Career path over the decades

[AnalogRTO]

I did well in school, getting into a military academy after high school (then leaving six months later after learning I hated the military). Got a degree in electronics engineering, and lucked out in getting a good job in a solid company in Silicon Valley.

That company was great. They took care of their employees, and I made a name for myself by taking on a product line nobody else wanted and turning it into a massive money machine. Products I designed and released were responsible for 3-5% of company sales (quite the accomplishment when I was one of over two hundred engineers)! They rewarded me well for it--my salary was only about half my yearly income, the rest being made up of profit sharing, stock options, and bonuses. The work could be stressful, but I was always excited about the direction we were going and the new technologies we were creating. I lived in Silicon Valley with my wife as a stay-at-home mother and we raised three kids.

The company was EXTREMELY profitable and my products had some of the highest profit margins of them all. Not only that, but the places they were used were easy for us to sell into and easy to defend against competition. I had started at the company when it was 11 1/2 years old. I was there to celebrate the 35th anniversary. We had three layoffs over those 35 years and only one wasn't just clearing 'dead wood". I was there for three of four stock splits.

Then we were acquired. "Oh, nothing is going to change." Yeah, right. "We're not going to cut your pay." Sure, my salary remained the same, but bonuses disappeared and new stock option grants were less than 20% of what they had been. It was a couple of years that I lasted under the new corporation before my wife told me that she was done with me working there. I had gone from being excited about work and gushing about it when I got home to complaining every night about some new stupid thing we had to do that just got in the way of me doing my job. I calculated things out--in less than two more years, my annual take home pay would be 30% lower than what it was when we were acquired.

I was looking for an exit, wanting to move to be closer to my father who is now in his 80's and my brother and sisters to watch my nieces grow up. I made an offer to my company to work remotely and head in to one of our locations one week a month to do whatever was needed. I even offered to take a cut in my salary as the area I was looking at moving to had a lower cost of living. No dice. Even when COVID hit and we were all working from home, they refused to consider it. So, we bought a house, I waited for my last major set of stock to be granted, and then I walked away saying I was retiring. I bought a house for a quarter of the price of what mine in California was and moved.

That lasted a few months before people in industry found out I was available. One contracting gig came up that I took for a few months before leaving as it was going nowhere. The company I had just walked away from contacted me, wanting me to be a contractor for a specialized product line. I agreed, but I quoted a ridiculously high rate for my services of $175/hr. They balked, saying they didn't have anyone getting of $125/hr so I offered to do $130/hr and they took it. I did that for a little over a year before I noticed the people in the group I was working with didn't get raises or a stock option refresh. The writing was on the wall; they were going to lay these people off and I would likely be gone as well since I was a contractor. Sure enough, management came out and said they 'didn't understand that market segment' and were cutting the group loose.

One of the people in the group had been telling me about another company that had offices in Florida that were doing exactly the specialized work I had been getting into. So I decided to throw my resume to them and see what came of it. Fast forward a few days and I'm being flown down to interview on a Friday. That went really well, and at the end of it I get invited to join them at happy hour at a local bar. I show up and they're buying me food, beer, and shots of tequila. When I got home the next day I told my wife I would be surprised if I didn't get an offer. Sure enough, Monday morning I get a call and they want to know what I want for salary.

I've been there two years now. I currently make as much as I did in Silicon Valley before our company was acquired. I've gotten very nice raises, bonuses, and stock options. I get to work from home most of the time and drive down to the office for one week a month. They pay for my mileage, hotel, and food when I do that, so it costs me nothing other than time away from home. I live a few doors down from my father and get to spend a lot of time with him, something we both enjoy. I have a bigger house on several acres (instead of 1/3 an acre) and the cost of living is nothing compared to where we used to live.

So what happened with the acquisition? The profits we made buoyed the profit margin for a few years and then you could see it drop back to levels like what the acquiring company had been doing before getting us. Over 90% of the engineers that developed all of the cutting edge technology at our company have found different jobs as they couldn't survive otherwise. Our company had people that were incredibly loyal to the company, that came from the company being incredibly loyal to them. Now, there are yearly layoffs. We ran a 1500 person company with ten HR people, the acquiring company had double the employees and needed more than a hundred in HR. HR got to try and dictate raises to the engineers!

Yep, it was the right move to make.

 

[60something]

I did well in school, getting into a military academy after high school (then leaving six months later after learning I hated the military). Got a degree in electronics engineering, and lucked out in getting a good job in a solid company in Silicon Valley.

That company was great. They took care of their employees, and I made a name for myself by taking on a product line nobody else wanted and turning it into a massive money machine. Products I designed and released were responsible for 3-5% of company sales (quite the accomplishment when I was one of over two hundred engineers)! They rewarded me well for it--my salary was only about half my yearly income, the rest being made up of profit sharing, stock options, and bonuses. The work could be stressful, but I was always excited about the direction we were going and the new technologies we were creating. I lived in Silicon Valley with my wife as a stay-at-home mother and we raised three kids.

The company was EXTREMELY profitable and my products had some of the highest profit margins of them all. Not only that, but the places they were used were easy for us to sell into and easy to defend against competition. I had started at the company when it was 11 1/2 years old. I was there to celebrate the 35th anniversary. We had three layoffs over those 35 years and only one wasn't just clearing 'dead wood". I was there for three of four stock splits.

Then we were acquired. "Oh, nothing is going to change." Yeah, right. "We're not going to cut your pay." Sure, my salary remained the same, but bonuses disappeared and new stock option grants were less than 20% of what they had been. It was a couple of years that I lasted under the new corporation before my wife told me that she was done with me working there. I had gone from being excited about work and gushing about it when I got home to complaining every night about some new stupid thing we had to do that just got in the way of me doing my job. I calculated things out--in less than two more years, my annual take home pay would be 30% lower than what it was when we were acquired.

I was looking for an exit, wanting to move to be closer to my father who is now in his 80's and my brother and sisters to watch my nieces grow up. I made an offer to my company to work remotely and head in to one of our locations one week a month to do whatever was needed. I even offered to take a cut in my salary as the area I was looking at moving to had a lower cost of living. No dice. Even when COVID hit and we were all working from home, they refused to consider it. So, we bought a house, I waited for my last major set of stock to be granted, and then I walked away saying I was retiring. I bought a house for a quarter of the price of what mine in California was and moved.

That lasted a few months before people in industry found out I was available. One contracting gig came up that I took for a few months before leaving as it was going nowhere. The company I had just walked away from contacted me, wanting me to be a contractor for a specialized product line. I agreed, but I quoted a ridiculously high rate for my services of $175/hr. They balked, saying they didn't have anyone getting of $125/hr so I offered to do $130/hr and they took it. I did that for a little over a year before I noticed the people in the group I was working with didn't get raises or a stock option refresh. The writing was on the wall; they were going to lay these people off and I would likely be gone as well since I was a contractor. Sure enough, management came out and said they 'didn't understand that market segment' and were cutting the group loose.

One of the people in the group had been telling me about another company that had offices in Florida that were doing exactly the specialized work I had been getting into. So I decided to throw my resume to them and see what came of it. Fast forward a few days and I'm being flown down to interview on a Friday. That went really well, and at the end of it I get invited to join them at happy hour at a local bar. I show up and they're buying me food, beer, and shots of tequila. When I got home the next day I told my wife I would be surprised if I didn't get an offer. Sure enough, Monday morning I get a call and they want to know what I want for salary.

I've been there two years now. I currently make as much as I did in Silicon Valley before our company was acquired. I've gotten very nice raises, bonuses, and stock options. I get to work from home most of the time and drive down to the office for one week a month. They pay for my mileage, hotel, and food when I do that, so it costs me nothing other than time away from home. I live a few doors down from my father and get to spend a lot of time with him, something we both enjoy. I have a bigger house on several acres (instead of 1/3 an acre) and the cost of living is nothing compared to where we used to live.

So what happened with the acquisition? The profits we made buoyed the profit margin for a few years and then you could see it drop back to levels like what the acquiring company had been doing before getting us. Over 90% of the engineers that developed all of the cutting edge technology at our company have found different jobs as they couldn't survive otherwise. Our company had people that were incredibly loyal to the company, that came from the company being incredibly loyal to them. Now, there are yearly layoffs. We ran a 1500 person company with ten HR people, the acquiring company had double the employees and needed more than a hundred in HR. HR got to try and dictate raises to the engineers!

Yep, it was the right move to make.

Welcome to America. The land of privilege and wealth! (well for a few anyways)... I'm headiing toward 70 fast. The world I was born into might as well be in a different universe. My grandfather was an immigrant. Coming from Slovakia to America to escape the dead, frozen, bleak future of poverty that was life there.
So, what did he find? A coal mine in central Pennsylvania. The company store that robbed him of any future. He worked the mine for survival till Black Lung ruined him. He moved to Cleveland in hopes of raising his family. Ten kids in tow. (He was a devout Catholic. so LOTS of kids). He took a job as a night watchman and slowly suffocated, living with one third of his lungs left. He told my Dad, be a Tool and Die maker. "You have good life". These were the Silicon Valley skills of that time.
So Dad did that. Eventually starting a business and living a good life. He passed that advice to me. It sounded good and I followed into the trade. Ten years later the world I knew and grew up in came to a stop. I watched company after company that supported our region, redirect their resources to Japan and then to China. Fully two thirds of the employment within a hundred miles was gone. GONE! All the while the people working those jobs were essentially gently being told maybe if you worked harder and weren't so greedy you might still have a job.
So the time came for me to face the music. With NO jobs left now. Like AnalogRTO mentioned, our plant was sold. Then, sold again. Lots of promises on how we were going to enjoy continued work. Strange things started to happen. Strangers with no clue of what we did showed up, raw parts from South Africa came in by the thousands ((guess what happen to the folks in Wisconsin). Everything became chaotic.
While this was going on life became stressful. I was still working 7 days a week. The difference was now all of us were told we were lazy worthless pieces of shi%. My kids just went off on their own with one leaving under bad relations. I was stressed about that too. Our beloved dog drowned in a pond... Then, my Dad received bad news. Cancer. The next nine months I watched him slowly die. My relationship with my wife fell even further as I was trying to make sense of it all.
During this, the NEWS came. Along with armed, armored security and attack dogs. We were ushered into the cafeteria like prisoners and told we were done. four months short of my retirement. Even my livelihood now destroyed.
It was during all this that I fell. Broken. I never did hit bottom. I was placed in a hospital when they took the firearm out of my hands that was my only place left for me to find peace. I was crushed, defeated and ground to dust. I became a zombie Walking dead.
To the MAN, I was a success. Saved! "See how nice and GOOD' we are?" I was turned out to pasture (naturally). Filled with guilt about how I failed utterly at everything. Lost, hurt, angry, confused and utterly defeated. I survived but never recovered. I'm the acceptable losses of the ongoing war of unfettered Capitalism. The economy America holds up the blueprint to a great new world. But the millions chewed up spit out and forgotten are easily minimalized and disregarded. Worse yet looked upon as dead wood. Pulling down our BELOVED economy.
I love the success stories like Analog's. In the "good ol' days" this was available to anyone that wanted to put in a hard day's work. It's nice to know there ARE survivors. Both my kids have found a niche to live in. One making it to the top. BUT. The new America cares little about "the people". The people that make the world of the elite turn. WE have been renamed. called "Consumer". Nameless faceless economic resource. Like iron ore or oil. To be used and thrown away. "We The People"- CONSUMER are disregarded- even despised by the elite that feed off of them. "We The People", have become the "New Peasants." We're fed lies to feed our hopes along with a subtle dose of guilt for having the audacity of wanting a decent life.
I'm soooo beaten. So hurt and confused. Is it any wonder the youth of our country won't buy in on the "American Dream". I'm sorry. This isn't meant to be an attack on Analog. He was lucky enough to see the brass ring on the merry go round and grabbed it. Lucky to be on the horse that could grasp it. Kudos! Me? The peasant handed the pitchfork and wood bucket?....... I have a warning for America. The path of Capitalism can be salvation or ruin. I fear America in its' drunken lust of profit, has sown and is about to harvest a potent poison. God? Help us.....

 

[AnalogRTO]

Welcome to America. The land of privilege and wealth! (well for a few anyways)... I'm headiing toward 70 fast. The world I was born into might as well be in a different universe. My grandfather was an immigrant. Coming from Slovakia to America to escape the dead, frozen, bleak future of poverty that was life there.
So, what did he find? A coal mine in central Pennsylvania. The company store that robbed him of any future. He worked the mine for survival till Black Lung ruined him. He moved to Cleveland in hopes of raising his family. Ten kids in tow. (He was a devout Catholic. so LOTS of kids). He took a job as a night watchman and slowly suffocated, living with one third of his lungs left. He told my Dad, be a Tool and Die maker. "You have good life". These were the Silicon Valley skills of that time.
So Dad did that. Eventually starting a business and living a good life. He passed that advice to me. It sounded good and I followed into the trade. Ten years later the world I knew and grew up in came to a stop. I watched company after company that supported our region, redirect their resources to Japan and then to China. Fully two thirds of the employment within a hundred miles was gone. GONE! All the while the people working those jobs were essentially gently being told maybe if you worked harder and weren't so greedy you might still have a job.
So the time came for me to face the music. With NO jobs left now. Like AnalogRTO mentioned, our plant was sold. Then, sold again. Lots of promises on how we were going to enjoy continued work. Strange things started to happen. Strangers with no clue of what we did showed up, raw parts from South Africa came in by the thousands ((guess what happen to the folks in Wisconsin). Everything became chaotic.
While this was going on life became stressful. I was still working 7 days a week. The difference was now all of us were told we were lazy worthless pieces of shi%. My kids just went off on their own with one leaving under bad relations. I was stressed about that too. Our beloved dog drowned in a pond... Then, my Dad received bad news. Cancer. The next nine months I watched him slowly die. My relationship with my wife fell even further as I was trying to make sense of it all.
During this, the NEWS came. Along with armed, armored security and attack dogs. We were ushered into the cafeteria like prisoners and told we were done. four months short of my retirement. Even my livelihood now destroyed.
It was during all this that I fell. Broken. I never did hit bottom. I was placed in a hospital when they took the firearm out of my hands that was my only place left for me to find peace. I was crushed, defeated and ground to dust. I became a zombie Walking dead.
To the MAN, I was a success. Saved! "See how nice and GOOD' we are?" I was turned out to pasture (naturally). Filled with guilt about how I failed utterly at everything. Lost, hurt, angry, confused and utterly defeated. I survived but never recovered. I'm the acceptable losses of the ongoing war of unfettered Capitalism. The economy America holds up the blueprint to a great new world. But the millions chewed up spit out and forgotten are easily minimalized and disregarded. Worse yet looked upon as dead wood. Pulling down our BELOVED economy.
I love the success stories like Analog's. In the "good ol' days" this was available to anyone that wanted to put in a hard day's work. It's nice to know there ARE survivors. Both my kids have found a niche to live in. One making it to the top. BUT. The new America cares little about "the people". The people that make the world of the elite turn. WE have been renamed. called "Consumer". Nameless faceless economic resource. Like iron ore or oil. To be used and thrown away. "We The People"- CONSUMER are disregarded- even despised by the elite that feed off of them. "We The People", have become the "New Peasants." We're fed lies to feed our hopes along with a subtle dose of guilt for having the audacity of wanting a decent life.
I'm soooo beaten. So hurt and confused. Is it any wonder the youth of our country won't buy in on the "American Dream". I'm sorry. This isn't meant to be an attack on Analog. He was lucky enough to see the brass ring on the merry go round and grabbed it. Lucky to be on the horse that could grasp it. Kudos! Me? The peasant handed the pitchfork and wood bucket?....... I have a warning for America. The path of Capitalism can be salvation or ruin. I fear America in its' drunken lust of profit, has sown and is about to harvest a potent poison. God? Help us.....

You don't know how much I appreciate what you have to say. I was VERY fortunate in my life, but it was a long and tough road overall. I was able to make my way through college working as a manager at a fast food restaurant. I worked 40+ hours a week while going to school for electronics engineering. It nearly killed me, I got sick at one point with viral meningitis and had the doctor threatening to put me in the hospital if I didn't stay home and rest.

My kids don't have it easy, they are trying to overcome the challenges that previous generations have left for them. I know higher education is expensive as hell now. I saw costs for it triple in the six years it took me to get my degree and I know it has skyrocketed from there. That is ridiculous to me. Where does that money go? Mostly to higher ups in the school, not to those in the trenches. The number of higher ups has also exploded compared to enrollment, so that just eats more money.

The elites need to be brought down quite a bit. Sorry, but they don't need that much to live and the money doesn't trickle down.

Find the book The Man Who Broke Capitalism to read if you can. All about Jack Welch and how he took General Electric from being a company that cared about its employees to a profit driven machine that cared only about the shareholders. How companies started to chase that business model and how it has led to the mess we're in today.

As I said, I got lucky. Very lucky. Having a mind that excels at engineering allowed me to be prepared when those lucky times appeared. There were a number of choices I made over the years that helped to further my success. From taking the product line nobody else wanted to being willing to make sure I always set money aside every paycheck, I tried to be smart with how I approached life.

Unfortunately, not everyone in life is that lucky and we have an elite group that try to feed off that misery. One of my kids has moved to Australia and I think they will be much better off for it. In the meantime, I'll stay here and try to help change the system back to where people like you can have hope once again for the American Dream. I want to leave this world a better place than what I came into, a better place for my kids.

It feels good to have achieved what I have on my own, but I also want to let others have the opportunity to achieve as well.

 

[60something]

lol... Jack Welch. He and hundreds of others raped America. Sadly, I'm convinced it was deliberate and the state Americ finds itself in now is actually where the powers of our age want it. Frighteningly, they aren't done yet. A college education has skyrocketed for the simple reason that the powerful don't want college educated masses. With the advent of the computer age and now AI, intelligence and skills will be relegated to the automation. The People simply won't be needed. Although "consumer" is still desired. Ignorant people eat and want just like educated people. but they are MUCH easier to control. Just look around now. Even our public schools are under assault. Actually they have been since the 80"s. With the elimination of public schools and the rise of private schools, it's a simple move to no public education. A narrative of lower taxes and the ability to put your children to work will have the masses clamoring for the end of public education.
We are facing a new world the likes that have never been seen. AS the higher values that are instilled with a education are slowly walked back living will no longer be striving for good. If you aren't the elite, it will be striving for survival