6.29.2010
Over the weekend, I was shopping for wedding stuff at the Christmas Tree Shops (no, it's not just christmas stuff) and ran into an old family friend. We were talking shop, and I realized that very day marked my 5th year anniversary at Comcast! I said, HOLY CRAP I'VE BEEN HERE FIVE YEARS! Exact words.
So, dear readers/followers/family/friends... let's recap the rough and tumble life of a ComcastBonnie at Comcast eh? :D
Stardate June 2005 - Bonnie (age 20) gets hired as an ONLINE ONLY CAE. This means I troubleshoot internet issues. That's it. Not billing, not video, not phone (since phone wasn't really around yet with us)... just internet. Back then, we had some pretty awesome homebrew tools that folks would compile around the call center. Maybe we're nerds, maybe we're dedicated, or maybe we just like to build things. Who knows? I wanted to help, and that was that!
November 2005 - Bonnie gets the most amazing and inspiring boss ever. John L. (who will be the speaker at my wedding) understood my quirks, and worked with me to avoid being fired. I'm a loose canon, and @comcastcares can attest to this. John stuck up for me when management balked at things I said to customers. I like to tell you guys how it is, and not sugarcoat it. Ya'll seem to appreciate that, and I'm not one to play things down.
March 2006 - PROJECT TIME! We needed to upgrade our databases to make sure the addresses in our systems matched the right ratecenters established a long time ago. Three arduous weeks later, we had successfully verified hundreds of thousands of accounts! In doing this, I learned a TON about how porting phone numbers works, how rate centers work, and why things are they way they are.
June 2006 - The feared Digital Voice training came. Up until this point, a handful of folks had our Digital Voice product and well... it wasn't all that great. I heard the phone calls where people were screaming about their phones not working and all sorts of weird issues. Growing pains are NO FUN. Learning how to fix those pains was fun though! We got it down to a fine science, diagnosing issues remotely and sending technicians for things that needed techs. Learning new things every day is like... I dunno... Crack. I don't know what crack does other than kill but I do know it's addictive... and learning is VERY addictive.
September 2006 - PROJECT TIME! I was sent to our freshly formed porting department. I learned how to port phone numbers, learned how the process works between us and other providers, followed up on installs to make sure things went ok, and handled emergency situations with the utmost care. This job was awesome because of the customers I got to call. I didn't get calls from them, I called THEM to check up. I was tickled pink when I got to hear outcomes, and also followup with troublesome issues.
August 2007 - Still on that project. Got a little irritated and bored, so I searched around the company for a new gig. That landed me a position as a provisioning analyst at one of our data centers in PA. I spent my days/nights making sure that system remained up and running, and spent MANY 1-6am Sunday mornings up doing maintenances. It was mostly Unix and SQL, both of which I had to pick up along the way. Again, learning is crack.
November 2008 - @comcastcares and @comcastgeorge thought it'd be an awesome idea if I came over and interviewed for the team. Keep in mind, I didn't apply for this. I had emailed Frank awhile back telling him how awesome it was that he was keeping tabs on Consumerist and reaching out to folks online. For the longest time, we were strictly forbidden from such things. This was a HUGE sign that things were changing within the company. I wanted to be part of that change, and move things in a new direction.
Present Day - I've been tweeting since January of 2009. I have over 70k tweets, a New York Times article, a Shorty Award, 4k+ AWESOME FOLLOWERS, and the best job on earth. I'm able to do things I'd never thought possible before. I'm helping to make a difference in people's lives by bringing a tiny ray of sunshine to an otherwise dark day. This whole team is committed to bringing change within our organization. We're committed to you, the Customer. We're committed to our Employees. We're committed to making this the best place it can be. Engineers, techs, phone reps... all of us.
I know you're scoffing and saying "Sure... yeah right. I'll believe it when I see it" and you have every right to! Change of this magnitude is not something that can happen overnight. When I started tweeting a year and a half ago, I saw a positive tweet maybe once a month. Skip forward to now, I'm seeing at LEAST five a day. Now, it might seem insignificant... but that's a huge deal to me. We're starting to make that change, and it's becoming noticeable.
We've still got a long way to go, but you know what? I'm in this for the long haul, and more importantly I'm in this for you.
Cheers, to all of my new friends and family. Without your understanding and patience, I wouldn't be here today and who knows what mischief I'd be getting myself in to :) <3 you all, and I mean it.