Pros
AT&T is a great company to work for if you have no college experience. They pay for all of your training and any tools you need. Everything you do is tracked by a numbers system, and as long as you are even slightly mediocre at your job, you'll have one as long as you want. You can pretty much work all the overtime you want. That's my bread and butter. Time and a half after 40hrs worked, that means I'm making over $32/hr. I started out at $15.50 and after 2 years im making $21.53. My first year I made $43k, and $55k this year. The union bargains wage increases and other workers rights every four years (IBEW) Our health benefits are very good, especially if you've got a family. 2 weeks vacation every year, along with personal days, flex holidays, etc, all paid. If you need a day off and you know in advanced you just get on the website, pick what day you need and that's thats.
Cons
You must have some sort of relationship with technology, if you aren't tech savvy, you're probably going to get frustrated and quit within the first week. Customers expect you to fix any and everything that is wrong with their gadgets. You are AT&T, you are apparently a walking technological master. You must have all the answers? Right?! Let's talk about the weather. Now I live/work in Illinois. We experience about 2 spring months 4 swelteringly humid summer months, 2 months of fall and then hell itself freezes over. I personally hate the cold. We work in all elements but when it's -24 degrees out and you have to walk thru a backyard with a latter on your shoulder thru 2-3 feet of snow and the wind is blowing and you're gloves are frozen to your fingers, you really start questioning your motive to live. You just want to lay down in the nice soft snow and take a nap and forget that you hate yourself. Seriously though, Mother Nature can be brutal depending of geographical location. If you're lazy, please, just move along. I've seen guys come and go with this job. They come in all enthusiastic and then once they get a taste of doing the job themselves and their soul is crushed they start half-assing their job and then we're back out on jobs they've done, days later, fixing something that they should've done the first go round. If this starts happening, the senior technicians may or may not coordinate to have you ousted for your insubordination. And they should. Because you are unworthy. Do your job man! That's what they pay you for!
