Pros
From what I saw there is a good opportunity to make money once you have grasped what you are doing. Good if you are young and fit. This not a job for life and not now in an industry with many options.
Cons
I'm hoping to give you an honest review of my experience which may help you make up your mind if this is the right step for you. I've come from a Telecoms background, Openreach copper engineer for 5 years before stepping into supervisory and management with other ISP's. Why did I take this job? Telecoms is dead, especially in London. OR, Hyperoptic, Community Fibre etc, all made redundancies with most not building anymore but concentrating on installs, which lead me here. I was accepted as an FTTP trainee. Not much I was not familiar with as I have climbed poles, worked underground and carried out internal and external cabling. The training lasted 9 days (normally 2 weeks) due to some company event. Mostly classroom based with outside training on climbing poles and working underground. It was clearly not a long enough period, especially since our instructor was ill the second week and we had to wait on a replacement. Most of the class had no prior experience and from the outset everyone was commenting how unorganised things were. At the end of the training I collected my van, luckily I got a 21 plate Transit as in comparison to some of the vehicles it was like a Bentley. Their fleet is not maintained that great and two of the other vehicles I had the pleasure of driving were shocking. First issue for me was that the van did not come equipped with racking. So no place to store tools or equipment, not that I had anything to start with. Second issue, the fuel card I got given did not work. Whole heap of headache at the petrol station as no way to pay (a little more on that later). Some of the other people on my course didn't even get a fuel card. One person from Scotland had to be topped up prior to going home and then asked to stop by another Kelly's on route so that someone else could top up diesel to make it home. Start of 3rd week you go into the office and meet your manager and find out who your buddy is to be. On this occassion I let my manager know I had pre-booked holidays and wanted to get that on the system. Explained it was all pre-agreed during interview process but was unable to do this myself as the holiday allocation wasn't enough to book the period off but was advised my manager would look into it. Being self employed I don't know why they put these restrictions on you in the first place. Buddying was decent in my case. We got on well and if anything I think by me being there to assist we got through some hard jobs which would have probably needed assistance had he been on his own. For the engineer showing you the ropes there is no incentive as they get paid £15 a day for their assistance. Someone needing more help is going to slow them down and as you know time is money. Some others did not have it as good as their buddy just wanted to crack on. This period should last around 2 weeks, longer if you do not have assessment date booked in to sign you off as competent. I would say my buddy averaged between 4 and 5 jobs per day. I was there to help but felt confident I could do the same on my own. At £47.50 per full install there is good money to be made. Only really experienced a couple of days in the 2 and half weeks I was out with my buddy where work was a bit quiet but still made around £120 for those days. Average finishing time was around 6pm as we were travelling between London and Essex most days. Also remember as a trainee for the first 6 months you are guaranteed a minimum of £100 per day, £500 a week minimum. If you complete 3 jobs in a day you will be paid the higher amount £142.50 (47.50 x 3) Lastly, I know its been a long one. My reasons for leaving after 4 and half weeks! Holiday request I made nothing came from it, manager never got back to me, never returned phone calls or messages. In the end the company responsible for payments chased it up. Same with respect to my fuel card which did not work. I had to sort this out myself when I collected tools from another van end of the 4th week and just kept the one from that vehicle. As my card got declined at the petrol station I had to fill out a form and forward onto the fleet department to get it resolved. They did make payment but not within the 7 day time frame and ended up receiving a letter from solicitors to my address threatening legal action. The tooling which I collected was missing chargers for gas detector, also the splicer and light meter was battered held together with tape. Called the manager again to advise, no answer, left a message, no response. I also had to travel to Nuneaton to complete NWRSA course, 2.5 hours drive there, over 4 hours getting back due to the lane closures on M25. Normally with long distance like that you get put up in a hotel. Couldn't do that as manager doesn't answer phone or reply to messages. Told to arrive for half 8 but trainer didn't turn up until 11. Not his fault as he said he had made management aware prior to this but another instance of failure. Similarly stuck in that same traffic another day when I had to go drive to Dunstable to get racking installed in my van which really should have been completed prior to issue. My last week I woke up one morning to a message from the assessor saying he wanted to meet me at first job. I was never given a headsup on this date or the process. I did not know I would not be meeting at my buddys first job, that I would be picking up my own work on my terminal. Also how did they expect me to complete the job without any stores? Can't even order stock. Told to drive to the yard and pick up stock from my manager. Got there and was just demoralised with the constant incompetency and feeling of always being the one put out, resigned there and then. My thoughts are that Kelly's have created a culture where people don't care and theres no accountability. There is a constant flow of courses as the retention rate must be really low and the reasons must be because of some of the things I have highlighted. Silly really, as do the same thing, get the same outcome. Having left before 6 months its in my contract that I would have to pay Kelly's £500 towards training costs. Do you think in my case this is warranted? If anything I feel this has been a massive waste of my time.
