Life at Transmedic / 13 May 2016
A Day in the life of a… Service Engineer
My primary role as a service engineer in Transmedic is to perform repairs and scheduled maintenance on the Tomotherapy Radiation Therapy machine.
The Tomo machine requires periodic maintenance throughout the year and a lot of man hours are required for its upkeep. Besides these planned sessions, I also receive ad hoc service calls which usually happen during office hours. At times, my role also gives me the opportunity to visit regional sites to perform servicing.
I usually begin my day with two eggs, a cup of tea, and a quick prayer that my phone doesn’t ring during breakfast. Thankfully most of the time it doesn’t -- making this my favourite part of the day.
My working hours aren’t fixed but as a rule of thumb, my day starts when most people have finished theirs. During weekends my schedule varies, depending on whether treatments are being run on site. Anyhow, I’m always on standby 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The biggest challenge for me comes when I have to perform urgent repairs on the Tomo machine. This requires me to perform well under pressure, as I have to properly manage customers’ expectations and make an accurate diagnosis of the issue on the spot. Over time, I have honed my problem-solving skills and can now think quickly on my feet. On a side note I've also become braver -- I used to be so scared of working in the hospital alone at night, but now it hardly bothers me!
I have been with Transmedic for almost a year now and I like what I’m doing. I come from an aviation background; back at my old job I was only handling electronics systems. Having worked on the Tomo machine for 6 months, I find it much more interesting as it's given me the opportunity to gain experience in mechanical, electrical and computing systems too, on top of electronics.
As for the company, Management is flexible and encourages us to try out new concepts and adopt new ideas all the time. It's an environment where you can learn and grow together with the firm, and be as creative with your solutions as you'd like.
I look forward to many more fulfilling years here with Transmedic!
Published on 13 May 2016
