Bye Bye for now TI

It all began with 2 final year students searching for a final year B.E project. Running from Ashok Pillar to Anna University Post, they sought one goal, a project which would be on the cutting edge of technology, far beyond the imagination of their peers and far beyond the reach of specialists. That pursuit was half complete, the rest of the sequel had to be completed in the United States, at the home base of the dream company. A company where the Speak and Spell came from, played the home to a Nobel laureate, is a name that all schools speak of, a name that is synonymous with Digital Signal Processing, a company called Texas Instruments Incorporated.

That dream of programming on TI's Digital Signal Processors was complete in December 1999, just 3 months after I landed in the USA, in my EE595Z class with Dr. Krogmeier and Dr.Zoltowski at Purdue. The architecture and the superiority of TI's TMS320C5x processor was felt in that class. I could feel goosebumps and my arms and mind were racing for more. I wanted to work at this company at some stage in my career. This is the second company I have wanted to work for after Microsoft due to my natural affinity for Microsoft Software and my worship for my idol in Bill Gates and Windows NT OS design.

TI was much more of a continuum to my skills acquired at Purdue. I consider myself very lucky to have gotten the opportunity of entering this company right after school! It was really a dream come true! I could not believe it and for 7.5 years, it has just been an absolute love affair with TI across 2 states, 4 locations, 4 groups and 8 managers. I have to thank Mark U for giving me that opportunity of interviewing with TI in Nov 2000, after HR accidentally overlooked me for the interview. It was a time when things were just starting to go down after the astronomical boom in 1999 and being left out of the initial interview list for TI did leave me devastated although I had already landed a couple of other offers in high profile companies. The reason for the devastation was that my campus interviewer, Mark, gave me highly positive feedback after the first round of interviews and told me that he would see me in Dallas. But I heard from one of my friends that he got a call for TI's 2nd round of interviews, while I did not get anything even 3 days later. I sent a heartbroken email to Mark and the HR personnel and the latter apologized but could not do anything. Mark on the other hand was shocked and cleared things up soon enough for me to get on a plane to Dallas 23 hours later.

At the Crowne Plaza hotel on Coit Rd, the festivities to welcome us soon drowned inside the drinks on the table when we met some of our compatriots from the Universities of Illinois, Michigan, Cornell and Carnegie Mellon. I was so nervous that I cut my face all over when I shaved that morning. One of those cuts was so deep that it is on me to this date as a reminder of my successful interview on Nov 14th 2000, a lucky day indeed, 3 years earlier, I was in another interview with Satyam Infoway in Chennai.

It has been the longest institution I have been with so far in life including schools, colleges, universities and companies. It has been nothing short of a University into the Industry. It has only meant good for me in my career so far, giving me access to opportunity, to information, to people, to resources and to dreams. I take nothing but sweet memories from my career at Texas Instruments, A phenomenal company with the highest standards, ethics and faculties. At the end of it all, it had to happen, not by choice, but by sheer fate just like a run out after scoring 140 in Test Cricket. Can't feel happy by it, but can't feel rotten either.

Bye bye and good luck Texas Instruments! Thanks for it all!

Till we meet again….

~ by The Tarun on August 7, 2007.