I still went to work, I just took the early morning or late afternoon off on class days, which were 2 or 3 days a week. When people asked me what my MSEE specialty was, I replied 8 AM or 5 PM classes. The drive was about an hour each way.
Generic Masters level engineering classes were usually during the day, but there were early morning or late afternoon classes catered to working students that tended to favor stuff that those students needed for their job. Florida Atlantic University was between the two large clusters of Motorola facilities, and less than a mile from IBM. My classes were either C or assembly language programming for embedded systems (like phones or two way radios) or VLSI IC design where we actually got the chips we designed made, leading to some VLSI testing classes.
I prefer to use the phrase "Left Motorola on their own terms" but technically on paper I "voluntarily retired." I know of about 10 and a couple that have been there over 45 years and don't care any longer.
Due to changing times our advanced research department was slowly morphing from an "advanced radio design team" to a "radio subcircuit design team" and finally into an "IC design team." Again my college classes convinced me that IC design was not a career path that I wanted. It's all simulation and calculation.....you can't build your own chips. I did design and build the test boards and EVB's for those chips, and I made sure that voices from the local police department were coming from the EVB for one of our newly fabbed chips when the Chicago bosses came to see where their $1M went. From there it was "test and take data on several hundred chips."
I had seen the future of my work, and didn't like it, so when I got "the letter" from the CEO offering me a bucket full of money to leave, I took the money and ran.....1200 miles north.
I visited the plant and my old group every year on my Florida vacation tour up until Covid came. I now know that my job would have been safe until today if I had chosen to stay, but it wouldn't have been nearly as fun as it was before I left. The chip shortage had set that group into full scale panic mode over 3 years ago when Global Foundaries bought IBM's chip fabs, and if Intel does eat Global Foundaries, all of that work starts over again.
I worked for TI for 10 years in their Industrial Controls division.
They were bought out in 1990 by Siemens Industrial Controls, which later morphed into Siemens Factory Automation, to Siemens Digital Industries (same job, new name).
TI was bad about cyclic layoffs called Reduction In Force, aka RIFs. Every fall they would RIF 5-10% of the employees in the industrial controls group to make 4th quarter look good. Then in the spring they would hire new engineers and technicians.
Siemens had a few layoffs, but they were much rarer than TI.
Beyond the layoffs, both companies were good. Siemens has a better long term attitude and withdrew from the US stock marked due to short term demand for profits.
I worked factory automation control systems my entire career. Nothing bleeding edge, just basic designs with high MTBF requirements.
The last 5 years I worked on Functional Safety products. Those had much more stringent requirements, with lots of paperwork documenting the design safety analysis.
I have been more busy since retiring than I was when I worked.
They were bought out in 1990 by Siemens Industrial Controls, which later morphed into Siemens Factory Automation, to Siemens Digital Industries (same job, new name).
TI was bad about cyclic layoffs called Reduction In Force, aka RIFs. Every fall they would RIF 5-10% of the employees in the industrial controls group to make 4th quarter look good. Then in the spring they would hire new engineers and technicians.
Siemens had a few layoffs, but they were much rarer than TI.
Beyond the layoffs, both companies were good. Siemens has a better long term attitude and withdrew from the US stock marked due to short term demand for profits.
I worked factory automation control systems my entire career. Nothing bleeding edge, just basic designs with high MTBF requirements.
The last 5 years I worked on Functional Safety products. Those had much more stringent requirements, with lots of paperwork documenting the design safety analysis.
I have been more busy since retiring than I was when I worked.
Good advice on all fronts, especially wrt the kids as the time races past.
I converted my IRA to a Roth when the market took a nose-dive. I continue to use the Peter Lynch investment thesis of purchasing shares of companies I know, shares of customers or suppliers.
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short termism has been eating away at many companies for a long time. I'd advise my kids to avoid these kinds of companies, but that doesn't seem to leave too many options these days. Some say just keep skills sharp and don't stay anywhere too long in case you lose your ability to move on when the time comes.
the sad thing is that when we are young we do not value our time and we work hard and then one day we can retire and get control of our time back, but at that point our best days are behind us. unlike my boss, I won't work into my 70's
the sad thing is that when we are young we do not value our time and we work hard and then one day we can retire and get control of our time back, but at that point our best days are behind us. unlike my boss, I won't work into my 70's
That depends on where you live. Many persons I know consider that a benchmark.
That's for darn sure. My wife and I don't have an extravagant lifestyle but we don't want to be thinking about money when we should be dipping our toes in the sand.
Not a possibility around here. Real Estate has always been expensive.
Nice reading.
I actually use an arduino as power controller in my setup. That is it
delays power on sequence for preamp and power amp, and subsequently
turns them off in good order. This also prevents power cycling.
The arduino controls SSR relays to do it's work.
Other projects i have seen is to have an arduino control motorized volume pot, input relays remote sensor and a display ( i havn't got this far yet).
With a display another feature is possible : a power on timer useful to know tube usage.
As for autobias i don't belive in it. Good tubes needs one adjustment. Auto bias seems to be so compliated that they introduce many fail sources and thus gives worse reliability then without. But that is my opinion.
And what do us retired old people talk about when we meet, either in person, or virtually?
I doubt that anyone wants to see pictures of my grandkids with their faces stuck in their electronic devices, so I talk about myself and my electronic devices.
This is the place where we DIY our own audio and electronic devices, so I'll show you a picture of mine.....without my face. These all might have one of those Arduino type things in them though. The technical details as to what these things do is or will be in the appropriate thread.
Plenty of pictures of my prototype stuff in posts #146, 148, 150, 151, 156, 181, and 187 here:
Post Pictures of Your Vero Board Designs Here.
And more synth stuff here:
Modular Synth build
The Arduino powered tube amp is still in the "not ready for prime time" stages. It will wind up in one of the UNSET threads in the future.
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one of my retirement dreams was that my wife and I would not just go and do some travelling, but go and live in some different places. The concept is not that different from Canadian Snowbirds. We'd rent a house for, say, 6 months. Then we'd really experience a place, be there long enough to see some change of season, get to fully explore all it had to offer without the pressure to behave like a tourist. You'd have time to make some friends. The idea was to do this for a few years until we'd tire of it. Places of interest included Italy, Hong Kong, Halifax NS, Victoria BC, UK, and more. Of course, don't really know if we'd have stuck to these ideas as my wife didn't survived her illness. It's possible we would have wimped out, wanting to keep close to the kids etc. but the idea always seemed a good one to me - just simple living.
An hour ago ...
... I effectively retired as an academic physicist, age 55. For several months, I plan to work about a day a week on one remaining research project with which I'm still involved. Brain power will be devoted to other matters, having focused on one area of physics for half a lifetime.
Next step on the adventure starts tomorrow.
Ken
... I effectively retired as an academic physicist, age 55. For several months, I plan to work about a day a week on one remaining research project with which I'm still involved. Brain power will be devoted to other matters, having focused on one area of physics for half a lifetime.
Next step on the adventure starts tomorrow.
Ken
My retirement was not what i planned. My wife and better half died of pancreas cancer this spring. Plans we had about traveling is canceled, i se no point traveling alone. In fact most
of what i was expecting is moot. Life is not what it used to be :-(
I miss the san fransico harbour and the blues clubs. We planned to rent a camper for a tour
in SF / reno/tonopa and the wine district. Not to forget las vegas !
I'll stay with scotch .
of what i was expecting is moot. Life is not what it used to be :-(
I miss the san fransico harbour and the blues clubs. We planned to rent a camper for a tour
in SF / reno/tonopa and the wine district. Not to forget las vegas !
I'll stay with scotch .
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I’m sorry to hear about your loss. It’s really tough, I’ve been through this myself and it takes a lot of time to recover to being able to look forward again. You will get there, you will find a way by taking very short steps.
Sorry about both your losses.
[shrug] Sadly they are part of the real life ... not that it makes them easier to swallow.
I have no consolation words to offer, only that time grinds some of the sharpest edges off.
Oh well.
Somewhat certain that in a year or two both will feel somewhat better, and find some activity or another to fill time, which of course keeps ticking.
Oh well [2]
My heart goes out to you. We've lost two friends/gals to pancreatic cancer in the last two years. One of my best friends from college is an oncologist who deals with this disease almost exclusively.
I hope you can reach out to your "non-virtual" social network in Sweden to seek friendship and companionship.
I haven't actually been there yet but I'm told it's very pretty in the summer.