Intellectual Property
Undecided about a career until college, all his career decisions were “last minute” choices, affected by two early childhood events which influenced his risk tolerance.
FAMILY INFLUENCE ON CAREER? NONE HERE
SL was born within a 2-hour commute to New York City. He was the oldest of three children. His father was a long-time optometrist. His mother attended podiatry school but never had a job in that field, instead opting to be a full-time housewife. Neither parent made any career suggestions to SL.
SELF MOTIVATED ACADEMICALLY
In the absence of family career guidance, fortunately SL was self-motivated – as are so many oldest children – to achieve high grades in all school subjects. (This editor was a grammar school classmate of SL, who was widely recognized among his young peer group and apparently by all the teachers through high school years, as a serious, talented student.)
In apparent recognition of SL’s intellect and serious attention to his studies and his good classroom behavior (teachers tolerated his frequent, unsolicited questions to them) through primary school grades 1-5, at the outset of 6th grade, SL was appointed Captain of the Safety Patrol (thus entitled to wear a shiny, white, over-the-shoulder and around the waist, safety belt when assisting pedestrians to cross the street outside the school) plus assignment to The Movie Projection Team (students who were entrusted to roll a movie projector into a classroom, thread the movie tape and monitor the movie as it played on a large, portable screen). Both positions – Safety Patrol and Projection Team – were highly coveted honors in the world of the sixth grade, which was the highest grade in that school building.
TWO CHILDHOOD EVENTS AFFECTED ADULT TOLERANCE FOR RISK
Considering SL’s high academic record and his coveted positions noted above, SL was certain that he would achieve The Citizenship Award at the end of 6th grade. Alas, the anonymous decider(s) instead chose “AF” whose mother was coincidentally (?) the head of the school’s Parent Teacher Association, who obviously was well known to and supportive of all the teachers. This was Incident #1 toward SL not trusting his fate to others.
Incident #2 occurred during in his senior year at high school, when college acceptances or rejections were received in the mail. SL had applied to four colleges, all of good academic reputation including one member of the prestigious Ivy League. SL believed he should have been accepted by the Ivy League University but alas, that admissions department accepted only one member of the senior class and it wasn’t SL, who was disappointed and then annoyed and frustrated when he learned the identity of the student who had been accepted, whose academic record and resulting class standing were obviously inferior to SL.
Again, SL had trusted his fate to others and been disappointed. SL vowed to not leave his fate in the hands of others, hereafter.
COLLEGE YEARS CHOICES – ‘LAST MINUTE’ DECISIONS
In choosing among three college acceptances, SL opted for a university located less than a two-hour drive from home, which offered a wide variety of courses. Undecided about which courses to select as a “major” field of concentration because as a freshman he still had no career path in mind, SL had to choose between two general fields of study: liberal arts or engineering. Since SL ultimately attended engineering school, it should be surprising that he initially opted to pursue liberal arts as a “major.” However, within the first two weeks of freshman classes, SL learned that liberal arts majors had to take at least one full year of history courses. SL had no such interest and immediately switched to an engineering major.
Approaching college graduation with his engineering courses virtually completed, SL was still undecided about a career path. He knew that to pursue engineering as a career, he would have to obtain an advanced degree in engineering but after eight years of studying during high school and college, SL was ready to earn some money. Following graduation, SL took a job in the business world while noting a local law school offered part-time evening classes. SL was interested in a possible career in the law, so he earned money in business during the day and studied law weeknights as a part-time student.
‘LAST MINUTE’ CAREER DECISIONS AFTER COLLEGE
All was well with SL’s combination of work and school until the Draft Board notified SL that having graduated from full time college attendance, SL was now eligible to be drafted into the military. (At this time, during the on-going Vietnam War, all males aged 18 had to register for the military draft; full time students and others, for documented medical reasons or persuasive pacifist reasons, were exempt.) SL considered his options and decided to take advantage of a continuing, lawful exemption from the draft by becoming – again – a full time student, only not in engineering but in law. (Editor’s note: electing to pursue full time student status rather than the military draft was lawful and cannot be criticized as an immoral or unpatriotic choice, unlike persuading a medical doctor to produce a letter to the draft board to excuse an individual due to a bogus medical condition such as bone spurs.)
LAW SCHOOL
Considering SL’s competence in engineering courses and his potential interest in a legal career, a friend suggested that SL’s best career fit would be in the field of “Intellectual Property” involving patents for products and related technologies. (This field broadly also includes “copyrights” which protects ideas and writings much like patents protect physical objects and how to use them).
RISK AVERSION PLAYS OUT
Now recall SL’s aversion to placing his future career success in the hands of folks he could not control or at least significantly influence. Thus, instead of pursuing employment by a private law firm and commencing an apprenticeship toward the law firm’s eventual subjective decision on whether to admit SL to its partnership, SL opted for employment within the less internally competitive law department of a corporation where he could utilize his technical skills and his knowledge of the law toward applications for patents to protect the technologies which other company employees were developing.
VOLUNTARILY MOVING FROM ONE CORPORATION TO ANOTHER FOR COMMON REASONS
While SL enjoyed his daily patent lawyer tasks and never had personality issues with co-workers or managers, several times he opted to move from one corporate patent law department to another corporate patent law department for common reasons:
Friendlier office and/or cleaner urban area environment
Better compensation (the most common reason to change jobs)
Closer to family roots
Easier commuting time
MOST SIGNIFICANT HIGH SCHOOL COURSE AFFECTS JOB EFFICIENCY AND FREE TIME
Editor’s note: SL asked this editor what did the editor think was likely the most significant high school course for SL’s future in the workplace? The editor’s guess: English composition since everyone, even physicians, scientists, and engineers, must be able to communicate their ideas to others less informed. A good answer but incorrect. SL’s answer: typing (now known as keyboarding). As a result of his high school typing course (on a manual typewriter with a ribbon….) self-motivated SL was able to type 75 words per minute which at the time, was near the highest, if not the highest, production within his class. (Thanks, Miss Zelnick!)
As an IP attorney, SL had to prepare many patent applications, which he typed himself rather than dictating into a recording machine to be transcribed by a secretary whose speed and accuracy might not have matched the manual skill level of SL, who noted that his co-worker patent attorneys often had to plod through 6-7 drafts while SL was able to complete his work in 1 or 2 drafts, thus allowing SL to spend less time in the office, which was personally important after his divorce, providing an opportunity to spend more time with his children.
ENGINEERING CAREER SATISFACTION
SL enjoyed meeting with inventors and other technically oriented co-workers to prepare applications for patents, occasionally involving in-person presentations to officials within the U.S. Patent Office. SL was therefore able to utilize his lawyering skills and personality, unafraid to present and defend a legal position with facts and legal arguments.
By shifting his job location to suit his personal preferences in lifestyle (good compensation, relatively clean urban area environment, close to parents and a short commute in his own car), SL had also achieved job satisfaction. SL had specific job satisfaction in earning – by technical proficiency and common-sense judgment – discretion to make final decisions regarding patent application strategies. All in all, these factors constituted high satisfaction with SL’s finally chosen engineering career.
