A song by Dire Straits once asked if Elvis could come to the phone. The
answer is obvious, of course. A heavy touring schedule and public appearances
around the country as a spokesperson for the convenience store industry just
keep him way too busy.
So be don't cruel if he doesn't return calls right away. He has to make
a living somehow.
But on the off chance that he returns a call, there is a chance he may
use the line Mike Keating installed.
That's right. Keating wired the King's Bel-Air mansion as part of his work
during the late 1960s and early 1970s. And Elvis was not the only famous person
Keating met.
His work took him to the most exclusive parts of Los Angeles. He would
meet some of the biggest celebrities and movie stars around, including Jerry
Lewis and the late Steve McQueen. He talks fondly of those days, but he does
have a small regret.
"We worked in teams, and I had a helper with me by the name of Denis,"
says Keating. "And he got an autographed picture of every movie star's home
that we worked in. I always felt slightly embarrassed or kind of silly [and]
I didn't want to ask for it. To this day, I regret this because I could have
had an awesome collection. But I have the memories."
Keating no longer meets any big stars. He is the technical
operations manager for a phone service provider in northern California. But
he still finds his work engaging and rewarding.
Keating started working in the telecom industry right after he graduated
from high school. His dad landed him a job wiring large apartment complexes
as part of a three-person team. The work was exhausting, but Keating liked
it.
"It was my first real job, and I enjoyed the physical work. And I enjoyed
working as a team with other people."
His next job was to install keypad phones, and private phone exchanges
-- cutting-edge technology at the time. Keating eventually earned a bachelor's
degree in management sciences by taking night classes and working during the
day.
He now spends most of his time in an office, making sure that the right
equipment is in the right place at the right time. But Keating must still
be on top of the newest telecom technology.
"I work hard keeping up with the changes in technology and the direction
that the business is going," he says. And he says anybody who wants to work
in the telecom industry must do the same.
"Don't expect a company that hired you to spoon-feed you all of the education
that you need," he says. "You need to take classes on your own. You need to
learn new software and new platforms."
Donna Best certainly knows her way around the newest telecom technology
and software. She works as a designer and analyst for a university. It maintains
some 7,000 campus and nearby residential lines. Best has to keep an eye on
the software that keeps all those users connected to the central server.
She also is responsible for connecting new users and buildings. And Best
was part of the team that installed the current phone system less than two
years ago.
"There are about 5,000 lines in the university, both analog and digital,
and we had to design every line," she says. The job lasted about six months,
and Best says she worked a lot of overtime. "But it was well worth it."
There is no question that Best enjoys her career in the telecom industry.
"It's leading edge," she says. "If you are not in the telecommunications industry,
you are not going anywhere."
And if you want to go anywhere in the telecom industry, you have to stay
on top of new trends all the time, she says. "You don't want to go to a company
that has old telephone systems," she says. "It's not going to get you anywhere.
It's not going to get you to the front end."
Keating's career underscores that fact. Had he not kept up with the changes
in technology, his career and life would have been different. But Keating
is still not afraid of getting his hands dirty.
"I spent a week over in our...service area, helping the guys pull cables
at a casino we are doing over," he says. "It was fun. I enjoyed it."
Elvis, however, was not playing there that week.