3 ms·

>> I walked out the door of Intel one day in 2011 (longer and irrelevant story). I am extremely interested in this long and irrelevant story.

avs733 6y ago
The things I say when I open my mouth... Graduated with my MS and three internships with Intel into what I thought would be my 'rest of life' job. I wanted Brian's job, which at that point was the head of the fabs. Got less than one month of training and then told 'all yours now'. Worked my ass off for like 18 months, made a name for myself in the factory, was literally on call 24x7 by myself for 11 months. Got an annual review were I was told 'we had limited budget for bonuses and raise budget, and we gave it to XX because he has kids'. Sucked it up, told myself I was playing the long game and to just put my head down and work. Hacked together software that made stuff which never worked work. Worked and worked and worked. Lost a marriage over it...who would want to be 25 and married to someone who works over 100 hours a week and gets woken up by a phone call almost every night? I had been working an issue for months, got no buy in, got told it was no big deal/no budget/ignored. The fourth time the same thing broke, suddenly it was an emergency. I was supposed to leave on vacation that day...a vacation I had given 10 months notice on because I had no coverage. Got asked to cancel the vacation. I walked out. I've learned, I'm smarter than that now, I respect myself in new ways I wasn't ready to understand. Now when I mentor undergraduates I am laser focused on quality of life mattering and learning to respect yourself beyond how someone else evaluates your work. I still know what my ring tone on my on call cell phone there was...and I know that it still cause anxiety when I hear it (but not panic attacks anymore). The ring tone is in a James Bond movie, I don't watch that movie.
- cbozeman 6y ago
  Well this turned a little darker than I originally thought. I discovered a kid out in Utah on YouTube named Joshua Fluke and his story is very similar to yours, and he often says much of what you say in terms of quality of life, the corporate attitude of most companies, etc. I've only ever worked for someone else twice in my life (I considered military service to be just that - serving the nation, not so much "working" for the American people, although I suppose one could make that argument), so many of these tales are pretty foreign to me, and since I also have "fuck you" money now, they're made all the stranger to me that anyone would tolerate such behavior. I don't accept the, "I have bills to pay," mantra - to me its more akin to, "Either you respect yourself or you don't." EDIT: Glad to see you did come to respect yourself in a healthy way.
  - avs733 6y ago
    I appreciate that and where you are coming from. I wouldn't say it was there fault...I'd actually say it was mine and it was societal. I'm a first gen college grad, but from a very successful household. I was raised on hard work, use your brain, don't give up, always do more. I brought that mindset to work, and no one was going to really stop me. I had to push back, and I had never been taught how. I worked a full time job and a part time job while an engineering student and graduated with a 3.8. Then, it impressed people and it made me proud of myself...now I wonder what I missed out on and take a very different approach to work life balance (although I'm still a bit of a workaholic, because I really do love what I do).

avs733 6y ago

The things I say when I open my mouth... Graduated with my MS and three internships with Intel into what I thought would be my 'rest of life' job. I wanted Brian's job, which at that point was the head of the fabs. Got less than one month of training and then told 'all yours now'. Worked my ass off for like 18 months, made a name for myself in the factory, was literally on call 24x7 by myself for 11 months. Got an annual review were I was told 'we had limited budget for bonuses and raise budget, and we gave it to XX because he has kids'. Sucked it up, told myself I was playing the long game and to just put my head down and work. Hacked together software that made stuff which never worked work. Worked and worked and worked. Lost a marriage over it...who would want to be 25 and married to someone who works over 100 hours a week and gets woken up by a phone call almost every night? I had been working an issue for months, got no buy in, got told it was no big deal/no budget/ignored. The fourth time the same thing broke, suddenly it was an emergency. I was supposed to leave on vacation that day...a vacation I had given 10 months notice on because I had no coverage. Got asked to cancel the vacation. I walked out. I've learned, I'm smarter than that now, I respect myself in new ways I wasn't ready to understand. Now when I mentor undergraduates I am laser focused on quality of life mattering and learning to respect yourself beyond how someone else evaluates your work. I still know what my ring tone on my on call cell phone there was...and I know that it still cause anxiety when I hear it (but not panic attacks anymore). The ring tone is in a James Bond movie, I don't watch that movie.

cbozeman 6y ago
Well this turned a little darker than I originally thought. I discovered a kid out in Utah on YouTube named Joshua Fluke and his story is very similar to yours, and he often says much of what you say in terms of quality of life, the corporate attitude of most companies, etc. I've only ever worked for someone else twice in my life (I considered military service to be just that - serving the nation, not so much "working" for the American people, although I suppose one could make that argument), so many of these tales are pretty foreign to me, and since I also have "fuck you" money now, they're made all the stranger to me that anyone would tolerate such behavior. I don't accept the, "I have bills to pay," mantra - to me its more akin to, "Either you respect yourself or you don't." EDIT: Glad to see you did come to respect yourself in a healthy way.
- avs733 6y ago
  I appreciate that and where you are coming from. I wouldn't say it was there fault...I'd actually say it was mine and it was societal. I'm a first gen college grad, but from a very successful household. I was raised on hard work, use your brain, don't give up, always do more. I brought that mindset to work, and no one was going to really stop me. I had to push back, and I had never been taught how. I worked a full time job and a part time job while an engineering student and graduated with a 3.8. Then, it impressed people and it made me proud of myself...now I wonder what I missed out on and take a very different approach to work life balance (although I'm still a bit of a workaholic, because I really do love what I do).