Herd instincts?

Short term thinking. Ph.D's should properly be used to find new products that create new markets - the Bell Labs work on the transistor is the classic example - and the long-term payoff can be huge. There was a vogue - for a while - of paying internal royalties to the research labs of big companies, which stopped when it became clear that over any length of time the research labs would end up owning the company.

And I've never had any formal training in electronics.

Wrong. I can't get a job now - mainly because I turn 65 in couple of weeks. I worked for two years and eleven months in the last job I had, and was let go then because if I'd been there for more than three years I'd have automatically had a permanent job (under Dutch law) which would have meant that I'd have automatically become a member of the company's pension scheme, which would have meant that company would have had to start paying a sum equal to 67% of my gross salary into the pension fund - under Dutch law I could have taken early retirement the day I became a member of the pension fund, and the pension fund set the company contribution level high enough to minimise the chance that this could happen.

The first time I was unemployed was in the UK in 1991 when I was made redundant with the rest of my development team at Cambridge Instruments, when I was 49. I was back in temporary work within a few days and in a job which eventually became permanent some six months later.

As these things go, I've actually been pretty good at getting jobs and hanging onto them. I wonder how well Jim would do at getting a permanent job in the Netherlands at the moment? There is a persistent demand for analog integrated circuit designers, but Dutch personnel departments don't understand technical skills and don't like hiring people over the age of 45. I was 58 when I got my last job, but that company didn't bother with a personnel department.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Any lumps?

FUCK the French.

IKYANBWAI

Funny. I just watched 2001 again the other night as I now have it on HD DVD!

Thus Spoke Zarathustra!

He isn't dead, dumbshit.

Funny, since our company sets records in such areas. We are over 50% Engineers, and many have PhDs.

Better than working with some holier than thou dope that refuses to use a machine properly, because of his claim that what he has been doing works and has worked through x dollars of sales.

You have some prejudice against x dollars of sales? Or doing what works?

John

Stop hiding behind anonymity and tell us what company that is.

...Jim Thompson

"Herbie" doesn't like being told he's inadequate ;-)

...Jim Thompson

Is that why he keeps changing names, even in the same thread?

The first sign of guts is to use your real name.

John

Safeway?

John

I know a cashier there with a BSEE... makes more money than he can make in industry... just got promoted to an assistant manager position ;-)

...Jim Thompson

That probably impairs driving too.

How long's the incubation period?

No.. Just a prejudice against asswipes that blatantly disregard proper operational methods, parameters, and instructions.

Have you ever done a VOC immersion bath test on your crap after your "cleaning" "method"?

You are looking in the mirror again, then projecting here. Nice job, idiot.