Well, here’s that post. You know that post from someone leaving a company they’ve supported for years. Yeah. That post. Well, this post is a little different. Although I’m leaving Dell Technologies this Friday it feels like I’m leaving an era.
I’ve served in Corporate America for 40+ years in various roles. I’ve done everything from RF power amplifier (900MHz) and controller hardware design for 0G (AMPS) cell sites to systems engineering, project management, technical writing, product management, marketing, and corporate training. I was on the bell labs team that developed the first Wi-Fi access points, for example. I even did a short stint as a patent examiner at the USPTO. It’s been a long struggle trying to stay gainfully employed all these years.
I’ve worn many hats and worked on many weird and cool projects, and I feel like I should provide a bit of unrequested old, Blackman, advice (“ahem”):
- Never ever doubt yourself or your abilities just because some folk just can’t seem to wrap their tiny, racist, sexist brains around you being excellent. Don’t satisfy someone else’s need for comfort about how they perceive your race, faith, ability, sex, gender, etc. Fcuk them. Seriously.
- Don’t sell yourself on the cheap just for a job. There’s a whole world out there that includes people willing to pay you what you’re worth. Spend your precious time finding and working with those people–not trying to convince asshats to like you.
- Read poetry. Seriously. Read poems. Read Windell Berry’s poem “Do not be ashamed”, Audre Lorde’s “Litany for Survival”, and Charles Bukowski’s “The Laughing Heart”, right now. I’ll wait…
- If you’re into STEM/STEMM/STEAM, expand your job search outside of this country. (I never thought I’d have to say this but here we are. 🤔) Consider work in the global south. There’s some interesting engineering work going on in Brazil and on the African continent, for example. The ‘net makes it possible to work from anywhere for teams anywhere. I remember back in the 1980s when the number of scientific and technical papers authored outside the U.S. was projected to exceed those from inside this country. Welp, here we are. If you get a chance to travel, go for it!
- Leverage the connections you make in college–especially the international ones. Next time you’re in Networks 101 or Intro to Engineering, look to your left and look to your right, those people might be great business partners.
- Don’t work beyond your ethical boundaries. Once you give up your values there’s no amount of money that can help you recover.
- The most precious thing is your personal relationships. Think beyond social media. Think about the people who are willing to sit with you when you grieve and those who want to celebrate with you when you do well. Don’t sacrifice your family for a job. Jobs come and go but you must come home to your family–even if coming home means walking down the hall.
- Be curious. Strike up conversations with strangers. You never know who you’re sitting next to.
- Join a club or professional society in your chosen field. The educational and networking opportunities in these clubs are priceless.
- Join a union. I’ve been in the Freelancers Union, the National Writers Union when I was doing consulting work, and later joined the Patent Office Professional Association.
- Like the flight attendants say before takeoff “Put your mask on first before helping others.” Take good care of yourself and your family before spending your life in someone else’s cubicle, desk, or lab. Don’t sacrifice yourself on someone else’s altar.
- I got this gem from a contractor guidebook: If you believe that you cannot trust the people representing the company sitting across the table from you, get up and leave. There is no such thing as “airtight” contractual language that will protect you. Corollary: Don’t sign an NDA for an interview. This practice is just tacky and intimidating. Smart people can develop hypotheticals to sus-out your talents without tying you to an agreement for the rest of your work life–unless they are trying to get your ideas without paying for them (AKA theft).
- Regardless of your age, race, gender, sex, avoid companies that don’t have clear commitments to DEI. As we see with our current government, corruption and racism go hand and hand. As a young African American woman put it to me succinctly: Racism is corruption, duh. This goes double for white folks. Think about it. Just how sure can you be as a white worker in a racist company that you are where you are because of your abilities or the fact that you’re not black or brown?
- Yes. There are some companies that don’t deserve you. You are brilliant. Shine somewhere else.