10 years in the 602 (Chapter 3)

My first day at work ten years ago was spent at my office (okay, my cubicle) at Motorola Manufacturing Systems in Phoenix. The office was on LaSalle off of 48th Street, just below Broadway. It wasn't the best neighborhood - the building was surrounded by barbed wire fencing (we jokingly called it the "South Mountain Penal Colony"). Most of the people in the building worked with robotics, but not me - I was joining a small group (maybe three) of computer jocks in the CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) group. I expected to be shipped off to one of the many semiconductor fabs in the Valley - MMS-CIM's major customer was Motorola's semiconductor products sector.

I wasn't disappointed - after signing a bunch of papers, getting my email and phone set up, and meeting my co-workers, I got the call from my boss. My boss (along with the bulk of MMS-CIM) was located in Schaumburg, Illinois - that's actually where I interviewed for the job. That afternoon, I got the word - I was going to be helping out the CIM group at the Bipolar 3 semiconductor fab in Mesa.

I surprised both my boss and the folks contracting me when I drove over immediately. I was anxious to get started, and didn't see any point in sitting around. I knew I'd have a lot of set-up work to do - at the time semiconductor was on a completely different network from the rest of Motorola - I had to get a different email account and everything. I called Nick (my customer, and the head of BP3-CIM), and told him I'd see him in 20 minutes.