This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
08/10/2022 08:30 AMAfter earning her bachelor’s degree and spending a year in graduate school, Carley Moyher of Killingworth seemed on track for a career in speech pathology. Instead, she saw a different future for herself and decided to climb poles for a living instead.
“I really got interested in speech pathology because it seemed so interesting to me at the time. I really didn’t know much about it. I was feeling the pressure that I had to go to college and that I had to get a career going. My mom had helped look into certain careers and what was most needed and what types of jobs were in demand,” Carley says. “And speech pathology was something that seemed to fit for me. I really didn’t know much about it, but I found it very interesting and stuck with it for the whole four years. I eventually went to graduate school at UConn as well.”
However, Carley says that during her first year of graduate school she began to have misgivings about her chosen path and the decision to remain in the field. It became evident to her that speech pathology despite its importance and value was simply not her destined career, Carley says.
“I just started to realize that by the time I graduated from graduate school, got a PhD or whatever, that I’d be almost 30 and that seemed like a bad time to try and restart my life and career all over,” Carley says. “So, I weighed the pros and cons as to ‘What if I got out now?’ I’d be saving money, obviously, and saving time if I did it sooner, so I did.”
According to Carley, her family has owned a construction business in DJM Construction in Milford for many years and she was raised in and around a very physical and male dominated industry, so she knew how to handle equipment and attitudes. And an idea began to form for Carley.
“My family is in the trades, so I grew up around that all my life. I knew that work, that hands-on aspect, growing up outdoors,” Carley says. “I used to play in the dirt with my brother, and he is in the trades and so when I realized that I didn’t want to continue in speech pathology, I was looking back on my life and I was like, ‘What did I enjoy doing?’ What is something I would be happy doing the rest of my life? Because if I leave grad school, for me, I had to have something laid out. I couldn’t just leave grad school and then try and figure it out as I go. So, I made the decision to do a trade like the rest of my family, but what trade was I going to do?”
According to Carley, she had friends who were linemen at Eversource and encouraged her to look into it. Carley’s family also urged her to look into a career in electrical work as well.
“The more I thought about it, the more I realized I didn’t want to be stuck inside working all day. I love being outside and growing up, I was always a hands-on kind of person,” says Carley. “My family encouraged me to look into the line-worker program. When I went to the Eversource website and saw they were taking applications, it seemed like the stars aligned. When I saw that Eversource had this program and that you didn’t need a background in electrical, which I didn’t have, I didn’t have to go to a trade school, so I didn’t have to do anymore extra schooling on top of it. So, I made the jump and kind of said, if I don’t apply, I’ll never know-so I applied and got into the program.”
Carley was accepted into the program, which was an 11-week course sponsored by Eversource that trains and develops line personnel, a position that the company is in dire need of as finding replacements for the many line-people retiring out of the industry.
The course was tough, but Carley says she enjoyed every minute of it.
“Being able to adapt to it was the most challenging part of it,” Carley says. “But when we got to do in person hands-on training I was so happy. It felt so right to me and made me realize that going for this was right for me, it was the right choice and that was very reassuring. It all just really clicked for me.”
Carley says though there are some risks with a job of this nature, she says her experience working around potentially dangerous equipment at her family’s business provided the confidence she needed to excel during the course.
“It can be a little intimidating, but the more I learned about the safety precautions, the more comfort I felt and the less scary it became,” Carley says. “The main reason people get hurt is complacency. Because you learn a skill so well, you can become lazy with it and that is when injuries happen. You just have to work carefully. Once you learn these lessons, it really is safe. You would have to disregard a lot of the safety measures and protocols to get hurt. It is a dangerous job. So, you always have to be on your A-game.”
Completing the training program doesn’t guarantee a job with Eversource, but Carley was hired by the company soon after graduating and is on her way to some more intensive training and then she will be an official lineworker. Carley says it is a great career path for women, despite the fact that most people would think it is a job for males only.
“I think a lot of females aren’t aware of this field or the opportunities in linework. It’s really positive that my class had four females graduate. I’m really excited about the future.”