4 ms·
(background: my expertise/degree is microprocessor design and digital logic, although I've done a butt-load of firmware in C and C++ in my career) One time (lo
by thr0w__4w4y 8y ago
(background: my expertise/degree is microprocessor design and digital logic, although I've done a butt-load of firmware in C and C++ in my career)
One time (long time ago) when I worked at Motorola (this was back pre-2K when working at Moto actually meant something). There was a systems level problem, and I was brought in as a systems engineer to diagnose a problem (think "big system with tons of FPGAs, fiber optics, embedded CPUs, firmware, etc.)
Pretty soon I delivered my suspicion that the real issue was a hardware problem (this after looking at network data on a capture)
The hardware director said (I wrote this down in a notebook, I'm quoting verbatim): "I stake my career that this isn't a hardware problem. It's either a firmware problem or a misunderstanding of the requirements."
It was a hardware problem. I demonstrated it a few weeks later and the chip vendor confirmed it (it could take up to 2 weeks to reproduce the problem)
After that my name was shit. That's when I learned that office politics are very fucking real, and sometimes you have to decide if you want to be a lifetime corporate employee.
I left less than a year later, hung out a shingle as a consultant and life has been great since then.
You can try to bend the world (or your employer) to your will, but it isn't going to end well. If my life goal had been "work for Moto for 40 years then retire", that wouldn't have worked out so well, for multiple reasons.
I'll always bet on myself before I'll bet on BigCo. I'm contacted every month on LinkedIn by Google, Amazon, etc. (I've trained lots of their employees) and my answer is always the same: "thanks but no thanks"
Apologies if this sounds self-aggrandizing. 100% not the intention. Just a lesson that you gotta look out for yourself, and the real world is complicated. Own your career, don't put it in the hands of BigCo. BigCo doesn't give a shit about you.