Neil Cobb is the former Executive Director of AT&T's federal and commercial proposal operation. He held this position for 13 of his 20 years of proposal work. Cobb is also a former UNT Tech Comm lecturer, adjunct instructor, and current advisory board member.

BEGINNINGS AT SOUTHWESTERN BELL

He began his career with AT&T, then known as Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in 1996. Cobb was originally hired out of college as a supervisor for phone operators.

He was later offered an opportunity to work for the department of finance. As an English major with no accounting experience, he was initially hesitant to accept the position. Cobb eventually spent eight years in this role and became an executive.

"They saw in me something they wanted," said Cobb, "They saw an aptitude and slotted me right in."

EXPERIENCE WITH UNT TECH COMM

After eight years, he grew weary of his career in finance and returned to school at UNT to take graduate courses in technical writing. Cobb recalled the technical style course as "a revelation."

"I felt like I was learning how to write all over again," said Cobb. "That class taught me how to make a difference in business writing."

TECH WRITING CAREER AT AT&T

While earning his master's degree at UNT, he applied for a technical writing position in the new AT&T proposal center in Dallas. Cobb was hired on the spot and became the first technical writer on staff.

Cobb created proposals manually with a team of writers. He recalls it being difficult work, often involving him and other team members tracking down subject-matter experts individually and sitting down for marathon writing sessions. "We would sit people down and not let them leave until we had our information," said Cobb, laughing.

Eventually, he proposed the idea of an automated database to take data directly from sales representatives and autofill proposal documents. He and teams of programmers and writers put together databases with customer information, best practices for writing proposals, and a question-and-answer database for new and returning customers.

Cobb earned a promotion to Director of Content Management as a result of his work. Soon after, he earned a second promotion to Executive Director of the proposal department. He remained director for 13 years and retired in 2013.

RETURN TO UNT AND RETIREMENT

Cobb returned to UNT as a lecturer in 2015 and taught advanced technical writing courses (specifically TECM 4180) until he retired in 2017.

As a veteran of the proposal industry, he advises students to self-evaluate their work, portfolios, and desire to work with technology they love.

"If you go into that side of tech comm, you need to be able to demonstrate that you understand what you're writing about." said Cobb. "Think about it like this: does what I know match with where I wanna go?"

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