senior project manager

project manager

technician

network administrator

maintenance person

Great company to work for, was there for 22 years, and then was let go for the convenience of the company.  They allowed me to work remotely, which is not the norm there.  As a result, I was the most expendable.  Regular 8-5 day, lots of travel around the state.  Management is fully engaged, always looking for ways to expand and improve the company, as well as the customer experience.  Good benefits, the whole suite, including all of the products the company sells.  Salaries were very competitive, and yearly bonuses if the company exceeds yearly budgets (although they seem to find a new company to buy if the company had a very good year, thereby reducing or eliminating the bonus). Lots of opportunity to learn new technologies and equipment.  Hardest part was the travel, as it was often longer than I liked, sometimes 2 plus weeks at a time, in Arctic conditions, often on short notice.  Other times, you stayed in small villages or timber camps, or fish canneries, or mines that don't have a B&B, so you end up sleeping on the school gym floor, or the CO floor, and taking your own food. My supervisor was the type that assigned you work, and let you work those projects, with a minimum of interference, so long as you met the project deadlines.  Some of the PM's were tough to work with, others were great.

A typical day at GCI would include long busy lines with somewhat troublesome customers, new customers, and or customers needing technical support, a lot of cash handling and able to sell cable/internet/cell phones. I learned a lot about multi tasking and to stay calm and professional when we were to get busy, I also learned the value of team work. Management was troublesome at times when we'd be short staffed but always helpful. Coworkers became family and were always there to lend a helping hand when you tried to deal with everything yourself. The hardest part about the job was working in the cold drastic climates of Alaska winter weathers and having to travel in the worst conditions. The most enjoyable part was the monthly meetings where the managers would tell us what we needed to work on and reward us with praise on what we had accomplished

GCI has a get it done culture. It supports moving quickly in a collaborative environment where taking action and moving forward are rewarded. I've worked at a number of companies over the years and GCI, hands down, has the most entrepreneurial spirit of them all. The focus is always on finding out what needs to get done and then determining the quickest, most effective way to make it happen. The center of attention is always the situation. One of GCI's guiding principles is to stay centered on the objective, nevere make it about the people involved. When challenges arise, as they always will in any business setting, direct your energy to solving or creating a solution. Pinning blame does not win the game. Everyone wins when everyone drives all of their resources toward making it happen. More times than not, that is what occurs at GCI.

As a "temp" at GCI you are constantly reminded of your status, there are two sets of rules for "real" GCI employees.  There are also no perks for temps i.e. regular employees get bonuses for service report calls work, while temps are just  expected to do the same work for less pay.  GCI treats all the field service techs like cattle, taking advantage of the current job market, expecting good quality work from, for the most part ill trained, and underpaid employees.  Forcing temporary employees to take trouble calls even after the customer has asked for a lead technician.  Lead technicians leaving their team to fend for them selves because of over booking appointments for the day.  The complete lack of understanding by the supervisors  that each call is different.

The networking side of the business was very fast-paced, constantly changing, and very stressful. The positions often times called for after hours on-call and overtime was always available. The hardest past of the job was balancing the after hours work with home life. The other majors issues were the constant changes to the network and trying to stay abreast of the changes and technology. The most enjoyable was the understanding and flexibility of management. There is always something to learn, however, with the work load, there is not always time. It is not uncommon for only one person to know how certain equipment worked and was configured. This information is only for the networking side, I know the other departments operated differently.

Slow adoption of industry best practices because old timers keep doing what they have always done. Technical teams are lacking expertise. Customer satisfaction ratings are really low.  Focused on making a dollar, not on meeting customer needs. They may launch technology before the rest of the US but don’t know how to operate it. This results in poor, unreliable service for the customer. Their have no eye on customer experience even though they have a CX team. It is acceptable to have hour long wait times to talk to a service rep as they have made zero progress at reducing wait times for years. 

A day of productivity, ensuring quality, able to see results or advancement in daily tasks.
Every day is a learning period with results showing how to move forward.
Able to manage teams to ensure productivity and progression is gained in a business environment with a complimentary staff to move the company forward.
A business culture to adhere to basic principles to treat all as one would like to be treated.
Diversity; able to manage, and process internal and external customer requests in a timely manner with quality.
Customer satisfaction knowing the customer is willing to continue using the company for their customer requests and able to come back again for your assistance.

The management made an effort to include me in what they could even beyond what was necessary to complete my summer project, but just to introduce me to the broader company. My manager was very helpful in assisting me and making resources available as he could. A very inclusive environment no one made assumptions about my capabilities, but gave me larger responsibilities and more work as I completed my tasks. A very happy workplace, the other workers seemed happy and got along well with each other, a lot of goodwill. I definitely would want to work there in the future.

I helped customers with telecommunication, cable TV, internet and landline issues and took payments for personal accounts. The  management was very professional and pushed us to do better to which gave me a lot of confidence to do my best. I worked well with all of my coworkers which made it easier to perform day to day duties to the best of my ability. The hardest part about the job would have been the unruly customer the we dealt with on occasion and the must enjoyable part would have been helping out a customer with an issue and they leave in a better situation then when they came in.

• A typical day at work would consist of answering phone calls and providing quality customer service, and selling GCI products
• I learned that not all people are the same, you will have to accommodate the customers needs in different ways (based on language, personality, etc)
• I really enjoyed all my coworkers, very professional, and friendly, after several years of working with them we became like family
• Hardest part of the job was getting there in the winter snow
• The most enjoyable part of my job was that I had lots of room for advancement, and the money was great

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Senior project manager 4 salaries reported	$105,812 per year
Project manager 4 salaries reported	$82,750 per year
Technician 3 salaries reported	$29.33 per hour
Network administrator 3 salaries reported	$23.00 per hour
Maintenance person 1 salary reported	$21.94 per hour

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