Amazing connections

I was thinking the other day, about how many years it's been since I started in the electronics industry and how many people I have met and known. Sometimes it is just mind boggling. It was 1979, I was not yet 19 and here I am at almost 50 years old. Yikes! Where did the time go? My first gig was at Almac/Stroum in Georgetown. That one didn't last even a year but I still remember almost everyone's names and faces. Of course through out the last 30 years there have been people I wish I didn't remember or even have met for that matter but hey, life doesn't give you mulligans so oh well. Conversely though, there are people that I really wish I would have kept in touch with over the years. Some of them I really miss. Now that I'm so much older, most definitely wiser, and have my priorities in this world pretty straight; friendships, relationships and associations are so much more important to me.

When I was at Almac there were probably at least 50 people there that I remember and sadly I am not in contact with any of them. The next place was Spectro Acoustics and there are a few from there that I keep in touch with. The next was SGC where I was the purchasing agent and I soon met tons of distributor sales people. The next stop was Arrow Electronics where I spent the next 4 years. One of those years was spent in southern California and another was at the corporate office all the way over on Long Island. At Arrow I met people from all over the country since I was supporting the branches and distribution hubs as a corporate product manager. I had the opportunity to do some traveling then as well. However, New York was not my home so child in tow, I came home with no job lined up and no prospects. It took awhile to find something when I got back home but along came Western MicroTechnology, then ES/Chase, followed by IEC, then Shannon, and most recently OutBack Power.

I think I could say that the number of people that I crossed paths with is well over the 1000 mark and is probably more than that. Like I said, it is mind boggling at times. When I first started, alot of the people I knew were at least 10 to 15 years older than I was. Some of the people I knew early on have passed away, retired, or sucessfully left the electronics industry to pursue other interests. Others are still plugging away at their respective distributor, OEM, or rep jobs. I've worked in all aspects of electronics; distribution, manufacturing, rep company, contract manufacturer and I would say that my favorite environment has been in manufacturing.

I would go back to any of those environments however, at this point because I want to work. I will also work outside of the industry, for the government, or pretty much anywhere for that matter. The thing about it is that I like diversity, I like meeting new people, I like learning about new things. Hey, on this last go around I learned a ton about renewable and alternative energy and since I had never been a facilities manager before, I gained an enormous amount of knowledge and skills doing that. Learning new things and having new experiences is what keeps you growing as a person.

Well, that's probably enough for tonight. Tomorrow I'm making homemade blackberry jam and blackberry pancake syrup. Yep, it's good stuff.

See you on the next post!