In recent years, the fourth Thursday in April has been marked as International Girls and Women in ICT Day. At the end of this April, like every working day, the only two ICT technicians of Hrvatski Telekom celebrated it in the field, where there are over 750 technicians in total. Sanja Goljački Obad is a data technician in the Zagreb area, while Maida Draganović works on broadband service connections in the Rijeka area. There is a significant age and experience difference between them; Goljački Obad has been with HT for 31 years, while Draganović has only been there for a year and a half.
A Car Full of Equipment
Goljački Obad works on connection tasks, troubleshooting, and changes to meta ethernet, VPN, Net PRO, and netvoice connections for large business customers. As soon as she finished her secondary PTT school for technicians, she got a job at HT and has since undergone various internal training to keep up with new technology. Of the 31 years Goljački Obad has worked at HT, 21 years have been in the field. She mostly knows the users she works with, but those she visits for the first time are a bit surprised to see a woman performing fieldwork.
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—– My workday, like that of every technician, begins with a teleconference where our manager gives us instructions, we discuss the previous day if there were any complications, and we are informed about news that the manager communicates verbally and in writing. After that, we receive tasks from the dispatcher system, and I start diagnosing disturbances, gathering information about the equipment I need to resolve the disturbance or connection, and I take it from operational support – explains Goljački Obad how one of her workdays looks. Then she contacts the user to arrange a time for her to resolve the disturbances or connect the lines. For this job, equipment is sometimes a full car, just for one user, and she appreciates the help of colleagues who assist with loading.
– The colleagues I work with in the group are always ready to help when needed, just as I help each of them when they need it – says Goljački Obad, who usually does not expect the same help from users as few are willing to play the role of a porter.
– Sometimes I carry equipment up several floors in buildings without elevators. When I complete a connection or resolve a disturbance, I move on to a new task or back to the base. I check off completed tasks and equipment – explains Goljački Obad, emphasizing that sometimes just one connection can take the entire workday.
