In a cold morning of December 6th, 2010, I started my day one as a procurement specialist for AT&T, the name of a telecom giant. It is worth to mention that AT&T used to be the owner of Bell Canada. Today in Canada market, AT&T as a US subsidiary, is way smaller and working hard to compete with other service providers.
The Network Integration team had solid business at that time. Since the first day I joined them, my everyday work is filled with quotations, orders and billings.
As I learned, majority of existing clients are having similar stories. In the US, AT&T is their network provider. When expanding their business in Canada, they used to ask support from AT&T Canada. By doing so, their Canadian children are able to take advantage of the relationship and financial shares from US head quarters. The name reputation of AT&T also earns them credit of other local engagements.
So-called "The NI team", there was a funny story behind. One of my friends from Finance Department, ever asked me what NI is. Is that "NET INCOME"? Aha, no, of course it was not the 'net income'. However, the revenue the team generated really brought a significant portion of overall income.
My direct boss, he is the director and department head. All other seven co-workers are engagement managers. They talked to every potential client, tried to analyze their network expansion needs, drafted a IT solution, and negotiated financial payments. I helped them pull a quotation from the suppliers, placed the order, tracked the shipping, validated the billing and reconciled the payment.
If someone ever ask me how is everyday like working there, I would say that I feel like working in a busy news station. Why? Because all my co-workers were either talking on phone or online conference with their clients, one after another client. I was listening to multiple channels all the same time!
