Stake Center Locating

**fiberlocator99** · January 16th, 2010, 01:38 AM

im seeing posts for them hiring for fiber locate techs everywhere! what company did they just get a contract for?

**ProfessionalLocator** · January 16th, 2010, 05:52 AM

I do not know whose contract they got.

I did apply with them last September and never got a reply. I called their office and the only person they said to could be talked to was Tony. But Tony never answered his phone or returned calls from any message.

**Mke** · January 16th, 2010, 11:56 AM

I know they just recently got the Qwest contract in Oregon and Washington. And like in every other instance of taking over a contract the company did a mass hiring, and lots of those original hires are bursting into flames so they are starting to re hire now.

I have had 3 locates in the past week where their locator has yet to mark the correct area. I even gave him my buisness card and let him know to use me as a resource, that if there was any construction near the airfield we know about it, and can get him into any area needed. Not a Call. Hell, when I was a month into locating I welcomed any input at all. And yes, he's only a month into his locating career.

mke

**ProfessionalLocator** · January 16th, 2010, 02:06 PM

Originally Posted by Mke

I know they just recently got the Qwest contract in Oregon and Washington. And like in every other instance of taking over a contract the company did a mass hiring, and lots of those original hires are bursting into flames so they are starting to re hire now.

I have had 3 locates in the past week where their locator has yet to mark the correct area. I even gave him my buisness card and let him know to use me as a resource, that if there was any construction near the airfield we know about it, and can get him into any area needed. Not a Call. Hell, when I was a month into locating I welcomed any input at all. And yes, he's only a month into his locating career.

mke

Wow, new contracts and they take noobies when experienced locators are applying! Many contracts have "out" clauses and if a contract is started with poor quality the vendor may well back out.

If I had a knew contract I would want to start with my best people and hire some more experienced people.
I would then weed out those experienced people and get rid of the deadwood and replace them with some more experienced people. As I built up my new staff pull back my seed people and put them back home. Among the experienced hires I could find my mentors who would be good to train the noobies, that's when I would preferably hire the noobies.

Getting one's own experienced people to relocate to a motel room, plus the expense of it, for a period of time is difficult. Many people do not want to leave their family's for months at a time. So the best possible would be a mixture of own experienced people, experienced new hires and then soon after start noobies.

Each situation calls for it's own plan.

**Mke** · January 16th, 2010, 02:40 PM

Qwest is a pain in the arse. I don't necessarily blame SCL on the people they hire, they needed quite a bit. I'm not an expert on the numbers, but there is a finite number of locators, and even if you train 100 people to locate, with in the first 3 month, you'll have a 15% atrition rate. Now your down to 85, when your first construction season starts, and you will loose a another 25%. by this time you'll definately need to re-hire. The Old guard can fill in some holes, but this wares on them as well. To top it off, SCL is only a few years old in this area. They have only had one utility up untill now (give or take some smaller contracts. Qwest is the main phone company up here, and they are the ones who want the locate companies to jump through some weird hoops.

Re-locating locators never works out well, except the young'ins who don't have to worry about talkin to their wife and kids each nite.

Mke

**USIC1** · January 16th, 2010, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by ProfessionalLocator

I do not know whose contract they got.

I did apply with them last September and never got a reply. I called their office and the only person they said to could be talked to was Tony. But Tony never answered his phone or returned calls from any message.

You must have been one of those guys that metioned the cablevine, huh???

**ProfessionalLocator** · January 16th, 2010, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by USIC1

You must have been one of those guys that metioned the cablevine, huh???

Nope, not a word.

**fiberlocator99** · January 18th, 2010, 12:15 AM

i kind of figured it was quest they were going to locate for posting i saw was for chicago, which i didnt even know qwest was here until i had a joint meet up north of chicago. i think qwest here only has 1 or 2 guys for the northern part of il

**mattm211** · February 18th, 2010, 07:42 AM

i applied for stake because i wanted to move to the area they covered (washington)

got all the way to them pulling my background check and gave them a driver record. nothing after that...won't answer my phone calls any more either. been about 2 weeks now.

**premo** · February 18th, 2010, 08:26 AM

I have a friend that works for them. He is on call 24-7 and has 1 1/2 of paper work to do after he gets off of work every day.

**Mke** · February 18th, 2010, 09:12 AM

Hey Matt, Give it time, they just took over the Qwest contract back in Nov. and they are kinda overloaded, they definately will hire more people once the first batch of hirees gets thined out.

Where about in Wash are you aiming for? Northern or southern?

mke

**ProfessionalLocator** · February 18th, 2010, 09:58 AM

Originally Posted by Mke

Hey Matt, Give it time, they just took over the Qwest contract back in Nov. and they are kinda overloaded, they definately will hire more people once the first batch of hirees gets thined out.

Where about in Wash are you aiming for? Northern or southern?

mke

When contracts get taken over they often are not taken 100% on the first day. They often get taken over in phases where the firm that lost the contract marks areas while the new firm starts up the operation in another. Then the new firm takes another section and continues until they cover the entire area. Depending on the geographic size, workload and if the new firm had offices in that area this can take up to a year. So Washington may not even have had their hires yet.

Can anybody say where Stake Center has actually started working the Qwest contract? Can anybody say another firm is marking Qwest but it si already known that the contract is lost?

There are of course rumors but has anybody got first hand information?

**mattm211** · February 18th, 2010, 10:32 AM

I didn't know they weren't already in Washington (Seattle specifically). So is Qwest the only thing they're banking on for that area if they're just now expanding there?

I noticed their website has added Utah and Wyoming to the now hiring areas, but USIC (formerly SM&P) has thrown up about 30 job posts for the texas area for the summer months. so that's not all that unusual.

my last job was contract work for wireless companies and that's done with and i took some time off and it'd be really nice to have a job now.

**mattm211** · February 18th, 2010, 10:37 AM

Originally Posted by Mke

Hey Matt, Give it time, they just took over the Qwest contract back in Nov. and they are kinda overloaded, they definately will hire more people once the first batch of hirees gets thined out.

Where about in Wash are you aiming for? Northern or southern?

mke

northern. Seattle specifically...anywhere in/around seattle

**AULupstate** · February 18th, 2010, 01:26 PM

Tony sent me an email asking if I was interested. Apparently they won some fiber contracts around my area.

No details at all, just asking if I was interested.