Since you've dealt with Lucent sales people and was with P&G for a short time and didn't like what you saw at those companies, i.e., old people, not willing to take risk, worn down by big bureaucratic companies...those with operational manuals written in several volumes ... the kinds of companies that at one time were the strong ones in this country .. nothing glamorous...the kind that paid a decent wage .. but stifled creativity because of rules and regs...etc., etc.
Would you mind telling us what company you are working with at the moment...or if you don't want to mention the company's name ... then mention the product line.
Your revelations could give a hint as to what type of person you are ... apparently a risk taker since you don't favor secure places to work ... if there are any such companies in existence these days.
It seems that there are certainly no more "MA BELLS" around anymore. No more moms to take care of the kids. One way to keep that bottom line healthy is to constantly re-evalute your work force and where necessary do some "downsizing" or whatever it is they call being "fired" these days.
One of the first places I worked where I was paid a decent living wage was Bethlehem Steel. The plant employed over 15,000 at one time and it is now closed tightly. It was located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania...the company headquarters. As of this year there is no more activity at the sprawling place.
I worked there as Korean War was coming to its end...just out of high school...was then drafted and came back after service in 1955...the place was still making shell casings for the war which had ceased in June of 1953.
I decided that I had to get an education if I was to get out of the foundry I was working in. I did and I benefited from that decision. Notice I didn't say I got rich. There were no IRA's, no 401K's, no company incentive plans, there was almost nothing. The higher wages and good things were still pretty far away...somewhere out there in the late 80's I would say.
I'm retired now but I just want to say that back in the nifty 50's the best places to work were the stodgy old line companies if you were lucky enough to get hired.
There were no Cisco's, no Lucents (although Western Electric did exist then), no Microsofts, no Intels, no Dell's, not even computers. I used a slide rule to figure out my engineering problems. I still have the thing.
I bought my first hand held calculator - a Commodore - after it was put on sale for $39.95...it originally was selling for almost $85. I don't remember what year that was. And you know what?.....the darned thing only could handle the basic functions ( x, /, +, - ) but it did have a constant key (K) that you could put one value in so you could save a couple of keystrokes.
My first job out of Penn State was in the nuclear field..a swimming pool research reactor just outside of Princeton, N.J., hidden away in the woods near Planesboro. I was in operations...reactor operator...pay was $400/month...got another $50 after I passed my test to be licensed by the AEC (Atomic Energy Commission). That was in 1959.
God! That was a long time ago.
ANONYMOUS |
