I’ve been with AT&T for a long, long time. I joke and say that it’s been the best job I’ve ever had, but that’s mostly because between working with my AR partners and with Corporate AT&T, I’ve been here since 2009.
Fast forward to April of 2022. I finally got my dream job. Being able to do photo, video, and communications for the company in an official capacity. I had been doing photo and video and design work for AT&T a long before this, but it was always because my boss’ boss’ boss heard through the grapevine that I could do it and was then approached. But this was for real.
I had just come off of two years doing a special project role during COVID - we had sold off a large portion of our corporate retail stores to third parties, and they were all fresh faced and hadn’t ever seen the inner workings of AT&T to this point.. That’s where I came in. My job was to transform them in a few weeks into an actual AT&T retail store - understanding the ins and outs of what we do every day. I was good at this. Very good. I was given award after award, MVPs and even an InnovatER award for my role in developing a new style of training that went through the entire program.
I got a call from my manager, Keith Traster, a Director of Sales, to stop what I was doing and apply for this new role.
I applied, and all of a sudden I was thrown into a totally new world. I was hired virtually, my team was based in Dallas but in reality were all over the United States. Denver, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle. They were a star-studded line up of high performers and people that were actually shaping what I was - to that point - on the receiving end of every day. I went down to Dallas and the AT&T headquarters building for my first time on that trip. I remember my flight getting in late the night before our first meeting, and I looked across the street from my hotel room at the Discovery District and our headquarters. I thought I was so cool. I get to be part of this.
I’ve been able to do so much and accomplish so many things since that moment. I’ve been to Dallas a few more times over the last year and a half. I’ve gotten to have conversations with people that were under NDA and with executives that I’m fortunate to have been in the room with. I shaped the voice of the President of Broadband Growth and Distribution to a record breaking 1.2M Fiber subscriber growth over the last year. I contributed. I made a difference.
That puts me to now. I’ve been a high performer on my team. I’ve lead initiatives. I’ve been asked by other organizations how to replicate what I’m doing for their teams. But here we are. Earlier this summer, our CEO John Stankey announced his plan for all management staff to Return to Office - citing that culture and communication were key pillars in this.
While I’ll keep my thoughts to myself for now, I’ve now got a letter in front of me saying that I have a “choice.” To either move to Dallas to continue my career, find something local, or ultimately leave the company.
So if in the next few days you see a bunch of videos and updates to this site, take a look. See some of the cool stuff I’ve made. I appreciate you being here. Thank you.