Man Who Didn’t Have a Phone or a Place to Live When He Got Hired by AT&T Now a Corporate Director (Exclusive)

Climbing the corporate ladder can be a difficult task for even the most seasoned professionals. George Robey IV had a steeper hill to climb than most, but that didn't deter him from taking on the challenge.

Robey was raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he faced his fair share of trials and tribulations early on. He says his parents gave him and his siblings “the best life they could,” but that things were not always easy.

Before long, Robey says he found himself wandering “down the wrong path” in life and frequently went against the guidelines set by his parents.

At one point, Robey and his family moved to Gaithersburg. “That's where things kind of got really hectic in my life,” he tells PEOPLE in an interview on his 40th birthday.

Robey was kicked out of his home “around the end of 2006, beginning of 2007." For a while, he lived in a truck he had previously paid off and would sleep in the woods “from time to time.”

“Anywhere I could sleep, or find a good place that was good enough, I would kind of sleep around, stay there and things like that," Robey tells PEOPLE.

Just “a few months later,” Robey learned his girlfriend was pregnant with his first child. Though thrilled by the news, Robey says he suddenly felt “a lot more pressure” to make ends meet.

A short time later, Robey stumbled upon his big break when he spotted an AT&T sign “glowing” nearby. “When I saw that sign,” he says, “I took a leap of faith.” 

Robey marched inside the store, and asked the employees if the company was hiring. It’s a day he says he’ll never forget. “I looked horrible when I walked into that store,” Robey recalls. “Most places would have judged me.”

The employees told Robey that they were indeed hiring, and someone went to fetch their manager, Yassir Querishe, whom Robey still has “an amazing relationship” with “to this day.”

“It was really cool that the store manager at that time did not judge me, and he gave me the opportunity to change my life,” Robey says.

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Querishe didn’t hesitate to help. He encouraged Robey to apply online, but Robey didn’t have a computer to do so.

Thinking on his feet, Robey visited a public library and paid a small fee to use their computers. He printed out the application and returned it to Querishe that same day.

Querishe looked over the application before raising one last issue. “Everything looks good,” he said, “but there's no number to contact you.” 

But Robey didn't have a phone. Thinking quickly, he went outside the store and spent the next two hours asking passersby for any money they could spare. He eventually “scraped up” about $25, which he used to purchase a GoPhone and a plan “right at the store.”

Robey then etched the number onto the application and gave it to Querishe. For the next two weeks, Robey feared he would never hear from AT&T. But to his surprise, his phone rang one afternoon. It was Querishe, offering him a job.

That’s when Robey realized he had another obstacle to overcome: finding some proper clothing to wear.

Robey was by a church later that day when he saw a man who was about to donate “a bunch of clothes.” He was “a couple sizes bigger” than Robey, but Robey did not mind one bit.

Robey nailed the interview process, and was eventually offered a job with AT&T. Afterward, Robey was asked why he wore the same suit to every interview, so he shared his secret.

“You just hired a homeless person,” Robey told his interviewers. “You just changed my life and gave me an opportunity where most don't think you can get an opportunity after you hit rock bottom.”

That admission didn't change anything, and the group told Robey they were “excited” to have him onboard.

From there, Robey began working his way up the corporate ladder, beginning at the Gaithersburg location. After five years, Robey was promoted to Assistant Store Manager, a job he held for six months. He spent another six months as a Bennett County national account executive, but ultimately “missed being in the store.”

So, Robey turned to his previous role as Assistant Store Manager for six more months before he was promoted to store manager, a role he held for the next five years. After that, Robey took on “the business side” of AT&T “for about a year and a half.”

Then, shortly after the pandemic began, Robey says he was offered the opportunity to run a store all of his own in Washington, D.C., that had been closed down for a couple years. Not long after, Robey got a phone call he worked hard to get: He had the chance to relocate to Atlanta and become an Associate Director. Of course, he accepted.

“[It] is still, sometimes today, surreal because it's like where I started, what I went through,” he tells PEOPLE.

Robey says he owes “so much” to the company “because they've opened my doors in life to things I would've never imagined that I could touch.” He believes AT&T leadership helped guide him over the last decade and a half, to the point where some of them are “almost like they're family.” 

“AT&T never judged me and they gave me an opportunity to keep going, so that's a beautiful thing," Robey says.

After getting back on his feet, Robey was also able to mend his relationships with father and now-late mother, who “never gave up” on him no matter what, he says. “Mom always felt that I was going to overcome any circumstance that I got put in,” he adds.

A major key to growth, Robey says, was going to therapy. He cites Charlamagne Tha God as someone who inspired him to do so, and believes dealing with his past traumas helped him heal.

“Once you start to understand your mind, life starts to make sense,” Robey explains. “You can change your life in the blink of an eye if you want to.”

Now, Robey is hoping to help inspire others and show kids that there is more to success than being in the spotlight.

“I want to inspire the kids to realize that you don't got to be a ball player, musician, or any of those things to change your life,” Robey says. "There's companies out here looking for the next [Robey] that they want to give an opportunity to...It's okay to be different.”