Before I was hired as a Utility Structure Analyst at Yates Engineering Services, I was a recent college graduate with a degree in telecommunications still looking for an opportunity. While in college, I mainly focused on studying the psychological effects of media and how concepts portrayed through a certain medium such as video games or television can have a lasting effect on an individual and impact their daily choices. Once I started at Yates, I was excited to become more knowledgeable over the engineering and careful planning of work that has allowed me to study how society has been shaped by what we see on a television screen or form ideas based of a news article we read online.

Initially hired to work on the Kentucky Information Highway project, a typical day as a utility structure analyst consisted of processing utility poles through O-Calc and making sure they were ready for a new fiber line to go up on these poles. Since I started as the project was in its early stages, the rules and guidelines went through a series of changes that we would suddenly have to adapt into our daily routine all while keeping our production rate up. Due to the constant changes and sheer number of poles needing to be processed, there were times I felt overwhelmed. However, a feeling of determination and a positive outlook helped me and my team reach our goal and adjust to anything that might have been thrown at us. Additionally, as the months progressed, we had assembled a magnificent team of employees and were able to tackle the project without hesitation, completing approximately 200 poles a day. We had officially become professional pole-modelers.

As the KIH project started to wind down, Yates was more than flexible in allowing me and my fellow analysts to broaden our skillset which has allowed us to experience many different opportunities. It has been wonderful to learn more about the daily operations around the office and get a better grip on what many of the other employees do. The AutoCAD class taught me how in-depth the program is and drawing a map can take plenty of time to be properly executed with the amount of work that goes into it. Currently, I have been assigned to the pole transfer project for AT&T, which has been another new opportunity to learn how the company maintains their lines and how they deal with replacing old, rotting poles or how they go about properly relocating entire lines of fiber due to road construction for example. As new projects arise, I continue to be open-minded and constantly willing to expand my knowledge and skillset with every opportunity that is presented to me.

My journey here at Yates has been quite the whirlwind, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I have learned so much in such a short amount of time and I could not be any more grateful for this opportunity. I have been blessed to work with such amazing people and take on new challenges throughout the course of a year and a half. I am excited to see what the future holds as an employee of Yates Engineering Services.