Electronics Engineer, Management, and Sales
By age 8, he had lost both parents to fatal illness. He found baseball as his passion. Finding a creative way to listen to baseball on the radio led to his adult career.
FAMILY BACKGROUND
QB was an only child. His father was an estimator for building industrial boilers, involving business travel to assess location specifics. His mother was a homemaker who died of cancer when QB was 4 years old. His father died of a heart attack when QB was 8. Thereafter he lived with his grandmother in a small bungalow style home until she died when QB was in high school. An uncle offered QB an extra room in their home, where QB stayed while enrolled in a local college.
FAMILY CAREER INFLUENCE – MYSTERY RESOLVED?!
Too young to recall any possible career advice from his parents, QB recalls no such recommendations from other family members. So, under the known facts, was there no family influence upon QB’s eventual, adult career? The Editor of this story believes he has solved the mystery of QB’s family career influence, to be revealed at the end of this story. Don’t peek!
CHILDHOOD ACTIVITIES CREATE INTEREST FOR LATER ADULT CAREER
While in elementary school, QB heard that attaching a long wire to his inexpensive radio and stringing the wire out his bedroom window, through nearby trees and bushes, might enable hearing radio transmissions from distant cities’ broadcast of baseball games involving his favorite New York baseball team. It was true! From Central New Jersey, QB could hear his favorite baseball team (New York Giants with Willie Mays) playing against Ralph Kiner’s Pirates in Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field and against Stan “The Man” Musial’s Cardinals in St. Louis’ Sportsman’s Park.
Television was in its infancy in the early 1950s but even the black and white, moving images of baseball games appearing on his small Dumont tv expanded QB’s view of the distant world and his early fascination with electronics.
In High School, QB saved his after-school job earnings to buy a Heathkit short wave radio, involving basic electronic circuits which he assembled and enabled him to listen to English language broadcasts from Radio Moscow, Radio Brazzaville (Capital of the Republic of Congo, Africa) and other places from around the world.
EARLY ACADEMIC INTERESTS
During his high school freshman and sophomore years, QB easily understood math related courses but never adopted a goal of achieving top academic class rank. His only future career thought at the time was a weak interest in perhaps becoming a gym teacher since he enjoyed playing all sports. However, QB didn’t have the free time required to participate in high school varsity sports teams because he lacked financial support from any living parents and the relatives who kindly provided a home, were living in modest economic circumstances so QB had to find part-time, after-school and weekend jobs to earn some “pocket money.”
FINDING A WAY TO ATTEND COLLEGE WHILE UNABLE TO PAY FOR IT
By his high school junior and senior years, QB had begun to concentrate more on his studies but the effects of his freshman and sophomore years’ grades pulled down his overall GPA, which caused one distant, well-regarded college to decline his application to enroll with a full scholarship (academic courses plus room, board and books), which he would need to be able to attend. So QB applied to a less prestigious, local second choice because that college had just transitioned from a two-year community college curriculum to a four year college.
With the financial help of a state scholarship and reduced tuition granted by the local college plus saving room and board expense by living at the home of his relatives, QB was able to enroll and eventually obtain his college degree in what turned out to be a five year course of study since QB was married soon after high school graduation and had to work at part-time, not career related, jobs to be able to concurrently attend an alternating schedule of day classes for several years, followed by evening classes for several years.
COLLEGE COURSES CLOSE ONE CAREER PATH WHILE OPENING ANOTHER CAREER PATH OPPORTUNITY
The local college curriculum did not offer courses leading to a career as a physical education teacher. But it did offer courses in engineering, which easily related to QB’s early fascination with electronics, gained by stringing wires from his bedroom radio plus later the shortwave radio he had assembled.
While the newly expanding college had not yet gained national recognition in electronics engineering, it did have a distinct advantage due to its location: close access to some of the most internationally recognized electronics professors and authors, whose main occupations were as civilian teachers within the nearby military base which specialized in training officers from the US and foreign military in electronics. One professor had written THE book on atomic and nuclear physics, often quoting himself – by page and footnote references – during his college lectures. The subject matter was so difficult for everyone in the class to comprehend that final exam grades were adjusted on a curve, resulting in QB’s raw score of 19 (out of a possible 100 correct answers), revised to a final grade of B !.
RANDOM FACTORS LEAD TO ENGINEERING FOCUS ON ELECTRONICS
After miraculously surviving the course involving atomic and nuclear physics, QB self-assessed to avoid that career path while fortunately his usual optimism retained his confidence in his math skills.
QB has always been “people oriented” while enjoying the camaraderie of different personality types. (QB’s ease in dealing with people would eventually be recognized by later business managers who would call upon him to assist sales involving complex engineering issues.) Thus, QB spent some of his free social time with a group of party- oriented classmates while he invested other off-duty time with a different social group: fraternity athletes who coincidentally happened to be studying electronics engineering. QB talked to them about their interests and decided to continue his focus on a sub-category of engineering: electronics.
FRIENDS NETWORK OPENS FIRST EMPLOYMENT DOOR
QB never volunteered that he was an orphan but eventually all his friends realized that he had no living parents since age 8. QB needed to earn money while attending college and newly married, so he asked a friend within his own age group for any leads to finding a job. Fortunately, his friend’s father was a V.P. with a major commercial and government contractor, “BX”, who arranged two interviews for QB: (1) involving aircraft generators and (2) involving semi-conductors. QB could have accepted either job, so his final choice was based on several factors, each important to anyone in their early 20s:
(1) no interest in one of the options: aircraft generators
(2) interest in one of the options: since childhood, QB had “experimented” with basic electronics and had already written a college paper dealing with integrated electronic circuits
(3) the extra $20 monthly earnings from working with semi-conductors rather than generators was the equivalent of the price of 4 cases of beer!
CAREER CHALLENGE – LAYOFF UNRELATED TO PERSONAL EFFORTS
While working diligently to learn about semi-conductors and bringing some innate, critical thinking ability to his part-time job, QB earned praise from his managers who one day shocked him with disappointing news: there was no further money in their budget to continue his part-time employment so they would have to let him go but looked forward to calling him to return in about a month when they expected to have available budget to re-employ him. QB assumed his employer’s optimistic projection was mere “happy talk” and that he would never hear from them again.
CAREER CHALLENGE – FAILURE TO QUALIFY FOR AN ENTRY LEVEL JOB
Still in need of continuing part-time employment to support himself as a married college student, QB applied for an entry level, electronic technician’s job at a nearby “B Labs” facility (once known as “The Idea Factory”. Successful applicants would have to achieve a score of 80 on the B Labs exam. BQ fell one point short with a 79 and thus was not hired. (Editor’s note to B Labs: follow this story to see what you missed!)
EARLY EMPLOYMENT DEDICATION YIELDS JOB OFFER
Although QB did not believe his first part-time employer’s hint of future employment would ever materialize, QB’s record of work dedication, established in close to a year of part-time employment, had made a sufficiently positive impression on his managers so as soon as they received a sufficient budget, their first call was to offer QB to return to his part-time role within the BX semi-conductor division. Their decision to rehire QB was promptly rewarded for both themselves and for QB’s bright future within the world of electronics engineering, as QB created some unique and cost-efficient production processes which were both logical and saved considerable money at the same time.
CONTINUED JOB DEDICATION YIELDS AN OFFER TO JOB #2
At the time, the world of electronics engineers was a relatively small population compared to modern times. News spread within this group that QB was a rising star who knew both the fundamentals of electronic circuitry but also had the ability to study related issues logically to recommend cost efficient solutions. “Southwest Instruments” (SW) was looking to expand their engineering talent base and contacted QB with an offer with what QB perceived to have interesting potential for his career growth. It would involve relocating their home to the southwest but that was not a negative for QB and his wife, who moved and soon found they enjoyed their new friends while QB enjoyed the professional challenges within his new company.
CONTINUED JOB SUCCESS YIELDS AN OFFER FOR JOB #3
One of QB’s managers at SW quit to join a new company in Mexico. His first call to lure engineering talent to join him was to QB, who was “wined and dined” with a promise of increased compensation and an unlimited career path for himself and the company. But one requirement was for QB to relocate to Mexico. QB thought it over and concluded: “Thanks but no thanks.”
TAKING A BOLD RISK MAY BE REASONABLE OR UNREASONABLE
An old adage states: “All is fair in love, war and negotiations.”
QB decided to make a bold and risky move by telling his managers at SW that he was approached by their former employee, now with a new company in Mexico, to jump to the new company and he intended to accept their offer. The existence of the offer was true, and SW would not likely have been able to determine QB’s actual intent so luckily for him, SW promptly offered QB a raise in salary to remain, promising him continued professional growth which would follow SW’s expanding leadership within the world of integrated circuitry production.
Was BQ’s intentional misrepresentation of his intent a wise move or an unreasonable risk to his professional credibility and to his continued employment with that company?
(Editor’s comments: (1) The tactic of hiding your true intent to solicit a better “deal” is standard, business negotiation strategy. (2) Had QB consulted in advance with an attorney about the wisdom of presenting a bluff to his current employer, regarding his (fake news) intent to take a different job, the attorney would have advised QB that such a statement, while untrue, was not illegal. While a bold move, it was reasonable because by then, QB had established his exceptional value to his employer and the opportunities for continued, highly compensated employment within this growing field of engineering, would remain available, both in Mexico and within the U.S.; (3) QB doesn’t recall seeking a second opinion from a trusted mentor or a careers coach before implementing his fake news job offer strategy but others should consider doing so before taking such a bold risk.)
EMPLOYER RECOGNIZES MASTERY OF BASIC SKILLS AND A PERSONALITY WHICH COULD THRIVE WITH ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Meanwhile, SW had merged with another leader in the expanding world of electronics, “Outcome” (OC)
OC kept its promise to QB, promoting him several times while adding management responsibilities, including involvement with the staff building transistors for the military. QB interacted well with these specialists while bringing his knowledge of electronics and his personal logic toward resolving complex issues. Thus, QB was asked to travel with engineers to customers and potential customers, to use his electronics engineering background and natural ease in meeting new people to upgrade OC’s sales force efforts. QB gained valuable sales experience, which also involved occasional random interactions with representatives of competitor electronics businesses.
SUCCESS WITH NEW SALES RESPONSIBILITIES YIELDS NEW JOB OFFER
(Editor’s note – Recall within the Introduction to this career stories project, the definition of “LUCK”: the convergence of opportunity and preparation for the circumstance suddenly presented.)
One of the OC competitors for electronics business was a former employer of BQ: BX, whose sales representatives were frequently beaten out of a sales opportunity by QB’s sales efforts on behalf of SW / OC. Since “all is fair in love, war and negotiations” BX decided to make an entirely legal offer of employment to QB, a competitor’s key employee: return to BX as a V.P. of Engineering plus membership on BX’ Board of Directors.
Despite being only age 28 but now with significant, relevant experience within engineering, management, and sales aspects of the electronics business, QB agreed to return to BX. In short, he “bet on himself” to succeed.
All was well with his new position at BX…………until it wasn’t, unrelated to any personal failure by QB individually or by his new company. The cause of the major, unanticipated problem: the U.S. economic recession of 1973, which widely affected all businesses across the country plus a ripple economic effect internationally. The resulting personal effect upon QB was a severe drop in his compensation since the company had minimal business prospects.
CAREER CHALLENGE – CO-WORKER CHEATING
Editor’s comments – First, let us define terms: Cheating is dishonesty which may or may not be illegal. Dishonesty is, by common sense, a lack of honesty. Is every dishonest action or statement considered a significant problem within society? The answer is clearly “no” so where is the line drawn and who decides whether some dishonesty is over the line? Examples:
A. Car driver rolls through a “stop” sign instead of fully stopping (as required by each state’s Motor Vehicle Code) and then drives at 46 mph on a highway where speed is restricted to 45 mph. Has the driver cheated? If so, who has been negatively affected? Is such dishonesty “over the line”?
B Promoter of a new blood analysis process claims to potential investors that her newly invented equipment and process will be able to evaluate multiple disease possibilities with minimal use of blood, thus increasing efficiency; while confidentially known only within the company that the product has not yet proven itself capable of fulfilling the expectation, the founder of the start-up company continues to promote it as a miracle technology. (These facts reference the Theranos business strategy, which a criminal court jury determined to be “over the line” when it convicted the CEO of fraud.)
C. Salesperson claims its product and related customer follow-up support will be much more reliable and cost efficient than competitors. (Note: “Puffing” is the practice of making exaggerated commendations, especially for promotional purposes. The Uniform Commercial Code, adopted as the law in most states, distinguishes between legal “puffing” and illegal, significant misrepresentations of fact, as noted within example B, above.)
D. All employers are mandated by federal tax code to withhold from employee wages paid, taxes due the federal government. The tax withholdings are then required to be promptly paid to the government. An employer who fails to submit prompt and full tax withholdings to the government violates federal law.
This discussion could go on and on and on, filling books and lectures on business ethics. The facts of the situation which confronted QB are contained within example D, above. As soon as QB learned these facts, he gathered all relevant documents which would demonstrate his non-involvement in the illegal activities and then promptly resigned his employment, including his Vice Presidency and membership on the Board of Directors.
Epilogue to this chapter of QB’s otherwise straight-line success: As part of the federal investigation into the missing tax payments, IRS officials contacted QB, reviewed his documents and listened to his story of non-involvement with the illegal scheme. QB was never charged with any crime and never heard from the IRS again. He never learned the fate of the masterminds (actually, the idiots) behind the tax scheme and never cared to pursue its resolution, as he focused upon moving on with his career.
HAVING TO FIND A NEW JOB QUICKLY LIKELY MEANS SOME SACRIFICES
QB continued to need a steady source of income. Among open opportunities at the time was to work as V.P. of Engineering for a small company located several car commuting hours away from his home. QB was now well known within the electronics engineering industry, so his positive reputation preceded him into his interview for the new job, which was offered and which QB accepted immediately.
QB liked the work involved and his employer liked QB’s engineering experience with much larger corporations, involving additionally management and sales skills. But commuting was a problem from day one. There was no more direct, alternative way to travel through the maze of New York City’s congested area highways than by driving a car. QB learned to live with that negative part of the job while hoping a better career alternative would soon develop. Which, due to QB’s well-earned reputation within the industry, soon resulted in a call offering a new business opportunity.
GOOD CAREER REPUTATION LEADS TO NEXT CAREER OPPORTUNITY
One of QB’s former co-workers at SW who was still employed at SW’s successor, CO, called QB to offer an employment position within CO as a salesperson. QB responded by noting that he was actually an engineer, not a salesman. But his friend persisted: “In fact, you are the best salesman I ever met; you combine engineering knowledge with ability to respond in understandable terms to customer questions and then you schmooze them with your personality. So, you’re actually perfect for this position!”
Ironically, QB, the initially reluctant salesman, was persuaded by his salesman friend to return to his former company. While this final career move had eliminated car commuting, the net result was that QB had traded one type of travel (by car) for another (by plane), the latter involving better compensation but even more significant time away from home while flying to sales calls across the U.S. and to some foreign lands.
QB remained employed with his final employer for the next 23 years, fully and finally retiring at age 55.
CAREER SATISFACTION
Looking back at his three and a half decades’ careerS in engineering, sales and management, QB appreciates multiple points of his career satisfaction:
* As a technician, he created a process to produce transistors which was significantly less complicated and more cost efficient. Years later, when an employer marveled at the way transistors had evolved, the employer was surprised to learn that QB was the individual responsible for one of the main improvements!
* As a product engineer, QB was asked to review steps involved in the company’s prior failures to pass complex government (“mill standard”) tests required to sell that product to the US government for a critical need involving military missiles. QB soon discovered a flaw in his company’s inspection and testing process, corrected the flaw and then trained the testing technicians to avoid further errors going forward.
* Earning recognition of engineering mastery plus his personal ability to work with varied personalities both in-house and among customers.
* Recognizing multiple business and career challenges and then instead of being overwhelmed and unable to cope, pushing his reputation and career moving forward on a positive track.
* Pulling himself up by his own bootstraps to self-assess his interests and skills, educate himself, dedicate himself to continued learning, utilizing his native common sense to earn recognition by his employers and within the industry, which provided job security, job promotions and eventually his early retirement.
EDITOR’S CONCLUDING COMMENTS
A. Only in America!
Where else could one find a true story line like this one:
* lost both parents to their early demise by his age 8
* no inheritance
* abandoned organized sports to earn teenage pocket money
* no money to afford college
* found a way to attend and graduate from college
* laid off from first adult career job (employer budget issue)
* national economic recession forces departure from job
* dedication and creativity earn multiple job offers
* soon after becoming a VP, quits over co-workers cheating
* bluffs his job changing intent to achieve a better business deal
* transitions from engineering to management and sales as his talent is recognized by his employers and among his industry peers
* able to retire comfortably at age 55
B. Mystery Solved! (Read on…………..)
When asked by the Editor about any family influence upon his eventual adult career as an engineer with added responsibilities, QB could recall no such influence, which is understandable under his circumstances. However, your Editor proposes that a geneticist or some other type of expert observer of family characteristics would find the following evidence to be relevant and persuasive:
* Father’s occupation was to assess building sites for eventual boiler installations.
* Boilers are complex equipment which involve transforming an energy source (e.g. gas or steam) into power. Boilers are not available for sale at Home Depot; they must be custom produced according to the availability of the energy source, the power needed and the dimensions of the physical site where the boiler is to be located. In brief, assessing the site for subsequent design and installation of a custom boiler, requires more than using a tape measure; the assessor must be proficient in math and then apply both logic and creativity to match the manufacturer’s capabilities with the customer’s needs and the limitations of the site.
* QB’s father must have had – and utilized – all the math skills and engineering judgment of a successful boiler installation assessor.
* It is more than coincidental that QB brought his math skills and engineering judgment to build his successful career path.
* Utilizing the same deductive reasoning as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, the mystery of whether QB was influenced in his career success by his family background is…… now…… solved! Like father, like son.
* Final guess: QB’s mother got along well with all types of personalities. Like mother, like son.
