Intel lets go of 2,000 staff at Oregon R&D site, offices in Texas, Arizona, California Intel this week handed out pink slips to more than 2,000 workers across the United States. The latest of these job cuts saw 1,300 people let go at Intel's Hillsboro offices – a crucial research and development hub where many of the chipmaker's next-gen parts get their start. First reported by the Oregonian on Tuesday, the …
I used to work as an engineer at the Ronler Acres fabs in Hillsboro 15 yrs ago. Over the last couple months every time I checked LinkedIn, there were so many announcements from people in lead roles that I had worked with stating their retirement or new position somewhere else. This brain drain is more like a lobotomy and it will be hard to recover.
<Disclosure: I do not, nor have I ever, worked for Intel, but I live in the area....and tech really is a small world>
I have several friends that got offered 'the package' at Intel. Both were past their fourth sabbatical, so pretty far along in their careers. It really was too good to pass up and placed them in a financial position for early retirement. Hired in the early 1990's when they were 20-something years old. I am happy for them.
As for Intel... These people were 5-8 years out from retirement anyway. This brain-drain was going to happen eventually whether Intel pulled the trigger or not. Intel was founded in 1968 so there has been ample time for multiple careers to turn-over, making this just another page in the book. I am sure there are 20-somethings at Intel currently that will seize this opportunity and be there for 30 years as well.
also known as Death Spiral. So much like CSC, EDS, HP, IBM. Also Boeing. At least ARM, Open Risc and AMD are still alive. Usually the manglement that kill companies are hired elsewhere as part of the fail upwards system that has destroyed many tech companies. This is what Dark Ages beginning look like IMHO
<Disclosure -- I was an accidental Intel employee back in the 2000s because of an acquisition>
Its possible that 20-somethings might build a 30 year career at Intel but I think it unlikely. The financial distortion caused by the runaway success of Wintel during the 90s and 2000s allowed Intel to literally buy its way to future success, spending huge amounts to acquire what it thought was essential technology. Even then when it got what it wanted from a company it threw the gutted remains back like discarded fish parts. Such profligacy was only possible because of a virtual monopoly but as we all know times change and now Intel has to contend with serious competition. This doesn't mean it will disappear overnight but it will fall back to focusing on things it finds profitable and clear cutting the rest.
Its actually not much different from any other major US corporation. I don't see any 20-somethings expecting a lifetime career at Boeing, for example.
(Incidentally, the way things are going here those 20-somethings will need to work for at least 40 years in order to retire. Full retirement age is currently 67 but is likely to go up a year or two by the time they get near to that age.)
That rhymes and all, but would they not also have internal dialogues c.f. 'Now I can open my dream Elk themed Bakery...and direct graphene and memristive neuromorphic RNN development,' or 'Now I can open the broken VHS and MPDG Video Franchise of my dreams ..and direct diamond vacancy center quantum discretes on an optical chiral bus' and other such homespun DARPA fronts 'all year Spirit Halloween with animatronic girl bands who can also trim trees and fab from lignin and cellulose but sometimes they bake a few hundred humble 1000 mm optical compute and F/O sense demure compute and storage die' etc?
Now they can roll FAE centers that bake keto pastry and robotically foster killbot startups that make water sequestration roads, ways, and works, roofing repair and solar installation, make inspired up cycling of furniture and ruined bedding, and an inspirational redesign of re-siding with insulation and ventilation. People just see them when they're catching tree nuts though.
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