I’ve been with T for less than two years now. T has a lot of veterans, people with 20+ year careers and, from what I see and hear, decent savings and prep for retirement. I have a sense that those of us who came onboard relatively recently don’t stand a chance to have even a semblance of a job security, let alone a career. Do any of you think this will ever change, or one should definitely look at a T job just as another short gig?
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Are you located in Dallas?
You have a long career if you climb a pole and never grow you skillset.
Very true , but there are several union jobs within the company (wage scale 32 ) that do not require you to work outside or climb poles . You will improve your skillset a little but who cares if you can make 150k plus (with ot) , stay for 30 plus years have a pension and insurance when you retire. Invest regularly and become a multi millionaire with discipline. Again at the end of the day who cares if you grow your “skillset” or not , you are employed and retiring wealthy, isn’t that what it is about?
use the tuition reimbursement. No one advertises it for some reason.
5250 per year limit. 25k lifetime limit towards undergrad. 30k lifetime limit towards graduate.
why suffer and not get anything out of it? register at a college and knock out a degree on att's dime. eff em
Don’t walk. Run.
GTFO!!!
Get a few job skills. Broaden your skill set to me more desirable to a greater number of companies, and move on. AT&T cares not for the employees anymore. Move on as quickly as you can without hurting your career. You do not want to look like a company jumper.
Head for zee hills son.
Run!
You have a long career if you climb a pole and never grow you skillset.
I already know I'm on borrowed time so I don't stress the layoff that will happen. If you can accept the fact that you'll probably get laid off, don't sweat it. Why worry about something you can't control and can't change? Get your experience and stay until they tell you to leave. Then sue them.
Took my pension, 401k and severance and bounced after 23 years. It was a really great place to work with the exception of the last two years. The company could care less about you. The leadership and the BOD are incompetent. Take your talent where it will be appreciated.
I can speak a bit on this…
I interned here in 2019 and started full time in 2020 (TDP)
It was my first job out of college and as an SDE it paid reasonably well, I was over $100k in less than a year.
I cleared $200k last year as a Lead Member of Technical staff.
I excel at my work, and specialized here into a critical role…I’m a decent engineer.
That being said, I plan to leave. All of this drama with RTO and layoffs has been too stressful and too much of a distraction. I don’t see a future at this company and I don’t think they value experienced engineers and I feel like my skills are just wasted here.
Is the money decent? I guess, it would be better in tech but I’m comfortable. Could I move and probably keep my job? Yeah - I work on critical projects and I’ve been assured that wouldn’t change. The work I’m on is funded and critical to the future plans of the company…but I think I will stagnate here and even with all of these caveats I don’t feel truly valued at this company.
I plan to try to get on at Microsoft or some other tech firm with some of the work life benefits I want that will pay me to relocate once the market improves. I will probably pull favors and tough it out and avoid RTO til mid 2025 which is what I’m hearing the limit is on relocation then hopefully the job market has improved and I can make a clean exit.
Join the F.I.R.E movement. Almost there.
In a word: NO
I’ve been with T for less than two years now...I have a sense that those of us who came onboard relatively recently don’t stand a chance to have even a semblance of a job security, let alone a career.
Management or union?
If management: No long term career.
Union: You'll probably be around longer because of the hoops the company has to go through to lay you off.
Don’t expect you can make a carrier here. Work will became boring and repetitive the longer you stay. You will not learn new skills. There is no innovation. You will be threaten with constant layoffs. At some point, sooner or later your job will be transferred to India or Israel. Run Forrest run.
Depends on your team really. I’ve been here for 13 years. Many of the folks that started when I did or after are no longer here. From my limited observation there is a big gap in cohorts of pension and no pension. Far more people here that are 20+ with a pension than there are other groups, next biggest is the less than 5 newer hires than there are people with say 5-15 years. Most folks without a pension aren’t going to tolerate the treatment and lack of pay over time, most left by year 7 or 8. My advice, spend maybe no more than 5 years and move on. Otherwise your skills will get stale, you won’t be growing and your pay will fall behind market. You likely won’t move up any further if you haven’t by 5 years. Don't get stuck in that L2 no advancement track. The older you get the harder it is to find a new job.
Short...the company, board, vision, market, have all fundamentally changed. The days or ma bell for life are over...take what you need and bounce.
Get out as soon as you can.