Moving on

I accepted a job offer from a much smaller company in Sunnyvale last Tuesday which means my 12 year tenure at Applied Materials will end at noon this Friday. When I was first hired as a temp back in 1995 I was a Material Coordinator in the "Spares" division of IBSS in Milpitas. IBSS is such an old acronym and was changed so long ago that I no longer remember what it stood for, something about Integrated Business Spares Solutions. Yeah, that sounds about right when I run it through my internal Silicon Valley bullshit Thesaurus. I worked on swingshift in a warehouse that shipped parts 24/7/365 and was so overwhelmed with work that we were on constant 10 to 12 hour shifts and 8 hours on Saturdays, all of it mandatory. You would get Sunday's off and if you had any energy left to do anything fun, it was probably chemically aided. In other words I spent most Sunday's on the couch. My social life sucked, but I loved the work and it was great money. Management liked me and it wasn't long before I was hired on permanently, and then made the shipping lead where I had 20 direct reports. I was on my way...

For six years we went from riding the tech boom to the subsequent bust and downturn, and then the inevitable downsizing with 5 rifs in the span of 3 years. I watched our workgroup go from 225 employees to 118. And then 9/11 happened. Through sheer happenstance, upper management was plotting to outsource of our operation for months, but it just so happened to take place a week to the day after September 11th, 2001. A week after the twin towers fell, every manager in the building sat in a conference room as one of them would walk out to the floor and in grim reaper fashion, tap someone on the shoulder and walk them to that room where their fate was announced. Minutes later they walked out the door with a big white envelope. Imagine going to work and noone is talking, no smiles, people are visibly shaking. Every few minutes you'd hear a moan from several people as yet another was selected to be laid off and there was no end in sight as two who would go next. You'd be sad for those who were picked, and scared to death that you would be next. In a word it was horrible. 108 people lost their jobs that day and I watched over half of them leave. Most of these people I had known for years and to experience this so soon after 9/11, I'd be lying if I didn't say that getting drunk hadn't crossed my mind more than a few times that day. Instead I went to the gym afterwards and worked out for two hours straight. For those of you non-alcoholics out there, exersize is to alcohol cravings as cold showers are to horniness. I was like a soon to be bride trying to sqeeze her great big fat ass in a wedding dress a week before the big day. . .

After the outsourcing and re-org, I went from operations to Transportation Management and my role of an analyst began. After doing this for four years, upper management decided they didn't need an analyst anymore and eliminated my position. Rather than lay me off they gave me 60 days to find a new job which I was able to do in about 30. I was brought on as a buyer in a new products group in December of 2005 and there I learned the ways of material procurement. Because of my new skill set, I was able to land a job externally.

In my 12 years at Applied I have met so many great people, and a few not so great. I have watched people get married, have kids, have grand kids... I lost three friends in that time as well. Roosevelt "RJ" Jones was a mentor to me in the beginning. I had never had any kind of a leadership position and RJ took me under his wing and showed me not only how to run a shipping dept, but how to manage people through understanding them. A quiet man who's actions did most of his speaking, but when he did speak you hung on every word. RJ took time off for an angioplasty and two days after his procedure, he had a heart attack at his home and died, he was 56. Larry Hanlon was a self described "retired hippie" but I always referred to him as just a cool dude. Larry was in his 50's, married with a daughter, he wore a ponytail and a baseball cap and almost always had a big smile. To say Larry was mellow is like saying the sun is bright, total understatement. Larry was a brilliant man and had knowledge on so many topics yet he had no formal education beyond a high school diploma. You could talk politics, music, history, art, baseball, and women with Larry and I almost always seemed to learn something from him. His view of life was very thoughful and often funny and to this day I miss my conversations with him. Larry was home with his wife when he passed away of a heart attack. Mahesh Sidhu was a troubled soul. Very quiet and polite, he always had lots of friends but you always knew something was awry. Whenever we would go out or have a party, he was beyond drunk. Not sometimes, EVERYTIME. His coworkers would sometimes worry about him openly at work but he always refused help when offered it. Why is it that only the people that need help the most never seem to accept it? He went missing for about two weeks before his body was found on the shore near Sausilito. Whatever troubled Mahesh finally got the best of him and he jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge, he was 28. I don't talk about these guys very often but that shouldn't give anyone the impression that I don't miss them. To this day I think about them more often that I ever thought I would. The lesson they taught me was that you may end up leaving a lasting impression on someone long after your gone, and you have control over that image for better or for worse. Live well, treat people right, and you'll never have to worry about how you will be remembered.

When I decided to accept the offer at In Print last Tuesday, I sat for a minute in my chair and my Applied Materials life passed before my eyes. So many faces, experiences, changes, happiness and sadness, despair and hope. I grew a lot in the last 12 years and I have so many people to thank for mentoring me. I am a much different person today than I was back in 1995, and I have Applied to thank for that. So as one door closes, another one opens. I am really looking forward to what is in store. More things to learn, people to meet, experiences to have and in the end, more growing to do. I am looking forward to all of it.