The Nix Family: Starting an AT&T Legacy

Nikki Nix started her #LifeAtATT on September 16,2002. Almost 16 years to the day, on September 17, 2018, her son, Jordan, started his. “There’s a term that’s popular right now: nepo baby,” Nikki said. “It refers to celebrity children who have success in, usually the same, careers as their famous parents. I think we can introduce a new term to our culture… an AT&T legacy!”

The beginning of a legacy

Before beginning her career at AT&T, Nikki worked as a regional recruiter for a retail pharmaceutical company, hiring pharmacy technicians, pharmacists, and store managers for 245 stores that covered almost the entirety of Florida. “I was the true definition of a road warrior,” she said.

Around the same time, Jordan was entering first grade, which prompted Nikki to start thinking about a career change. “I wanted to ensure I could be home every night to cook him a meal, help with homework, attend sports practice, and ease my overwhelming mom guilt.”

In March of 2002, she interviewed for a staffing manager role at our Orlando Call Center. The interview process was full speed ahead and she had a job offer in a week, but a hiring freeze at the time kept her from starting until September. “To my surprise, that hiring manager contacted me weekly from March until September and kept me engaged until the freeze concluded,” she told us.

In her new position, she was responsible for staffing the entire 1,500 seat call center and oversaw hiring for three business units. “Since 2002, I have gone through two mergers, been under the leadership of numerous managers, became a staffing lead, then transitioned to an Associate Director role and hired some of our best talent,” she said. While she was climbing the ladder at AT&T, she found herself figuring out a new balance between work duties and mom duties.

Going with the flow

“I was married for the first ten years of my AT&T career, so I had a partner to help with daily balance,” she told us. “Once I divorced, it became more challenging to balance the roles of mom and career woman.” More challenging, but not impossible.

Nikki credits a fireside chat with an AT&T HR executive at the time that provided inspiration for how to balance work and home. The executive spoke about crystal balls and rubber balls in life. Crystal balls are things that will shatter if dropped and never come back. Rubber balls bounce back and can be handled later. “I loved her energy and her insights when it came to being a working mother who was also a successful, female force at a Fortune 500 company,” she explained.

With inspiration and time to learn, she figured out how to pull off the balancing act. Her secret was maintaining a daily routine and knowing that the balance ebbs and flows. “There are times when I need to pour more energy into my work life and times when I dedicate more to my family,” she added.

Continuing the legacy

Jordan had followed in his mother’s footsteps, attending journalism school at her alma mater, Florida A&M University. She wasn’t expecting him to follow her path even further. “One of my colleagues told me that he applied for an entry level Customer Support Specialist role she was supporting at the Orland Call Center,” she told us, “This was completely unbeknownst to me.”

Jordan’s career with us progressed quickly, too. In his first year, he went from Customer Support Specialist in Mobility Tech Support to Customer Service Representative in Mobility Sales and Services where his sales performance earned him a Summit award – the top honor for sellers at AT&T. “In what seems like a blink of an eye, a career-driven man stands where a little boy – who was only six years old when I started here – used to be,” Nikki said.

Over the next few years, Jordan continued to shape his career, moving into training roles. At the end of 2021, he came to his mom looking for advice. A Senior Training Manager role had become available, and he wanted her thoughts. “I told him to go for it,” she said. “In his tenure as a trainer, he’s received positive feedback from new hires, and he is a highly sought-after trainer by his peers.”

Another quote Nikki remembers from those fireside meetings: “When you join a company that you love – where you’re appreciated and respected – stay there. Plan your climb. Take advantage of everything it has to offer.” When she began her career here over 20 years ago, she couldn’t have imagined how much this sentiment would mean to her family.