’s for everyone’s benefit.

In summary, this is a good rewarding job, and one that will keep you in the work environment for as long as you want.