As a member of our Field Operations Team, ride days are nothing new to Troy Prestenberg, Director – Technology, Field Transformation. What made this one special is that he shared it with family.
Marking the occasion of his son, David’s, first service anniversary, the 25-year AT&T veteran got the chance to appreciate his son’s handiwork. It’s not just about bonding, though. Troy’s monthly trips to the field serve a business-critical mission: supporting our technicians.
“The team I’m on develops applications to make the lives of the over 20,000 techs who work at AT&T easier. The cool thing is one of those techs is my son,” Troy said. “He has a very complex job, and I’ve learned a lot seeing it through his eyes.”
A Path to Field Ops
Troy began his life at AT&T after seven years of service in the U.S. Army. His first role was as an engineer responsible for installing Central Office equipment. Since then, he’s moved between several organizations, taking on staff roles and leadership positions. Each job has been different from the one before it – sometimes extremely different.
The ability to move around is one of Troy’s favorite things about working here. “The culture of AT&T has allowed me to make 15 job changes over my career. Some of them have been significant. Moving from engineering to operations to a consumer team and back again; not a lot of folks get to do that,” he said.
“I love making friends, getting to try different things and helping the company solve problems that are new to me.”
Transforming the Field
Today, Troy has, in his words, “one of the best jobs in the company.” He and his colleagues on the Field Ops Team are focused on delivering automation and tools to support the people in the field. Some of these changes are focused on the employee experience while others are about modernizing the technology his team uses.
“The main project I’m working on right now is a new scheduling application for our techs. It’s exciting because it has a direct impact on their work-life balance,” he said.
The new tool will improve the ways schedules are made. The nature of field work means there can be a lot of week-to-week variation in a technician’s schedule, and this application aims to bring consistency to the process. The team is focused on providing schedules with less weekly fluctuations and more back-to-back off days. This ultimately provides more stability for our technicians and their personal lives.
Another project in development uses AI to summarize thousands of conversations between technicians and call centers. “It might take an expert an hour to summarize about 15 of these conversations,” he explained. “This tool will let us insert a few thousand at once and give back a summary of each conversation as well as an overall summary. It allows us to get actionable insights that help us do our work.”
What inspires Troy and his team most is being able to help other teams across AT&T. He explained, “We care about our technicians, and we want them to enjoy coming to work as much as we do. As a bonus, I get to help my son.”
Starting a Tradition
When Troy arrived for their ride along, David’s team was surprised to hear about the connection. Instead of relying on the legacy, David wants his work to speak for itself.
Once the two hit the road, Troy got to see the work ethic that’s helping David build his career on his own terms. He’s hoping to make a tradition of it with annual father-son ride days, too.
“I get to do my job while spending time with my son. What could be better than that? I’m just so proud of him and know he’s going to go far.”
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