Inside View
Chris Mason
Metering Technician
Siemens Energy Services
How did you come to work for Siemens?
I've been with Siemens since the business acquired Eastern Metering in 2000, but have been working as a metering technician for over 10 years now. I work from home, which is in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
How do you spend your time?
My job is to install, maintain and upgrade electricity meters and their communications equipment for commercial and industrial customers like PC World, Next, Tesco, Iceland and McDonald's.
I receive my schedule for the week ahead on a Friday and then I can be anywhere in the UK from south Yorkshire upwards - perhaps in Liverpool and Manchester one day, Leeds and Bradford the next and then Glasgow and Dundee for the rest of the week.
What’s challenging about your job?
Getting to grips with the local dialect can be challenging. Broad Glaswegian is the one I find the most difficult – but then again, my Yorkshire accent probably isn't the easiest to understand either.
And what do you enjoy about it?
Working with new technology and equipment and learning how to install and maintain it. You never know quite what to expect, who you'll meet and what you'll have to deal with.
Travelling to new places is another thing I enjoy most about the job. It can be demanding when you're on your way to a sewage works in Scunthorpe on a dark, wet winter morning - but on another day I could be in the heart of the Lake District or the Scottish Highlands. You don't often get that sort of view from your office window.