Why I joined AT&T
After managing and co-founding startups for 5 years, and spending almost 17 years in the tech industry, I decided to join AT&T’s R&D center in Israel as a Product Innovation Manager.
Here’s why.
Innovative ideas vs. innovative solutions
AT&T’s main goal for moving the R&D center to Israel was not off-shoring or reducing R&D costs (Israeli talents are almost as expensive as their US counterparts). Innovation and creativity are the primary reasons most big tech companies opened offices in Israel and keep expanding their presence.
While other companies focus on innovative solutions, AT&T focuses on innovative ideas, and that’s what makes the difference.
The AT&T R&D center in Israel is here to create, invent and build innovative ideas, for millions of users, in a variety of industries like IoT, telecommunications, entertainment, and more.
Entrepreneurship as a minimum requirement for a Product Innovation manager
You can learn a lot about a company from its position’s requirements, its must-haves, and nice-to-haves. It’s not (only) about how the requirements are written. It’s the way the role can and expected to impact the products, the millions of users, and maybe the entire organization. It’s about what the company’s leaders are looking for, and what they’re looking at.
As an entrepreneur, having the opportunity to propose new perspectives, come up with fresh ideas, and lead the teams to successful POCs, is an absolute delight.
The recruitment process
In the past 3 weeks I’ve been interviewing for positions at nine companies that approached me, and 2 other companies I’ve applied to. I consider the way a company recruited, the selection process, and the treatment of me as a candidate, to be key factors in my decision.
While in most of the companies, the interviews were focused on my past and the company’s future, at AT&T it was the total opposite. The people I’ve met were focusing on my future, what I want to do and why, and told me about the company’s history, what they achieved and how, and what they’re here for. That’s a whole different approach, allowing me to think together with the interviewers about our mutual future, and how we want things to get together.
Just like they’re building a family.
The people
Zero show-off, no extra extras, and lots of humanity. The people I’ve met during the process — managers, HR, administrators, everyone — were straightforward, respectful, and kind. it’s not the flowers they’re sending you when you sign the contract. it’s the small text messages you get from almost everyone, say they’re welcoming you and try to ensure your environment will be supportive and welcoming.
Maybe it’s a lot of words just to say they are amazing people, and that’s almost everything to me.