It’s all over but the crying now. For some, leaving Intel will be the best thing that ever happened to them – for other it will be a blow they never recover from. Myself, I am disappointed that I did not get an ERP or VSP – I would have been happy to even get an ISP, since I am leaving in a few months anyway.
Take a lesson from this: always have a plan. Live beneath your means rather than over. Save your money, drive old cars, if your income goes up let your lifestyle stay level. Put your money safely away instead of pissing it away. My Pop used to call it ‘walking tall’ money, the author Nassim Taleb calls it ‘F--- You Money’ – that is, have enough savings to let you deal with an occasional black swan or deal from a relative position of strength with an occasional a--hole boss.
David Whyte, the poet, has written that work “is a place you can lose yourself more easily perhaps than finding yourself … losing all sense of our own voice, our own contribution and conversation.” Most of the jobs I have seen at Intel in my seven years seem to be perfect for that - the jobs are mind-numbing mental grunt-work, requiring a highly technical, narrow focus; the scut work of the information age. Lose yourself in it and wonder why you ever worked so hard for a college degree.
As Mr. Pink (in Reservoir Dogs) said, “Come on, we’re professionals here”. Save your money, get a life and quit hanging around websites like this.