A Day In The Life Of An Onsite OBW Service Engineer

Gavin Locke

Service Engineer

Background

At the young age of 17, I began a career in Mechanical Plumbing where I spent 6 to 7 years working at Vincent’s Hospital in Donnybrook. This was of course until the big crash happened in 2008. At this stage I knew it was time to change things up, so like many others, I headed across the globe to the land down under. During my time in Australia, whilst enjoying the fine weather and all that came with it, I spent over a year working in the Australian mines which was a great experience. On returning home to Ireland, I decided it was time for a career change and this is why I decided to take up a job with Bord Gáis Energy where I spent many years working as a registered gas engineer.  Over time I had built up years of experience with dual trade and knew once again it was time for a change of scenery, this is when I became part of the OBW Technologies team. 

Why OBW

I joined in January of 2022, it was more or less the case of the right place and right time when the position of a Service Engineer arose in their base in Intel, Leixlip. From the get-go I found myself taking to the job well and pretty quickly, I was enjoying every day as it came.  

Typical Day

I spend my days on a front-end shift, where we tend to only have a crossover of teams once a week on a Wednesday. Each day begins with the delegating and prioritising of tasks. These mainly consist between the sustaining and commissioning of panels. These are delegated and prioritised between the team, no one is stuck to one task as it’s always in rotation. Toward the end of my shift, I must leave an hour to 2 hours in order to catch up on paperwork. This takes a bit longer as I’m dealing with both Intel and OBW. The last task of the day consists of the handover to the next shift man, giving a rundown of the day and alerting them to any issues that would have arisen throughout. 

The job itself can be quite demanding and full on but when you like what you do it makes all the difference. From beginning my career at such a young age, I know the importance of welcoming the younger generation of engineers on board, and being able to pass down and transfer to their skillset is something I pride myself in doing.  

Commissioning has really taken off in recent times. Along with fire and liquid leaks being continuously on the rise. These are designed to protect areas where water leakage could seriously damage electrical, communication, and computer networks. I was lucky enough to spend 2 weeks of fire training over the summer in Dubai. This was fantastic and an opportunity of a lifetime. As you can see, I like to have my feet in everything!! 

Since I joined last January the company has continued in its expansion with the team growing at every opportunity. There is a great dynamic and balance of all different aspects within every role. To see how far they have come in the space of a few years is remarkable. From here the only way is up for OBW Technologies.