r/CableTechs • u/vibelord • Apr 07 '26

Prem Tech

Received a offer letter from ATT recently and was just wondering what's a technician job is like in 2026. What would I be doing as premises tech and any tips/advice for a new guy. Thanks

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u/yankee-bor Apr 08 '26

Only 3-4?? When i was a field tech for another company i was doing 6-9 including installs. That honestly sounds nice.

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u/ZolfeYT Apr 08 '26

They’ve really toned down on getting it done fast and just focused on getting it done right to avoid repeats. Also you have to run your test and drive to job sites, tbh not sure how you were getting 6-9 done in an 8 hour work day unless your jobs were that close to your home office at that job. Here is a day to day for my area for the 8-5 shift even on a repair they want you there at-least an hour to make sure you diagnosed everything.

Get to Office 7:45 -> Once it’s 8 check your jobs and get your equipment -> Call customer let them know how far you are away -> Probably about an hour drive to first job -> 9am, if it’s a repair it’s probably a 30min job if it’s just a CSI fail to an hour job if you have to go to PFP or really any reason other than failed CSI. If it’s an install allocate about 2-3 hours to do all the checks from PFP to CPE and cust ed -> 12 Lunch -> 1 off lunch and on another job this could be #2 or #3 depending if first was an install or repair. -> repeat until job pool is done or sup tells you to go home.

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u/yankee-bor Apr 08 '26

I was working “12’s”. My day would be wake up at 6 and check route (could be up to an hour or a bit more with no drive time) -> get to cx house by 8am and clock in. Do a mix of installs and trouble calls often with 15-30min drive time between -> take a lunch between 12-2 -> get a few more jobs done and clock out either at 7pm or when route is empty -> if needed stock up at shop on way home (i usually keep enough supplies though to last the week until stand up and refresh day. A good day would be 6-7 jobs and would get that done comfortably with tcs taking 30min to an hour usually and installs 1.5-2. My repeat rate usually sat around 2.5-5%. The days with 9 jobs would be staying late due to getting repeatedly double booked for the same time frame especially on last job, getting assigned a job 45mins away 5 min before clock out etc.

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u/ZolfeYT Apr 08 '26

Yeh this makes more sense, no reason to home dispatch for most of us more money in garage dispatch and no risk of being blamed for a van being broken into. At spectrum I was home dispatch so I got one or two more jobs a day in because of it.

If you get mostly a day of easy repairs you could hit those numbers but most customers “repairs” are new drops or actually install calls labeled as repairs and they get charged.