I haven’t been on this thread in years but with many of my colleagues being surplussed or fired (often for ridiculous reasons, if you are a level 3 or higher they are basically finding ways to terminate you to not pay a surplus package) and reaching out I thought it best to post a message here.
Background: I worked for AT&T for over 10 years in sales starting in retail and then going over the B2B. I was lucky and enough to find a job during the surplus process and was ready to leave.
Some advice, if you are on this site you either know something is coming or are not happy at T. Good time start planning your exit. T will have more layoffs this year, as is evident by their revenue per employee (being about 30% lower than VZW or TMo). Finding a job outside of T can be difficult because many employers (especially smaller ones) don’t want to take a chance on a large corporate “cog” whose they perceive as not being a self starter.
The obvious starting point is your network but then what? The advantage of working at T is that it’s a well known company and many of the skills and training you had are transferable, find the desired roles you want, pivot you resumes accordingly and pay for LinkedIn premium (it’s worth the $20 a month).
Secondly, while the initial job jump is hard from ATT, it gets better. One year after leaving T you’ll become a significantly more attractive candidate, why? Because then your perception is someone who has the institutional training that a large company has to offer but you’ve been able to “make it” outside.
Lastly I know it can frustrating, believe me my last year at ATT I applied to over 50 jobs with no call backs. But just be open to creating different resumes based on the position, be willing to take a step down when necc (companies outside of ATT often pay more - think Tech), so like an AVP would make the same as a director or senior manager in some companies. Use the technology out there to give yourself a leg up. There are dozens of AI resume builders, fine the one that best suited your needs. It’s worth the cost (sometimes) as they are built to get through AI gate keepers.
Good Luck, and I promise the grass is greener.