Golden Ticket – Part 3
So perhaps you are wondering just what is lot-based manufacturing? Well in general there are a couple of types of manufacturing. One is where you make something one item at a time like when you are putting together a car. You put each piece of the car together one at a time, usually in an assembly-line fashion. A lot based method is where you make many of something all at the same. Microchips, those things that are in all our computers, are made (fabricated) in lots. Microchips are made many at a time. You start with sand which is melted and refined into silicon ingots which are then sliced in to small wafers. There are more steps like cleaning and polishing and I am not sure I have this all right but it's what I remember: everything goes through each step of the process together. The end result is many chips come out all at once at the end of the process, as opposed to just one thing coming out at a time. I bet you are sorry you asked and spent your time reading this paragraph....
Forget about that previous stuff. The point I really wanted to make is for a computer programmer, working in a software company is very different than working in other types of companies. In other companies being a computer programmer means you are in service to the company's main purpose. As such, your work is secondary to those you are serving and the needs of those who are actually creating the product that the company sells are the top priority. At a software company like Consilium, the programmers are making the product. They are the money makers and as such everyone else in the company is in service to them. Probably doesn't sound like much but if you are creating the product your job and activities are seen as vital so any problem you have that affects your ability to work is a company priority and will be attended to. From a programmer's perspective the highest priority is always what's referred to as Production. Any issued with Production is a call to drop whatever you are doing and resolve it. In other companies a programmer's problem is secondary, not considered a priority. As a software developer working in a software company you are Production and any problem you have becomes a top priority as it's your productivity that ultimately counts. Now you can make an argument that it is all related and in some sense equally important and I would somewhat agree. I have made that argument a few times myself. But you won't win that one. At least I never did...
My First day at Consilium: I noticed that they didn't have cubicles. Everyone was in an office. Offices of non-managers were big and had 2 or 3 people sharing the space. Nice. The company was in the midst of completing a new release of their product and hence under a time crunch as the release date for this new version had to be met. The life of a computer programmer tends to be cyclical in that there are a set of tasks to complete by a certain date. The task lists tend to be a bit aggressive. The process starts out rather deliberate/thoughtful, at a reasonable pace. From there it then tends to build as the process goes along until at the end everyone is working like mad trying to complete their part. I have done my share of all-nighters at the end of these processes. It's a bit like finals week in college. Well, Consilium was at that frantic point. As a result everyone was extremely busy and had little time to get a new employee situated and incorporated into the current process. They had hired 3 or 4 other new programmers about this same time. We all were temporarily housed in the same large room. We were given the task of testing pieces of the new release. For the most part, not knowing the application, we were pretty low level testers and ended up having a bit of free time. We spent a good portion of the day discussing world events/movies/music/living in America. We all had attended college in the states but Clem and Rama were from India and Ismet was from Turkey. Clem, who came from a good family in India (upper class), came to America to attend LSU in Baton Rouge, LA. As a dark skinned person being dropped into the American south introduced him to a few things he was not expecting. We, our country, like to think and preach that we are classless and treat everyone equally but that's pretty far from reality. Clem had some very interesting stories. Rama had some interesting observations as well but at least he went to school in CA. Ismet also had his own very interesting observations. One of Ismet's that has stuck with me was how we were so fixated on white being better. So much so that chicken breasts, with their white meat, cost more per pound that chicken thighs of dark meat even though there is more white meat than dark meat on a chicken and the dark meat has more flavor. Apparently in America white is considered better than dark even when it clearly isn't...
We were stuck together in that same room for just a few weeks but our discussions were so lively and interesting that it's one of my favorite memories of working at Consilium. While I was ready to start doing some real programming I was kind of sorry when we all got placed into our programming groups and moved to our respective offices.
About three weeks after working at Consilium I received a phone call. It was from UC Santa Cruz. The guy they hired did not work out and they me offered the position. My Golden Ticket! The job I had longed for. It was mine if I wanted it. I really wanted it but I couldn't do it. I had just asked Consilium to take me in after I had rejected their initial offer of employment. I couldn't in good conscience leave without giving them a chance. It was painful but I told UC Santa Cruz I had to pass. I tossed and turned and didn't sleep too well for the next few nights.
Consilium, like most companies, found time at some point to walk us around so we could meet all our co-workers. One of the women I met had long blonde hair. I noticed a couple of other things about her too. She either wasn't wearing or at the least was wearing very little make-up. I don't care for a lot of make-up and coming from and seeing myself as part of the bohemian vibe culture I tended to notice those things. I preferred that look. To cap it off, she didn't carry a purse, but toted a backpack. At the time it was just something I noticed, but it would turn out that she would eventually end up being my true Golden Ticket! Oh, and by the way, she was a recent graduate of UC Santa Cruz.
Love❤️
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