Company: BellSouth Corporation
Location: Orange Park, FL
Industry: Telecommunications
Duties: VB.Net. Database Developer. Database Administrator. Web Server Administrator.
My stint at BellSouth didn’t last long, only two years. Looking back, it should have been obvious they were winding down their business. It was my first consulting job after moving to Florida, and I thought I hit the big time. For those who don’t know, BellSouth was a huge telecom company and internet provider at the time.
I got the job immediately during a fluke interview. They were having issues with their IIS server (Internet Information Server), the very same issue I dealt with in my previous job just a few weeks earlier. I must have impressed them.
This BellSouth hub was a customer service center. The building was huge, but only had a handful of employees…red flag number 1. I was tasked with writing software that monitored the efficiency of their customer service representatives. I made a huge display that monitored their work in real-time and displayed a constantly updating leader board. That would never be allowed today. Way too many feels.
My supervisor was a friendly guy, but hinted at corporate financial issues. Obvious red flag number 2. The company tasked him with implementing a hardware solution to “roll up” our hub allowing a different hub to take over in another state during emergencies, like hurricanes, or union strikes. Not so obvious red flag number 3.
One day I got a call telling me they sold the company and rolled our hub up into the bigger one in Tennessee. They fired me.