First job. Writing 6502 assembler for a GTE integrated voice/data PBX system. We cross compiled on some IBM mainframe across the country, burned the ROMs by han

First job. Writing 6502 assembler for a GTE integrated voice/data PBX system. We cross compiled on some IBM mainframe across the country, burned the ROMs by hand, debugged with in-circuit emulators and a forgotten real-time backtrace device from, I think, Tektronics. The lessons learned still apply today - machine level thinking, memory management, writing efficient code, etc. And it was the only time I actually had a mentor - actually, a bunch of them. Oh, and the best manager I've ever had. Smart people that were willing to give of their time. They understood that if you were going to build a product, you also have to build the people.