I am a long time (14 years) Lucent employee who is staying for now.
What I like about working for a large company like Lucent and Bell Labs is that I have always been able to work on the projects that most interested me. In my first seven years I had worked on telephony oriented projects including telephony network management, Intelligent Networking, Open Network Architecture, and SS7. In the last 7 years I have worked on IP oriented projects including DNS, Caching, VOIP and now New Media/Multimedia. I have been able to do this without changing employers, even though I have been relocated twice.
Lucent has treated me very well. With Lucent at 24, most, but not all, of my options are worthless. However, I expect new options with a strike price of about 23 later this month.
I do get regular calls from headhunters and could make a higher salary, but other considerations, including how interesting the job was and what was best for my family have so far kept me here.
While I am concerned about some of the exodus from Bell Labs recently, most are leaving as friends. We have always had many people leave Bell Labs after several years. I have found it beneficial that when I am working with customers, partners, or even competitors (in standards meetings etc.) that I am frequently working with people with whom I have a history and a mutual earned respect.
Related to the above point, I believe I am in a good position to gamble on Lucent. I am optimistic about our future and I expect that Lucent will make it worth my while to stay, especially with the large numbers leaving. Conversely, if I am wrong, I believe that a call to any of a large number of people who have left Lucent would result in an immediate job offer at a higher salary than I am now making. I believe that there are many good people at Lucent who are staying because they believe there is great upside potential and little downside risk.
It is still fun working here, but not as much fun opening bonus checks or following the market. |
