IEEE Potentials Magazine - May/June 2018 - 43
my first job
A team sport
by John Treichler
I
grew up in small town on the
In fact, it didn't work that way at all.
Gulf Coast of Texas, and it was
My first post-college job wasn't with
the bedroom community for a
a company, but with the U.S. Navy.
big Dow Chemical plant. Al-
How did this happen, you might ask? I
though the population was only
would love to tell you that military ser-
about 7,000, it was rich in an
vice was a long family tradition or that
important asset-engineers. As a
I signed up in a flash of patriotic fervor.
kid, it seemed to me that half of
In fact, a key consideration was that the
all the adult males who lived there
Navy Reserve Officers' Training Corps
were engineers-mostly chemical,
program was willing to provide finan-
but a lot of mechanical and elec-
cial support for my college education.
trical engineers as well. Not know-
In trade for this support, I would take
ing any better, I assumed that all
extra classes in college (for example,
towns were like that, and the type
celestial navigation), spend three sum-
and manner of thinking that engi-
mers out in the fleet, and then put in
neers do was, well, normal.
four years of active duty on a ship. I was
I also thought that I knew what Treichler believes that communication, both
quite conflicted by the choice I'd made.
happened to engineers right out of verbal and written, is crucial to professional
While very practical in terms of paying
school when they came to work at success.
for a chunk of my undergraduate edu-
Dow for their first job. They show
cation, spending four years in the Navy
up on the appointed day, dressed in a jacket and tie, and
hadn't been a part of the plan for my life. What I really
armed with an expectant, but perhaps slightly uncertain,
wanted to do was be an engineer-to go design and build
smile. They would be immediately counseled to get rid
things-to bend technology to the needs of humanity. I
of the jacket and tie ("It's too darned hot here in Texas
thought at the time that the Navy and engineering had
for that!") and then sent out into the plant with someone
nothing in common. I was wrong, and it turned out that
slightly more experienced to learn their way around and
my engineering education couldn't have been a better way
"get their hands dirty." The new hire would be assigned
to prepare me for the Navy (and, later, vice versa).
to one of the products (vinyl chloride, say) and spend a
I entered the Navy as the lowest of officers-an ensign-
couple of years learning absolutely everything about it
and was assigned to a ship older than I was as what's
and the plant that produced it. Without realizing it, they
called a division officer. As a division officer, I had three
would become the local expert and, a bit to their surprise,
almost-orthogonal sets of responsibilities. While under-
within a few years find themselves leading even younger
way (which seemed to me to be constantly), I stood watch-
engineers and then moving into management and leader-
es on the bridge four of every 16 h, rotating day in and day
ship roles. So, when I went off to college to get an electri-
out. I also had a full-time administrative duty-the first
cal engineering degree, I thought I would have a similar
one being the responsibility for the repair of most of the
experience when (and if) I graduated, and I was looking
ship's electronic gear. On top of all that, I was the leader
forward to it.
of a division of ten enlisted men. Thus, I had operational,
administrative, and leadership duties all at the young age
of 22. By the time I left the Navy four years later, I had
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPOT.2018.2794660
Date of publication: 2 May 2018
qualified as a fleet officer of the deck, moved up two steps
IEEE PotEntIals
May/June 2018
■
43
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Potentials Magazine - May/June 2018
Contents
IEEE Potentials Magazine - May/June 2018 - Cover1
IEEE Potentials Magazine - May/June 2018 - Cover2
IEEE Potentials Magazine - May/June 2018 - Contents
IEEE Potentials Magazine - May/June 2018 - 2
IEEE Potentials Magazine - May/June 2018 - 3
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IEEE Potentials Magazine - May/June 2018 - Cover3
IEEE Potentials Magazine - May/June 2018 - Cover4
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