so the company wants to train someone (actually two) people to be certified on the meridian PBX (telephone system) for installation and repair. Since I have been doing the work now for the past couple of years I was on the short list and I said that I wanted the training. I just took a look at the training schedule they have mapped out for me..... the road trip starts early in january and pretty much the next six months will be on the road. the courses are in LaPalma? California and Richardson Texas. Most of the classes are in texas.
They had one five week strech where I was in california for two weeks and then they were going to fly me direct to texas for another three. My poor wife and kids won't know who I am when all this is done.... They are working to re-vamp the schedule so I can't get too upset at this point.

 

Wow, that's quite some road trip. Hope they get you a better schedule. If you do end up in Richardson, pm me. I live about 15 minutes from there and work 2 minutes from there. You don't work for Nortel do you?

~Rob

 

We have something like that where I work.
The main software that we use requires a lot of training.
The software company offers a 7 week training course.

I know folks that have gone through it and they all agree its pretty rough on them and even tougher if you have family.

I hope they can work things out for you.

Rich

 

Silly Westcoaster. Farm kids out to their friends for 5 weeks. Take wife on dream vacation to sunny south. Tell her boss is needed for stress relief. By the time you get home, 2 scenarios are possible. 1) kids deleriously happy to see you, behave for 2, maybe 3 days. 2) kids have forgotten who you are and YOU'RE FREE!!!! Sheesh your a Canuck, you should have figured it it out on your own.

 

I work for a company that installs nortel equipment. I will be taking the training at nortel though.
greatwhite, trust me, I have thought this thing out from every angle. there's no way around this, I would love to take the cuddly wife and ditch the kids with the sister in law, but instead I HAVE to go with another ugly, hairy, fat, guy....
This is probablu going to last for about 6 months, there are around 70 days of classroom time and 101 hours of self paced courses. there are a couple of 10 day classes and the rest are 3, 4, and five day classes. Frequent flyer miles??

 

option 11?

I used to work on an option 81. fun fun. The command line on those Nortels is horrible. I miss the good ole Lucent Definity

 

Oh well I tried.

 

Yup, option 11, The command line is the same for all the systems. there are far more traps to watch out for when configuring the large systems though. The company wants to concentrate on the small option 11 systems.
I was on an "orientation" course a few weeks ago for the new nortel branding and the new software release of "succession 4.0" (the software that runs the system) The gee whiz stuff really is enough to boggle the mind. The emphasis appears to be on IP phones and all the gadgetry that can go with them. The traditional digital phone isn't going anywhere, it's just they can get more productivity out of the ip phones. example: executive takes a road trip, checkes into a hotel, plugs his laptop into the hotel data port and now appears like a regular local off his company pbx (make and receive calls as if he was sitting in his office) There is far more to it than just that though.

 

westcoaster,

I'm only about 5 minutes west of Nortel. If you get a chance, pm me and hotdram and we'll meet up with you. There's a few good watering holes and restaurants 'round here. We'd be proud to show you a little Texas Hospitality.

 

I appriciate the offer!, It may be a few months though.... I'll have to look at the final schedule.

 

Westcoaster- man, thats not such a bad trip! Here soon I'll be going to Korea for a month, home for a month and then off to the big sandbox for at least 6 months.
But, any extended time away from your loved ones does suck, I'll give you that! -Steve

 

Yes, any "hardships" I would have to put up with on this trip would pale in comparison to what some others are going through around the world.... they could re-arrange my schedule a bit better though, example: in the middle of a two week roadtrip class they have 24 some hours of self paced study on another class