Find out firsthand how getting involved in an SCTE chapter can help your career from longtime chapter participant, Wayne Hall. Wayne Hall is VP, Engineering with the national engineering team of Comcast Cable Communications in Philadelphia and is also chair of the board of directors for SCTE.
My chapter involvement, as a participant and as a leader provided me with the following:
The opportunity to meet, associate with and learn from other technical people involved in the business. I often found solutions to issues I was experiencing and effective ways to get my work done. I also learned to look at technical challenges from a variety of angles, again helping me accomplish my tasks more effectively.
The opportunity to keep ahead of new technology and services along with ideas on how to implement them in my operation and avoid pitfalls already identified by those in development.
The opportunity to keep abreast of new regulations (FCC, NEC, NESC, OSHA, EPA) and how best to stay in compliance. I also learned what needed to be checked to facilitate compliance by my company.
The opportunity to learn leadership and team building in a volunteer environment. Keeping a volunteer organization viable and its leaders involved is not a simple undertaking. The skills learned there transfer directly into today's workplace.
The occasional opportunity to personally meet competitors' team members and get more in-depth information about competing technologies and how they are deployed. This helped me make sure my operation responded more effectively and gives me a healthy respect for competition.
The opportunity to surprise visiting technical professionals with the depth of technical complexity the industry has now and the variety of skills employed in the broadband profession. Chapter meetings can help legitimize broadband as an industry, its participants as bona fide technical professionals and our work as a discipline worthy of recognition.
The opportunity to see others recognized outside of their workplace for their technical competence, their contribution to the SCTE at the Chapter level and their position as role models for other members. Giving awards for service to Chapters and recognition for advancement in certifications has always been the most fun of all.
Our people are hard working, outspoken and independent thinkers. They have taken so many kinds of technology and built the broadband business to the point where it can provide amazing amounts of information and entertainment for customers. They were able to go from the lab to the field, adapt the network over time, respond to customer demand for content and provide content providers with more ways to reach consumers. SCTE members have helped define and implement broadband. Chapters are where the members really define SCTE to a great degree.
?
