Working in Tech - FirstLight Fiber

We got an early start from campus so we would arrive in Portsmouth on time for our 9:30 a.m. red carpet treatment and grand tour at FirstLight, a fast-growing provider of internet services in the northeastern United States. New Hampton School uses FirstLight for our one-gigabit connection to the Internet.

Jim Doyle, V.P. of Sales Engineering, leads us through a presentation about the role of sales engineers in a company like FirstLight. He advises students to understand what the customer needs, understand what the company is reasonably able to provide, and be able to communicate and advocate for both sides effectively.

Tech workstation standards: Two screens, two coffee cups.

Pretty photo of cables in company colors - could use some zip ties, though!

Mr. Fay with Bob McKenna, FirstLight's New England Enterprise Director of Sales.

In the office kitchen, Jim Doyle explains some company benefits and daily routine.

Group photo on the stairway landing overlooking the Network Operations Center (NOC) "mission control."

One of just a few NOCs where FirstLight employees ensure their New England network is functioning flawlessly.

Taking a moment to reflect on what we've seen so far.

Jim Richards, Senior Enterprise Account Director, gives us much advice about what is required to succeed in sales and customer relationship management.

Tony Salamanca is also a Senior Enterprise Account Director, and is New Hampton School's main point of contact at FirstLight.

Paul Badeau, Marketing Manager; and Tanya Williams, Client Services Team Lead; talk with us about the customer service role at FirstLight--and the importance of professional connections and a dedicated work ethic.

In the Customer Service center, Tanya describes flexible work schedules and a "day in the life" of a FirstLight customer service representative.

A little bit of Customer Service Representative humor goes a long way!

Lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse! We took several more photos but they did not come out well.

Unfortunately we do not have any photos of an extremely informative, hour-long Skype interview with Bethany Pawlak, the HR Manager for FirstLight. She leads a small team that is responsible for the hiring, benefits, and professional development of 400+ employees who work for the company.

Some advice and quotable quotes from Bethany include:

• Take a public speaking course
• Step out of your element; get along with other people
• “Positive visibility creates career mobility”
• To get noticed “stand with your hand up not your hand out”
• In the rapidly changing technology industry, experience and certifications are more important than a degree
• Loyalty and experience are equally worthwhile, so don’t job-hop
• “The only monotony at FirstLight is our constant change”
• If you want to advance, then “stick with it, keep learning, work hard, and grow with the company”

At the FirstLight data center in Manchester. Jim Doyle gave us the tour, and told us of many high profile customers with equipment and services hosted in their space.

Copper data, fiberoptic data, and electrical power cables EVERYWHERE! Every cable has its color and its place in a well-organized data center.

All the equipment generates heat - and this unit is one of several that keep the temperature and humidity at ideal levels.

Jim Doyle talks more about colocation of equipment and functions of this data center.

So much equipment...

...and so many cables and so much electricity!

Our group made the following comments about today:

• Jun: Today, I learned that work ethic is as important as experience. Also, I learned that communication among different departments is crucial to the success of the industry.
• Taka: Hearing from sales and customer service section, I learned what a tech industry consists of and how they make their connections with each other. It was interesting and was a really nice experience to learn about their perspective responsibilities, and their jobs. Through the interview, I felt how important it is to be hardworking: the lady who works in customer service had no experience in tech stuff but she was hired since she was really hardworking: and made me think that your character and your trustworthiness would be important in any aspects. Hearing from Ms. Pawlak, I thought of applying for the internship next year and make somewhat progress for the future.
• Kyle: What I liked most was looking at the data center. It was cool to see how they were designed.
• Karina: I really liked today's trip because we learned so many things about the business part of each tech company including the sales engineering, product marketing, and customer service. We also went to the data center with hundreds of data storages and wires.
• Jared: How in some cases to grow, tech companies have to acquire, and to survive how they must be able to quickly pivot. Also the tools they use to promote their company and make connections with companies.
• Keenan: Developing relationships with those within your company & industry, as well as with clients, is imperative for success. The only thing monotonous about the tech industry is constant change! You must be willing to change and adapt.
• Jone: We visit FirstLight company and I really like to see the scene of employees working together calling customers. I learned a lot of different roles related to IT running in FirstLight. In the afternoon, it was really exciting to interview product manager of FirstLight. We learned a lot about his background and how to make a company competitive. We visited the data center of FirstLight. We saw a lot of cool equipment in the data center.
• Streck: Today we visited FirstLight, the network service provider for New Hampton School and many other businesses. I found it very interesting to witness such an active and productive workspace.

We are thankful to the many people at FirstLight (especially Paul Badeau, who arranged all the details of our visit) who made our day so much fun and who gave us privileged insight into how an Internet Service Provider functions, from a high level down to the daily operations.

Tomorrow, we will be preparing for our symposium exhibit, so this is the last post of the week. The average student rating of our project is 9.6/10. By the numbers, we all had an excellent time!