International Women's Day

Alana Marshall

We’re marking International Women’s Day this week by sharing the stories of our inspiring women. Meet Alana Marshall, our Service Delivery Fibre engineer, and get a peek into her life as an engineer. Alana has a tonne of different tasks but her favourite part of the job is happy customers! When she's not out there keeping people connected, she plays in the Scottish Women’s Premier League . Read on to find out more: 

1. What’s your role at Openreach? I’m a Service Delivery Fibre engineer. I deliver fibre broadband to people’s houses, whether it’s overhead or underground.
2. How did you get the job? One of my friends had just got a job, so I asked how she went about applying for it as it was something I was always interested in.
3. What’s the best part of your job? Being able to give the customer their ultrafast broadband service at the end of the job and also engaging with customers and knowing they’re happy with the work you have done.  
4. What’s the most challenging part of your job? Myself! After recently being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) I battle my own daily struggles. But as a job it’s the challenges I enjoy the most, every day brings a fresh challenge and no two days are the same.
5. What’s a typical day for you? Oh where do I start a typical day? Well, first off I’m a mum, so nursery runs are vital! Usually in a day at work I might have some digs, or be putting in an overhead cable or running fibre between different parts of the network. My jobs are always different but I love that about it. I also love helping people so any opportunity where I can, I will.
6.  Most memorable work moment? I’ve done a lot of jobs that make me proud but one in particular was getting a customer into service when it was really challenging and had taken a long time. She was upset and angry, but I was able to show some empathy and do all I could to finally get her into service. That was a good one to remember.
7.  Who inspires you in your career and why? I think I have to say my colleagues. Everyone has different backgrounds and to see the work ethic and knowledge that they have is amazing. Also my manager Claire. Engineering is still quite male dominated so to have a female manager just brings something different and shows you that you can achieve anything.
8. What did you want to be when you were a child? I always wanted to be a footballer. Football was all I thought about from the minute I got up to the minute I went to bed. My dream came true when I got the chance to play professional football in Italy for six months and now I still continue to play semi-professional in the Scottish Women’s Premier League (SWPL).
9.  What advice you’d give to women who are interested in working at Openreach?  I wish I’d pushed myself to become an engineer earlier than when I did. I never thought I would be good enough to do a job like this. All I can say is never have those doubts, you are good enough and if you think you can do it then go get it, don’t let anything hold you back.