January 25, 2006
It's official
Job Search - Last fall TransDimension (now Oxford Semiconductor) announced that as part of the merger, they would only keep the Nashua office open for several more months. Back in December I dusted off my resume and started to look for good places to work. The new year started and I began to interview in ernest. In a little over a week I had three solid interviews behind me. Last year the economy for digital hardware engineers was slow enough that many in my field had a lot of trouble finding a position for several months. For some in the field of software, it was even worse. A few software people I knew were unemployed for about a year!
I figured I ought to do a few interviews because of how sluggish things were last year. I got a positive response right away from one, a second shortly thereafter, and I think the third was very close to making an offer. I got into a position I didn't foresee: having to choose. (Actually, I did apply to a fourth position nearby, but got a quick 'no' when I followed up.)
So this morning I did the unpleasant task of turning down two potential employers. I just felt really bad about it. You feel like you've wasted their time. The world of chip design is so small, you don't want to burn any bridges because odds are you'll see some of those folks years down the road. But on the other hand, I didn't think I would be in that position. Twelve years ago I thought I had a good shot at two different positions I'd interviewed at near Chicago, but soon got the cold shower of job rejections.
ATI - So if you haven't heard through the grapevine already, I accepted a position at ATI. (see also the Wikipedia entry about ATI) I'll start sometime next month after things wrap up at our Nashua office. ATI has a design center of a couple hundred people in Massachusetts that's done various things but most recently they built the graphics chip that is in the new hot selling Xbox 360. They've also put graphics chips inside of high end televisions and the local Massachusetts office is considering new applications of the graphics technology which I can't give details on. Let's just say it's not all just graphics cards that sit inside of PCs.
One thing that I think I'll enjoy is having a bit more brand name clout. For the past seven years that I've been at our Nashua office (under four company names!) our processors and USB technologies have been in a fair number of products that customers recognize, but they don't mention us, nor can we mention them. Microsoft and Nintendo have no qualms saying that they have ATI graphics engines in them, but no one has ever put a logo for our little processor/USB company (whatever its name was that year!). But it's safe to say that millions of things purchased this Christmas season had our technologies in them without any hint of it.
Going back to graphics hardware is a nice bit of déjà vu for me. In college and my USAF time, I was involved a lot in the world of hardware accelerated graphics. My computer engineering masters thesis was about a massively parallel graphics architecture. Once I left the military I got more involved in rapid prototyping, processors, and fast serial interfaces like ethernet and USB. Now I'll be back in the world of high performance rendering.
Schedule - The next few nights look to be busy. Last night I picked up Claire from her new cooking class. Tonight I picked her up from piano lessons. In addition to continuing work on the three songs I posted last week, she now gets to start on a version of the famous William Tell Overture. And she's never even seen "The Lone Ranger"! Tomorrow night is CCD of course. I'll be watching Mighty Timbo while the other four attend classes and Michelle teaches. Friday night Claire goes to one friend's birthday party but then Saturday night she goes to yet another friend's birthday party. By comparison Abby has a quiet week! Sunday night Michelle and I plan to finally go and have dinner at The Mile Away. I've wanted to eat there for ages. Michelle said once I got my job situation squared away, we could go there to celebrate.
Mom & I want to go to " The Mile Away". Looks like a great menu!
Dad
Hey Scott- I had never heard of ATI, but appearently Chris and my boyfriend, Brian, know all about that stuff. Brian explained to me all about what they do. It sounds like you got in with a really great company! I'm applying at 2 community colleges out here for a part time psychology faculty position next fall! Hope all is well over there!
Posted by: Suzy at January 26, 2006 11:53 AMGlad to hear you got a new job. Does this mean you'll have to move or do they have an office close to you?
Erica
Posted by: Erica at January 26, 2006 09:14 PMHi Erica,
Well, it's not exactly "close", but we don't plan on moving. The commute is about an hour, but unlike the other jobs I interviewed for, this commute is mostly rural highways. The roads are probably like what you're used to in Indiana, but with less corn fields and more trees and clapboard houses with shutters. ;-) The drive is shown here:
http://tinyurl.com/9aepy
Posted by: Scott at January 27, 2006 06:56 AMHey Scott,
Congrats on the job! Looking at that map made me remember that Becky moved back to Mass.- she and her husband live in Ashby, with a mountain view. Any idea where that is?
Gotta go get ready to work hot lunch!
Lys
Hi Lyss,
You can see the ATI office in satellite view at:
http://tinyurl.com/dl6pq
It's the building adjacent to the big parking lot.
Scary, Becky is about 18 miles away! See this:
http://tinyurl.com/8o4l2
"It's a small world after all..."
Posted by: Scott at January 27, 2006 02:37 PMCongratulations Scott! "So this morning I did the unpleasant task of turning down two potential employers." I know what you mean, but at the same time, if you're going to have a dilemma, it's always better to have it be this sort ... an embarrassment of riches...
Posted by: Ernesto at January 27, 2006 10:27 PMHi, Scott.
Congratulations! How nice that you found yourself in a positive position----offers instead of rejections. I hope your transition is very smooth. So, is your oldest child your babysitter? I don't remember how old she is. I now have two built in babysitters. I'll be using one tonight when Dean and I go to couples game night.
Hi Ernesto,
Yes, you're right. If one is going to have a dilemma, this easily beats the dilemma of having no work!
Hi Lisa,
Claire is borderline ready to do some baby sitting. Currently if we have to run a quick errand in town, we'll sometimes leave her home for up to 20 minutes or so -- arming her with a cell phone in case she needs to reach us. But no, we wouldn't go out to dinner yet and leave her as head of the house. She's only 10 1/2. Soon, though...
Posted by: Scott at January 28, 2006 07:30 AMGreetings, Scott. I have not talked to you for quite some time, probably 6 months or so. (Its Ron from Intel of the USB "fame".)
My new job is going well and the old one is pretty much leaving me alone (which means the USB stuff is going well). I am very glad to see that after the TDI thing you have what sounds like a really good opportunity. After working with all of the good folks at it is nice to hear things are going well.
Cheers and drop me a note some time.
Posted by: Ron at March 23, 2006 01:37 PMI sent Ronald the following email back:
Hi Ronald,
Glad to hear your new job is going well. So is mine so far. I'm just a few miles from Intel's Hudson site. Looking over my Apache logs, I see you were doing a Google search on "Bilik" and found our site. It also looks like you were searching for my email address. I should mention that on any page that says "Posted by Scott at..." the "Scott" is a mailto link that fills in To: and Subject:.
I just found out yesterday that Chris Kolb also accepted a position at ATI. He can join me in the insane commute to Marlboro. It's been about six weeks since I've heard from Helen but I think she settled herself into a couple of contracts back in Ireland. Will Sanborn also landed on his feet but I can't remember the name of the company. Nobody moved forward to ChipIdea.
We are having a big VAuto (the original company name) "lights out" party Monday night. I'll see some faces I haven't seen in years. Ahh, the VAuto days... good times! Good stable times. Back when we were an organic growth company that didn't obsess about the stockholders or venture capitalists. Acquire, selloff, merge, shutdown. What a roller coaster ride it was after the VAuto days.
In a sense I'm back in IP, albeit graphic IP, not processor and communication IP. ATI made the graphics chip for Microsoft's new Xbox 360. Now there are some other large companies interested in using smaller scaled versions of ATI's graphic engine for embedded stuff. That's about all I can say about it. I do like that I have more input on how the verification of the IP should happen.
Well, I'll go for now. If you have a case of insomnia, stop by again and visit the site. You can see a "slice of life" of me, my wife, and the five kids striving to keep sanity in Milford, NH.
Posted by: Scott at March 23, 2006 07:54 PM