WEBVTT 00:00:00.060 --> 00:00:01.700 >> Alright, so my name's Robert Mendoza. 00:00:01.700 --> 00:00:04.800 I graduated from USC in 2011. 00:00:04.800 --> 00:00:07.650 I currently work for AT&T Mobility. 00:00:07.650 --> 00:00:12.970 I started with AT&T in the Retail Leadership Development Program which is a two-year program. 00:00:12.970 --> 00:00:18.240 They started us off in Atlanta, Georgia at Mobility headquarters, 00:00:18.240 --> 00:00:22.270 and we get to meet all the senior vice presidents and officers of the company. 00:00:22.270 --> 00:00:25.950 From that point, they move us into the retail side 00:00:25.950 --> 00:00:27.960 of the business and they show us everything. 00:00:27.960 --> 00:00:31.420 So they rotate us from back to front on the retail end. 00:00:31.420 --> 00:00:36.840 I ran a store in Atlanta, Georgia; Houston, Texas; and now I'm here in Los Angeles, 00:00:36.840 --> 00:00:39.150 California doing my final rotation. 00:00:39.150 --> 00:00:44.620 Here in Los Angeles, I've managed three retail stores, one being downtown, 00:00:44.620 --> 00:00:48.130 the other one La Canada, and the other one in Studio City where I'm at currently. 00:00:48.130 --> 00:00:53.540 Collectively, the most employees I've managed is about 35 unionized employees. 00:00:53.540 --> 00:00:58.450 So we basically drive business in the Los Angeles market. 00:00:58.450 --> 00:01:03.890 And the goal is to have us get exposure on the front line, and then after the contract is over, 00:01:03.890 --> 00:01:07.740 we go back into the corporate side or we go up the chain on the retail segment 00:01:07.740 --> 00:01:10.470 to hopefully become a future leader of this company. 00:01:10.470 --> 00:01:14.930 So. So after the contract expires on the retail segment, I will be going to -- 00:01:14.930 --> 00:01:17.610 we basically can choose where we want to go. 00:01:17.610 --> 00:01:21.230 The main thing is we have to find basically like a mentor, someone who is going to support us, 00:01:21.230 --> 00:01:24.880 a champion that is going to pull us into their organization 00:01:24.880 --> 00:01:27.780 and then teach us that side of the business. 00:01:27.780 --> 00:01:30.560 Most, like I would say maybe about 25 percent go 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:33.880 up the retail chain into the area manager position. 00:01:33.880 --> 00:01:38.050 So instead of -- they want to stay in retail; they manage a bunch of retail stores. 00:01:38.050 --> 00:01:41.890 Others want to go into the operations side of AT&T, so more of the networking 00:01:41.890 --> 00:01:44.000 and engineering, everything like that. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:45.750 There's a lot of avenues. 00:01:45.750 --> 00:01:49.940 It's a Fortune 12 company, so there's a lot of things that I can research 00:01:49.940 --> 00:01:51.320 into and see what I would like to do. 00:01:51.320 --> 00:01:56.570 It's just a matter of me finding something I want to do and then coming 00:01:56.570 --> 00:01:58.250 up with a game plan to get there. 00:01:58.250 --> 00:02:02.320 So. Well, a busy day starts with the doors open at 9:00. 00:02:02.320 --> 00:02:07.130 We've got customers coming in from 9 to 9 every day, 7 days a week. 00:02:07.130 --> 00:02:11.710 So I actually ran the largest corporate retail store in terms of volume in Los Angeles, 00:02:11.710 --> 00:02:16.470 so our foot traffic was around 30,000 people a month. 00:02:16.470 --> 00:02:20.490 So basically for me, with 35 employees I have to be able 00:02:20.490 --> 00:02:25.480 to handle basically the front-end sales all the way to the back-office operations. 00:02:25.480 --> 00:02:30.970 I'm responsible for everything in the store, so I need the help of my people to get that done. 00:02:30.970 --> 00:02:34.420 What would be characterized as busy I would say is the first of the month. 00:02:34.420 --> 00:02:35.920 Everyone's trying to get sales. 00:02:35.920 --> 00:02:39.700 The customer traffic is high because they got their first month's paycheck. 00:02:39.700 --> 00:02:45.360 A lot of disposable income in that downtown LA area that comes in and wants to buy phones. 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:48.870 One thing that AT&T is really focused on is customer experience, 00:02:48.870 --> 00:02:52.700 and one thing that we're continuously improving on is wait time in the stores, 00:02:52.700 --> 00:02:54.520 specifically in our retail stores. 00:02:54.520 --> 00:02:59.660 So it's my job to be on the sales floor basically greeting customers 00:02:59.660 --> 00:03:01.500 and setting the right expectations 00:03:01.500 --> 00:03:04.470 and making sure they have a good retail experience before they leave. 00:03:04.470 --> 00:03:04.560 So.