TO BE OR NOT TO BE EMPLOYED

With nationwide unemployment hovering around 10%, this article could be of timely interest. “To be or not to be”, that question was famously asked in the Shakespearian play Hamlet. Who are these guys in the US still employed or unemployed? I would like to relate my experience during my 30 to 35 years of employment in industry. Although not exactly relevant in this day and age, this article recollects my years of employment beginning in the middle year nineteen fifties. I am hoping this article would help someone find employment or for those who stay employed, have a better insight of this present professional world of reality or sometimes fantasy.

I began to work as an engineer trainee soon after two years of graduate school from an Ivy League university. This corporation was a nationally well established steel supplier and my department specialized in the engineering problems concerning the fabrication and erection of steel buildings and bridges, including suspension bridges. Most all steel framed structures around the New York metropolitan area were supplied by this corporation. Suspension cable bridges require some mathematical sophistication since these bridge cables form catenary flexible curves.

I worked in a large hall of about 30 or so engineers cranking out the engineering related solutions to these structural problems. Right beside me was an engineer nearing retirement whose desk was touching the edge of my desk doing the same type of work we young recruits were doing. One day a ceremony was given in honor of this retiring old engineer. The ceremony was primarily organized by the higher supervisors whose glass walled offices surrounded our big hall. There was the usual gold watch presentation and kudos of speeches given by the chief engineer and others. No sooner than the ceremonies were in full swing, the old engineer started crying like a child. The message was clear to me. He had years of frustration from not being promoted just like his co-leagues surrounding him. At that moment the supervisors glumly went back to their offices one by one. Right there was Lesson Number one for me. Lesson 1: Don’t cry. The primary purpose of why you were born is not to be an outstanding success in your professional career. I decided then and there not to wait for supervisors to promote me but be the best engineer I possibly could. My thoughts were that companies would pay for my specialized engineering contributions. Besides, within this corporation, nepotism was rampant. Many years later, steel companies from Japan and other emerging countries eventually brought this corporation to bankruptcy. Also, during those years I still was working for my papers for permanent US residence and eventually became a citizen of this great country. Yes, the corporation helped be sparingly with some of the documentation for my permanent residence. Clearly, they realized that as soon as I was awarded permanent residency, there would be no reason for me to look elsewhere for possibly better opportunities. After accomplishing this goal I started to seek bigger advancement in other companies as predicted. Lesson 2: This is a competitive world. Everyone is looking out for Number 1.

Three reasons why I decided to quit my job at the steel corporation, are: !) I recieved my US permanent papers; and 2) I wanted to go to graduate school with the intention of getting an MS in Mathematics. Engineering problems are sometimes better solved using math. A classical example is in erection problems of suspension bridges I mentioned above. Those main cables follow mathematical hyperbolic functions. Main cables in suspension bridges are flexible curves mathematically shaped as catenary curves; and so erection of the road deck needs to be built at calculated positions along the cable length. Also 3) Living in the East Coast in Pennsylvania was a dead end as far as my social life was concerned. So I applied to two of the best schools in Michigan. University of Michigan accepted me. but Michigan State University made a better offer. At MSU I was also accepted as a Teaching Assistant in the Math Dept; even though I did not have a Math degree. At that time MSU was still catching up with U of M. MSU must not have been too choosy. This turned out to be the best deal, as I met my future beautiful wife at MSU. Why I continued beyond my MS to get a Ph D in Math is another story. Some of my graduate school companions had the impression that, “an engineer does not have the intelligence to work for a Math doctorate degree”. After much work, patience, and determination, I finally made it. A compliment was given to me by one of the young professors in the Math Department who previously had looked down on me as lacking. She said, ”You are now one of us.” I also thought I would change careers and become a Math professor. Lesson 3: With much hard work and determination, most people can achieve their realistic goals.

After two years as a Math professor, low pay, and yes, politics (it is also well and alive not only in government and industry but also in the academic field), I found out I was in the wrong profession and decided to go back in engineering. Get 250 professors to suggest solving a university problem and you get 250 different recommendations. Teaching college kids was a great and rewarding experience. During those years of student demonstrations the students were on my side. However, abstract mathematics and the pressure of “publish or perish” was not going too well for me. There probably was also was a lack of interest in my part in this area. Practical engineering is the opposite extreme of abstract mathematics. We were so poor that we picked the fallen apples from the university campus trees to make us apple pies. Right then and there, we decided to change my professional income. By the way, those were the best apple pies I ever tasted.

So I went back to engineering but this time designing both coal and nuclear power plants. I put my math experience in computer programming; designing related power plant components such as high smoke stacks, foundations, earthquake resistant steel structures, etc. Obviously, management at my new company were very impressed on what I could do. In the span of three months I doubled my salary from what I was formerly being paid as a professor. The job took me places communicating with foreign engineers in France, Germany, Iran, and Korea which to me was very exciting. However one of the company’s critiques was that I was not “a team player”. Especially when going overseas, I did not hang around socially with the rest of the team, but preferred the company of the French, Germans, Iranians, Koreans, etc. Except for higher pay, promotions did not come too easily, especially with the usual company politicking and back stabbing involved. The truth is I figured life was too short for me to be a continual “ass kisser”. So one day I got “promoted” as an ordinary analysis engineer working on piping systems in Nuclear power plants. Piping systems could be subjected to possible earthquakes and violent breakdowns due to nuclear accidents. I worked on these problems using computer structural programs developed by NASA, called NASTRAN. The Piping manager was so impressed with my knowledge; he eventually made me his right hand man and set my office next to his. Suddenly the now historical nuclear plant in Pennsylvania “Three Mile Island” almost came to an accidental “melt down”. Even President Carter got involved by visiting this power plant after the accident. Thereafter Nuclear power plants became taboo. Our company started losing contracts. Besides, utilities could not afford many more re-designs mandated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC kept changing the rules of their “what if” games. A couple of years before my company finally closed their doors to everyone, I got the “pink slip”. “Cut off the high paying jocks first to conserve cash”. But as I mentioned a while ago, the computer program NASTRAN was my salvation. NASTRAN was and still is being used in Automotive, Aircraft, Aerospace, and some other design fields besides nuclear power plants. Without this experience I probably would have joined the “McDonald morning coffee club” with many of my former senior managers from that company reminiscing on the “good old times”. Lesson 4: The Chinese word for “crisis” is the same as the word for “opportunity”.

Six months of no work was a stressful time as well as a learning experience for me. Where could I find meaningful work? What company would be willing to take a chance on me? Forget about suing my former employer for discrimination, etc, etc. ; contrary to the advice of a few of my former co-workers. I figured this was a waste of my time. And so I reviewed what engineering talents I had and what line of service I could offer to prospective employers. I studied, explored, read guide books, etc and even attended a church Novena. I also met with so-called employment advisers (one of them I recall a minister/advisor whose spiritual advices I judged way irrelevant. This clearly was a waste of my time.) I also wrote and rewrote my Resume, and possibly mailed a hundred letters of application to companies. These letters of employment inquiries usually end up in company Personnel departments. They have a special file rack for these letters; “the ever present waste basket”. Personnel people usually haven’t the foggiest idea what you can do for their company. There suddenly was a change of tactics on my part. I decided to meet prospective employers on a face to face basis. In some cases I got myself inside their gates and announced to them, ”Here I am. This is what I can do for you”. In other cases companies promoted job fairs where applicants could meet their company engineering executives on a one on one basis. My experiences included rejections, near misses, company cultural differences, over qualifications, “not one of us”, pay refusals, you name it. One aircraft parts company whom the “higher ups” I met were very enthusiastic, had unfortunately also included an interviewer who would have been my immediate supervisor. This guy never liked me from the very start. Another one looked at me thoughtfully and probably was thinking along these lines. “If I hire this guy, how long will he stay with us before he finds another higher paying and more meaningful job more commensurate to his knowledge”. Some made their actions very clear to me; “You are not one of us”. Finally after six months of trying, I got a permanent offer from one of the big three automotive manufacturers in their Detroit Headquarters. I announced this to my wife and I was almost in tears of relief. Lesson 5; Never give up (recall the words of Winston Churchill).

I considered myself very fortunate to land this job for three reasons. !) I had no automotive experience; 2) I was 54 years old, and 3) I carried the stigma of being laid off (fired) from my former company. Sure, the corporation was not willing to pay me my former previous salary, but in six months I got raises that erased this difference. The work in automotive design was enthusiastically challenging and demanding. I was able to apply the computer program NASTRAN analyzing engine and transmission components in cars and trucks. The corporation had a great bunch of experienced technical people. Unfortunately these talented people played secondary roles to many arrogant and ambitious managers who were usually power hungry. And the labor union was another headache to deal with. It seemed to me that their objective was to get maximal pay for minimal work. Also, I believe we were overpaid. Whenever union people demands were granted, we executives automatically got raises too. Where did the money come from? It came from minimizing car improvements and avoiding suggested recommendations from these technical people whose objectives were to manufacture a better car or truck. Some responses were, “Do you realize one added bolt could cost a million dollars in our assembly manufacturing plant?” Eventually, the Japanese and Europeans saw their openings and started making more desirable cars the US public would like. Their vehicles were subject to fewer repairs and breakdowns. It is now history that in the year 2008 two of these big three corporations asked for government help (hat in hand) to bail them out of bankruptcy. Lesson 6: Dinner served can sometimes give the eater an indigestion.
Here is a major incident that made me think of retiring. According to corporate procedure, I asked to be nominated for manager in the newly proposed Computer Analysis Department. Obviously there were other applicants for this position too. It finally came down to two people; myself and someone else. Three Vice-preidents were to have the final say. One was my executive engineer in the Powertrain division who believed I started the methodology at Powertrian. The other never liked me since I started to work for the corporation. The third one was a “fence sitter”. After much politics, the “fence sitter” finally decided on the other guy. This hurt me deeply at the time but I now consider this disappointment unnecessary on my part. Now I say, “So what?” Lesson 7: “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” Obviously, during that time, there also were “back stabbing” incidents from others, not worth mentioning here. I was already making good money, which was causing some jealousy among my coworkers, my newly chosen manager included. So I hung around for about a year as a 3-day part time employee. During those days I was given the responsibility to talk to a few high up executives. These encounters with these executives made me more anxious to make my last farewell. Retire! Don’t ever come back. Tony you were never programmed to spend the rest of your days in this corporation.

As a final note, I would like to mention my interview with someone at the US Social Security Office later after I retired. We were talking about how much I made working and what Social Security checks I would be receiving in the future. The clerk looked at me and paused. She said, “The American dream is not dead”. So, after I left her office I was thinking to myself, “Were these 30-35 years of professional work worth it?” My response was, “You bet it was!” This is now all history. So, Final lesson: “Let the past fade away. Why get lost in yesterday.”