On January 3rd, 2011, a day like any other day, I was let go from my 7 to 5 job. My flexible, “let’s try this” style of team management did not work well with middle management’s “you must conform or else” attitude.
Really, how can any semiconductor company in Silicon Valley expect to live for very long if middle management has assembly-line expectations of its workers; telling them that its not their job to innovate? The company did hire highly specialized, creative engineers like myself for our unique skills — because we think outside the box (or really, at the edges of the box) — and then middle management does everything it can to keep us stuffed in that box? Really? They’re choosing conformity over creativity? That’s not the “safe” thing to do in this industry.
Truthfully, I was glad to go. I had known for about a year and a half that I would eventually be let go, but during that time frame there were no jobs out there in this depressed economy so I opted to stay, as painful as that would be, to save up as much money as I could until such time as they let me go. Now with money in one hand, and a pink slip in the other, I’m looking forward to whatever the future holds for me. This blog is my journey and discovery of “what’s next.”