Getting Hired at AT&T - My Story

I've been lurking in these forums throughout the time I was in the hiring process, and really appreciate all the info. I thought I'd contribute what I learned during the hiring process, so here we go! (This was broken up into multiple posts due to length)

On November 25th after searching the AT&T Job boards at connect.att.jobs I found open positions at 2 different corporate stores near me each looking for a “Full Time Retail Sales Consultant”, I applied to the first position filling out the basic online resume, answering some eligibility questions, and finally taking the 114 question personality test. The good news is, once you take the 114 question test, you will never have to take it again! It is saved to your AT&T Hiring profile, so the questions will be automatically filled in for you if you apply to multiple jobs.

On November 29th I got a call from the regional AT&T recruiter. She wanted to verify my previous employment that I listed in my online resume, such as employment dates & titles. She also asked if I had any criminal history, and why I wanted to work for AT&T. After about 10 minutes, she asked if I was available to meet with the regional HR manager the next morning. I said yes, so she made an appointment for 9AM the next morning.

On November 30th, I met with the regional HR manager at AT&T Regional HQ. She was very friendly, and asked me lots of questions in STAR format (Situation, Task, Action, Response). She then went over my resume extensively, and asked me why I thought I was right for the job. This interview lasted about an hour, and after that she texted the manager of the store I was applying too, and setup an appointment for me to go there the next morning.
Remember when your in this interview, RSC is a heavily commissioned SALES position, make sure to highlight your past sales experience, as that is what they are looking for. (Continued below)

When he/she asks you to describe past situations you’ve been in, try to focus on situations relating to sales or customer service. Focus on how you made money for your previous employers. The manager your speaking with now speaks to hundreds of candidates a week, and he/she is the one who will decide whether to move you on in the process. If you have any unique sales strategies, now is the time to mention it!
On December 1st, I went to the store location I was applying too, and the manager brought me to the back for about a 90 minute interview. This covered everything from "Sell me this phone" to "Why do you want to work for AT&T?". It was a very laid back interview, and the manager explained to me the commission structure, and what a day-in-the-life of a consultant will be. She went over my resume, and asked how my experience from each past position would help me in my job at AT&T. Remember, be sure to talk about how you made money for your previous employers. The store manager is hiring you to make them money. After about 90 minutes, she had me shadow another consultant for a few minutes, to help me understand the job. I asked him some questions, and watched him handle customers. Afterwards, the manager said I would be hearing back from the HR recruiter in a few days, to find out whether I got the job.

2 weeks after my in-store interview, after almost giving up on hearing back from AT&T, I got a call from the HR recruiter. She extended me a formal offer, contingent on background & drug test. I was offered $11.42/hr (Full Time), with an "Annual targeted at-risk variable compensation" between $14,400 and $15,600 (that's estimated commission). Being a full time job, it also included full benefits. This included med/dental/etc. Since it was a union represented job, it also included guaranteed raises every 6 months, and a few other things like that. I received an email detailing the offer aswell, and there was an online portal I went to where I actually signed the offer letter.

THE BACKGROUND CHECK:

AT&T uses a company called HireRight to process background checks & drug tests. I have heard a lot of bad things about them, but I knew my record had nothing to hide. After a few days, they said they needed tax records to prove employment dates at one of my previous employers. These records had to be W2's, 1099's, or pay stubs, NOTHING else. I had records of everything except for the end date, since 2011 W2's hadnt been issued yet, and I no longer had access to pay stubs. But after running around like crazy, I was able to find a pay stub from 2011, all good.
I took the drug test at a local facility, which was really convenient. After 4 days, my HireRight online account showed the report was complete.

TIP: Contact HireRight via live chat, or phone support once your background report says complete, and ask for a copy of the report. They will email it to you, and you'll be able to see the full report that AT&T see's, so you can dispute things if anything is incorrect.

Once the report said complete, I contacted my recruiter, and she said congratulations, I'm hired!

Today, 10 days before I start my training, I received a call from the AT&T Onboarding Team, who gave me details on the training.
The first 2 weeks of training will be in Jacksonville, about 100 miles from my home. If I keep a mileage record and give it to my store manager upon completing training, I will be reimbursed for travel at .55 cents a mile. I’ll check into the hotel on the Sunday before training begins (The 15th of Jan), and checkout on the Friday of the 2nd week (27th of Jan). Training will take place Mon-Fri 8:30AM – 5:30PM.
I will receive a company card to use during training, which will provide me $42 per day to spend on food only. This will only work while I’m in Jacksonville. I’ll receive the card on the first day of training (Monday). I was told dress code was business casual, kahki pants/polo shirt was fine. I was told I would receive AT&T Branded shirts in the first or second week.
The 3rd week, I will go back to my home store, and train the whole week.
The 4th week, I will go back to Jacksonville, checking into the hotel that Sunday. I will spend Mon-Fri attending more training, and then will be ready to begin actual work.

Hope this helps, good luck with you application, if you have any questions, please let me know!

Thanks for all of your helpful information. I do have some questions though,

What kind of experience and education did you have to receive this pay?
Any specific questions on the interview I should really study for?
Is the commission you stated above guaranteed or an estimate on if you complete all goals?
Any other information you feel is important on commission?
Any information on company phones and uniforms?
How long after your offer did you have to complete background and drug test?

Any other info you have would be helpful as I am seriously considering applying for a position.

I'll do my best to answer your questions:

I am currently doing college online for criminal justice, so am currently under the "Some College" category. My previous work experience was running my own event production company for several years, which I made sure to highlight the sales aspect of that, selling shows to potential clients. I also had worked at an office supply store for a few years, which happened to sell Sprint phones. I was sales leader for several months at that store, so that did help me.

The interview questions from the HR regional manger were pretty much asking me to describe various customer situations I've experienced in the past. Like "Tell me a time you overcame a customers objections, to close a sale". Pretty much assessing my ability to deal with customers. Nothing complicated.

The commission I was given was if you hit 100% of goal. Now from what the consultants I've spoken with have told me, they usually are 120-160% of goal, sometimes even higher. And if you go above 100% of goal, you get paid commission at a higher level. It is all ways to complicated for me, and I am still trying to learn how it all works. But from what I've heard, 100% of goal is the minimum of what you should be expecting to earn, and hopefully you can sell above that. It incredibly complicated, so I'd love if somebody else could fill me in on that.

I was told I'll receive $150 credit to purchase shirts from the AT&T Online employee store, button ups/polo shirts etc. Then you wear kahkis/dress pants etc. that you pay for as well. I'm not sure on the dress code specifics. I'll be receiving a company phone, with unlimited everything, to use as a demo phone. I'll receive that after training from my store manager. After 60 days, I'll be able to use an Employee Rate Plan for up to 2 free personal lines, with 1000 mins for the first, and 500 mins for the second. Don't have all the details on that yet though.

Also once I received the contingent offer, I had 48 hours to take the drug test, no exceptions, and I had to complete the background check form that day. DONT SKIP ANYTHING. When you fill out your background check form, make sure you are dead on with the start/end dates, and you are honest about everything, it is very in depth, and they will call everyone. If they can't reach a particular employer at the number you give them on that form, they will expect W-2's/1099's/paystubs within 48 hours. It is a kind of stressful process, but once you pass, your golden!

Wow. Thank you so much for all of your useful information. I think I am going to try and apply for a position soon. It sounds fun, but I have heard bad things as well. I would love to hear updates and more info on the commission and other aspects when you learn more about them if you have time to post them. Thanks again and good luck on your new career.

I'll make this as short as possible. My story is very similar to Alex's. I applied online on 10.19.2011 and took the assessment test the same day. Att emailed me on 10.20.2011 saying they received my application. I didn't hear anything from Att until 11/29/2011. They sent me an email saying more information was needed. I had to update some things in my profile on Taleo. That same day I received a phone call from a staffing manager seeing if I was available to interview with the Centralized Hiring Manager at one of their stores on Dec 2nd 2011, of course I said yes. I went to the interview and it was kind of short and sweet. The guy asked me a few questions about my history and why I picked ATT. I answer all of those questions thoroughly. My interview with him was probably 15 minutes long. I could tell he was very interested in me and said he would set up an interview with the store manager early the next week. Well I didn't hear anything for almost 2 weeks. On Dec. 11th 2011 I received a call from the hiring manager again saying that they wanted me to interview with the store manager the next day. I went to the store where i would be working for an interview with the manager and he wasn't there. I spoke with one of the employee's and he said the manager got called to another store because there was a situation. I asked him what store and he told me. So, I tracked down the manager at the store where he was. I go in the store and this place was packed with employee's. I could tell a couple of them were big wigs. I asked for the guy I was looking for and the young lady said I will go get him. He just happened to walk out from the back. He confusingly asked if he could help me. I told him I was suppose to have an interview with him at the other store, he was like oh yeah and he apologized for not being there. He totally forgot because of the store situation. One of the guys there happened to be a regional manager that called in to help with the problem. cont. below

Do to the fact that the store where we were wan't his, his email wasn't set up for him to conduct the interview. The general manager said it was fine and told him to call corporate and have them email him the info he needed to conduct the interview. They took me in the back and I stood around about 15 minutes until they got everything set up for him the interview me. The general manager stepped out and the interview started. To me it was a very mild kind of fun interview. He looked at my resume and seen I had been a manager myself in my last 2 jobs. He told me they need leadership because a lot of the employee's are younger and don't want the responsibility of being a manager. I applied for the RSC position. Being that i'm in my late 30's he asked me was I fine with working around younger folks. I told him of course not. I can work with anyone. He goes on to tell me a little bit about the job and a little about himself. He was a very cool guy and i'm excited he is going to be my manager. <---I guess that let's you know I got the job, but i will continue my story. He told me in a year that it is very possible in the area i'm in that I could very well be a manager. He said they need them bad. The interview lasted about 30 minutes. I could tell he wanted to hire me on the spot, and he pretty much did without actually telling me that. He thanked for tracking him down which impressed him and the general manager. It showed him I was very interested. He told me that Att would be in contact with me in a couple of weeks. Yeah right, I got a call about an hour later with the informal job offer from the hiring manager. I was so happy. With the job market the way it is, it's hard here to find a job with a solid company. Over the next couple of days I got a series of emails for me to complete more info for the hiring process. My last email for updated info was received on 12/15/2011. Another long 2 silent weeks goes by with nothing. continue below.

Due to the fact that it was the holiday season it was expected. I finally got a call on Dec. 30th 2011 with the official job offer from the hiring manager. She told me a little bit about what will be happening and said I would start to get a cries of emails. One of those emails was from Hireright. The dreaded company I have been reading about on the internet and in in these forums for the past month. I was so stressed out about that part of the process, even though I knew everything I reported was legit. I had to e-sign my offer letter and set up my info on Hireright's website. Being that my criminal history has been clear for 13 plus years I didn't report any of my misdemeanor's I had. Which was 2 chargers for marijuana possession and a driving on suspension that happened over 15 years ago. I did report 2 speeding tickets i got in the last 2 years. Hireright didn't start my check until Jan. 4th 2012 due to the new year. Jan 5th I got an email to do the drug screen and I took that the next day. One of my previous employer's has closed down, so they required me to fax over proof of my employment. Due to the fact that i save all of my paperwork. I had my first pays tub and my last pays tub from that employer. I also called the IRS and had ten fax over my transcripts, which is painless. I uploaded that to the Hireright website. I also had my employment dates wrong, so I sent an email with those documents to the hiring manager also. Let me add, the hiring manager is very helpful and said people getting the dates wrong happened all of the time. This morning Jan 6 012 I received an email from Hireright saying my background check was completed and they included a copy of it. Now i'm mad I was stressing out about the whole background check for nothing because of reading other people's horror stories. That whole process for me was painless with Hireright. It took all of 4 days to complete. continue below

Now I know SOME of the people with the Hireright horror stories weren't up front and honest with their info. I have a start date a whole moth from today, Feb 6th 2012. So, if you're looking for employment that starts right away, don't go with Att. Or find another job while you go through the Att process. My whole process started from the day I submitted my resume on 10.19.2011 all the way to my actual start date of Feb. 6th 2012. I hope my info will help you folks and i'm very happy and excited about starting my 4 week training. Anybody with infer on training please respond with all of the info you can. Anyone has questions for me, please feel free to ask. I check my email all of the time.

how is the pay?is it more than 13 bucks?