CAREERS
Finding a New Home with Cox
Finding a new job is hard enough, but moving yourself and your family can present a whole new set of challenges. We sat down (virtually) with Cox Sales Manager Vernon Bridges to hear his personal story of resilience while gaining a new start at Cox and how it was the best move for his career and his family.
Over the past several years, I’ve been working towards my journey to become part of the Cox family. I was living in Lake Havasu, AZ with my wife and our 6 children, and was approached a few times by a Cox recruiter for a position in Phoenix, AZ, which is about 170 miles from Lake Havasu. At the time, I was happy with my current job, and wasn’t looking to move my family. However, I kept in touch with the recruiter over the next few years, and as my job situation changed, I knew I needed to relocate to find the career that met what I was looking for in terms of fit, position, and that all-elusive company “culture” that I could call home.
In 2019, I was unemployed for eight months, and did numerous phone interviews, applications, formal interviews, and group interviews trying to find the right job for me. The reason I ultimately decided to relocate to Peoria, AZ (3 hours from where we lived) was because of a conversation I had with one of the Directors of Sales from Cox Business. While in the process of interviewing for a job at Cox, my conversation with him about the culture at Cox piqued my interest and sold me on all that Cox had to offer!
So, I moved my family to Peoria, AZ in August of 2019 and started my job with Cox later that year. I had to uproot my family from a place that we called home for nearly two decades – where we went to church and were involved in community organizations. My daughter reminds me that the worst part was that she had to be moved between her sophomore and junior year in high school (oh the horror!). I was looking for a company that would empower me, provide career advancement, invest in their employees, and do what was right by the customer. That’s why I pressed in to get the role that I wanted and did not sit back and wait for it to come to me.
Having worked for large enterprises and companies in the past, I’ve always considered culture to be an aspirational goal that you work towards, but achieving it is another matter entirely. However, I can tell you that the “Cox Culture” is a real thing. I’ve seen it come to life in the way that the company has chosen to take care of their employees during a global pandemic; offered focus groups where we can share our stories, an emphasis on the health and wellness of the employees, and additional support options that take care of the whole family. If that was all Cox did, I’d still say they achieved a culture that I haven’t seen at any other company. However, if you add on their commitment to the customer experience, and communities in which we live, I’m amazed.
In my current role with Cox as a Sales Manager, my day typically starts around 7 a.m. I’m always looking for ways I can help my team accelerate their sales. My team has a “huddle” call at 8:30 a.m. every day where we talk about any sales they’ve made and information that is helpful for the whole team. Every day, I am on virtual meetings with customers and my account executives, calls with sales engineering to discuss network builds/ designs, and meetings with management to discuss strategy to help our sales team accelerate sales and opportunities. The last few hours of my day I’m reading feedback and preparing information to present that’ll help my team continue to be successful.
I would tell anyone looking for a career change or interested in getting to know Cox, that the “Cox Culture” is real. Cox cares about our customers and we care about our teams. If you are looking for a company that embodies the saying “A rising tide lifts all boats” then you belong here.
It took me nearly three years of my journey to work for Cox and I’m appreciative that I had the opportunity to go through it and end up where I ended.
Thank you for learning a bit more about me, and hopefully you’ll come onboard!
Want to read more stories like this or discover a day in the life of our other teams at Cox? Check out our employee blog or search for open roles to learn more.