Crosstalk with Select Telecom (Summer 2014)
Every issue, “Get to Know Select” will feature a different employee sharing their experience at Select Telecom, along with updates about what’s going on at the company. Have a favorite employee you’d like to hear from? Email us to let us know!
After six years of working as an electrician, Technician Stephen DiBella (and current Army Reservist) found his way to Select Telecom through the Army National Guard’s employment portal in January of 2013 and hasn’t looked back since.
“With the electrical work, it was traffic lights, commercial/industrial kind of stuff, just the same thing every day,” he recalls. “I appreciate that here there’s always something different. I install and service ShoreTel and NEC systems, do a lot of cable work, punch down patch panels, move around server rooms, you name it. And between our customers and the guys I work with, at every single job site I always have some kind of fun.” Lately, that’s often been at Houlihan Lawrence. “Houlihan has been very good to us. I’ve always gotten along with them, Annette and Peter particularly. And also Alfonso from St. Luke’s School, he’s a wonderful person, and everyone at Donnelly Mechanical.”
Though communications work is his day-to-day now, Stephen still puts much of his electrical training to use (he is a graduate of SUNY Delhi’s 2-year Associates program) in his service with the Army Reserves, where he works on a lot of equipment repair and wiring as part of his military field duty. “It’s more mechanical than what we do communications-wise, very different.”
In addition to being an avid golfer, motorcycle rider, and target shooter, Stephen had always felt a calling toward military service. He enlisted in the Army when he was 24 after leaving a previous electrician role. “When that job ended, I decided to pursue my dream of serving my country. It’s one of my callings in life, and to this day I very much enjoy it.” Though he hasn’t seen active duty yet, Stephen is bravely anticipating going overseas eventually. “They’ve been talking about sending us to Afghanistan for two years now,” he explains. “We just don’t know when it’s going to happen.”
In the meantime, Stephen is happy to be pursuing his other calling, which he found out a few months ago is to be an uncle! “My nephew is my world,” he says of his sister’s seven month old son. “He’s a real piece of work. I can tell you right now he’s going to be a handful when he gets older – probably like me. I certainly was no angel growing up…”
Not an angel, perhaps, but according to his colleagues, definitely an all-around great guy. And apparently, the feeling is mutual. “The best part of working at Select Telecom is that I actually enjoy showing up to my job every day,” Stephen reflects. “I get along with everybody and we all have the same personality, we’re all Yankee fans [with a few notable exceptions…], and we’re all working toward the same common goal. I really can’t say a bad thing about anybody – they’re a good group of people and I’ve been fortunate to be able to work with them.”