Tony Revord’s story at Fiber Fast Homes is one of learning on the job and creating opportunity for himself within a culture that rewards initiative and hard work. As employee number seven, Revord has gotten diverse experience over his tenure at the rapidly growing fiber to the home Internet service provider. Revord has had the opportunity to enjoy frontline, hands-on experiences that many rarely encounter during their career.
Revord started his career path at Fiber Fast Homes with 2 years of telecom experience through a friend’s connection. Revord began as an outsourced field technician in Orlando working under the region’s Construction Supervisor. This role gave him valuable experience with network troubleshooting, cable splicing and figuring out how to solve physical connectivity issues. After Revord completed a few projects, he convinced management to bring the technician role in-house to save money. Thus, the beginning of his career. After about a month of training, he was “thrown into the deep end” splicing and repairing the actual fiber optic cable installed at job sites. It was very precise work and required a lot of focus and attention to detail.
“In my career here, I have been put in situations where I had to figure things out myself, challenge myself to deliver good results for the company. That’s the beauty of working at Fiber Fast Homes, you are trusted with the opportunity to get the job done right,” Revord said.
From this early phase of his career, Tony moved up in the organization at a good pace. He was promoted from Field Technician to Lead Field Technician about a year later. Then, he became a Construction Supervisor in Central Florida. About a year after that, he was promoted to Construction Manager for the State of Florida, his present position.
“As Construction Manager, I oversee all projects in the Florida area – installation and maintenance for some 34 housing developments presently under development or completed,” he explained. That work includes working in tandem with engineering, contractors, and crews to ensure installation of the fiber infrastructure is done properly and on time. It also includes maintenance and repair which often requires the tedious work of splicing severed or broken optical cabling. “Generally, my role encompasses managing all operations for getting our fiber Internet services up and running and operating smoothly for the projects here in Florida,” he said.
“I feel like it has been a natural progression and an ideal one for me,” Revord said. “Fiber Fast Homes gave me the opportunity, I seized it and approached it with a positive attitude and desire to take advantage of what it could offer me and my career.” He explained that Fiber Fast Homes is a great place for career development as the company appreciates innovation and a solid work ethic and provides all kinds of opportunities to climb up the ladder consistently.
“When I came on board as a technician, we started to develop standards for the position and put as much in writing as possible to create repeatable, standardized processes,” he said. “I was able to essentially create not only a position for myself but a category of jobs for others. In fact, I hired the first full-time splicer in the company and now all that work that used to be outsourced we do in-house, saving time and money.”
Tony argues that the culture at Fiber Fast Homes has a lot to do with career growth opportunities at the company. “We are given the tools necessary to succeed, professionally and personally,” he said. “And a lot of it comes from our CEO and senior management. It’s a culture of interconnectivity, if you will, whereby we support each other and we understand that we are all in this together.”
In terms of the career path Revord chose, he has no regrets and argues it is a great industry to be in. “Fiber optics and telecom in general are overlooked in terms of the opportunity they present,” he said. “It is only going to grow and there is no ceiling for the industry, company and individuals who work here. I am completely grateful for the opportunities given to me and the way the company has allowed me to take advantage of opportunities while always supporting me and helping me be successful in my job.”
Revord’s story is one of learning on the job and creating opportunity for himself within a culture that rewards initiative and hard work. Fiber Fast Homes always chooses to promote from within where possible. The company thrives on having some of the best minds in the industry and the opportunities and possibilities are endless for those with a go getter attitude who want to provide the best product and service possible.