Donald McCarty began his telephone career in 1965 as an outside plant technician. In 1972, he joined Dynatel as an outside plant training specialist. After 14 years of training both craft and management in the telecommunications industry, he founded McCarty Associates, Inc. in 1986, now known as McCarty Products. His success as a world-renowned trainer, speaker, and writer is credited to his straight-forward teaching style coupled with his ability to make complex subjects easy to grasp. Donald sets the technical benchmarks and standards for McCarty Products. He is a regular columnist, The OSP Expert, in OSP® magazine, and is the co-author of The Fine Art of Fault Locating, the industry standard training manual for outside plant fault location.

Explain what you do for a living in 20 words or less:
I train and consult with those individuals who provision and maintain paired copper infrastructure for The Triple Play. My clients are small to large telcos and equipment providers.

What is the favorite part of your job?
I enjoy all of it from working with a new tech who has little practical knowledge to the guy who has been in the filed 20+ years and also management and executives who want to improve their products through training. It's a great feeling when I hear that I've made someone's job easier or provided a procedure that improved the overall services for a company.

When do you feel the most frustrated professionally?
When uninformed field maintenance teams reactively transfer circuits to restore service rather than proactively identify and fix root cause problems in the copper infrastructure. I know most companies struggle with performance matrices and they think more jobs in a day is the way to go. That will work if you need numbers in the short term. If you need financial numbers that impact your bottom line in the long term, you need to be proactive. Once on the proactive path, you will get more jobs done in a day, have happier customers and shareholders who notice the difference.

Fiber or Copper for the future?
In the Triple Play business the most cost-productive process is fiber-to-the-node and paired copper to the customer -- this will stand for a long time. They will be pounding sand in my face well before the last copper circuit is gone.

What is the quality you most like in a colleague?
Honesty, concern for others, and a strong work ethic. If you have those qualities, you can learn everything else you might need to know for your profession.

What treat do you keep hidden in your office/desk/truck that helps you through an OSP day?
My favorite treat on the job is chocolate -- any type; and at home it’s ice cream.

Where would you vacation if money were no object?
I would like to go anywhere where my wife Susan does not have Internet access or cell phone access. Then, and only then, can she relax. On my agenda is Greece, Thailand, Russia -- so many places. My favorite vacation up to this point was an African photo safari.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I struggle to relinquish control. I need to step back and allow others to perform.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Deplore is such a strong work with negative connotations so I'll use "strongly dislike". I strongly dislike those who come to work with a negative attitude. We've all had difficult jobs, situations, and bosses and I've never seen anything be corrected by negativity. I hang by the comment. We always have choices and the ability to make a difference even if only by praising someone else when you are having a tough day.

If you had only ONE OSP tool, what would it be?
A talented OSP technician (is that a tool?). Ok, it would be a shovel. There are some amazing test sets available today and they are a critical piece of equipment. However, if I can't get at the problem once I discover it, I can't fix it.

If you could change one thing about the OSP, what would it be?
I would like to see a change from reactive fault locating to proactive fault locating in all aspects of the triple play arena. At the end of the day, this will cut costs dramatically, make for happier techs and customers and will position companies to compete.

Where and why do you read OSP?
I've been reading OSP magazine for as long as I can remember. It's an invaluable resource -- and what I most enjoy (other than my column of course) is that it is ahead of technology and business trends while also offering practical advice for what's happening today.

When do you feel the most satisfied professionally?
I am the most pleased when I see field technicians experience an "Ah ha!" moment because I've given them a tip or clue or procedure that helped them and that they didn't know about before.

Tell us the most extraordinary/unusual experience you’ve had out in the field. 
I worked in Purdhoe Bay up at Dead Horse where winter temperatures drop to minus 52 degrees Fahrenheit before wind chill is taken into account. With wind chill, temperatures get into triple digits. Those are some tough field technicians.

Tell us the funniest customer experience you’ve experienced, or seen, in the field.
As a field technician, I had to replace a missing 100 lb. manhole cover. A lady approached me and told me that she had driven over the cover and it bounced up and damaged her car. When I asked her where the old cover was she stated that she had put it in her trunk for evidence. I said, "If you can lift it, you can have it lady!"

Tell us how you got into telecommunications. By chance or plan? 
A neighbor that worked for the telephone company talked me into it. I will never forgive him!

If you could have your perfect job in telecom, what would it be?
After 46 years in the business: retired! I will always want to work some -- as long as I can make a difference to the telcos, I want to help. Aside from that, something to do with fishing -- a guide or just a participant. And maybe more golf.

Donald McCarty began his telephone career in 1965 as an outside plant technician. In 1972, he joined Dynatel as an outside plant training specialist. After 14 years of training both craft and management in the telecommunications industry, he founded McCarty Associates, Inc. in 1986, now known as McCarty Products. His success as a world-renowned trainer, speaker and writer is credited to his straight-forward teaching style coupled with his ability to make complex subjects easy to grasp. Donald sets the technical benchmarks and standards for McCarty Products. He is a regular columnist in Outside Plant Magazine, and is the co-author of The Fine Art of Fault Locating, the industry standard training manual for outside plant fault location.

You can contact Don at:
Donald E. McCarty, VP McCarty Products
18281 NE Rainbow Lane
P.O. Box 898
Newberg OR 97132
Work 503.538.1229
Cell 831.818.3930
Email: dmccarty@mccartyinc.com
URL: www.mccartyinc.com

Do you know an OSP professional who should be featured in our Perspectives column? We need technicians, first-line managers, and, heck, we'll even take a CEO now and again. Send his/her name to Sharon Vollman: sharon@ospmag.com. She'll take it from there and gather insight and wisdom in snippets to share.