Tom Reidenbach

In high school I took vocational electronics because I wanted to advance my knowledge of what had become my primary hobby. I built my own stereo, a CB radio and a music synthesizer (analog). After that I joined the Navy and received additional electronics and computer training. It all came naturally to me.

After the Navy I worked as a computer technician for a decade starting with the DEC PDP-11 using the RT-11 operating system and Fortran. I also worked on CP/M machines and then DOS. I paid my way along by selling and installing memory, hard drives and other peripherals. This is where I first started to write as a technician. And largely because so many clients were apt to pick up the phone when they forgot how to get into Lotus. Writing quick guides for getting into their stuff cut the phone calls by 90%.

Then I went to college and worked at an electronics retailer for 4 LONG years. My degree in Computer Information Sciences included a minor in Marketing. I spent most of those lessons marketing myself. After college I found myself in a basement, surrounded by asbestos warning signs, arguing code with a small team of fellow code nerds. It got to the point that I was solving code issues in my sleep, waking up to get them keyed in as fast as possible. Only to look up to a dark blue sky and realize I had been up for hours. I was worn out and questioning "the dream" I was living.

So I took a job in an axle factory as a machine operator and was much happier. It enabled me to use some of my Navy skills from working in the Pearl harbor shipyard, but it never woke me up in the night to calculate the the depth of a drill or the profile of a tracer lathe. There were other contract positions including metal work for the Chester Fried Chicken pressure cooker, composite tooling for the Sikorsky Blackhawk, a couple of body shops repairing fiberglass cars, boats and pool slides.

When I was between contract gigs my father pulled me into theme park work (he designed them). So I made molds and other composite work for Legoland, Kid's Foot Locker, Kennedy Space Center, Silver Dollar City, Disney and Universal Studios. I also wrote the feasibility study for Universal studios Shanghai. While I enjoyed theme park work, the career trajectory was more for artists. I was working on the Men In Black ride at Universal in Florida when a recruiter for General Electric called and asked if I wanted to make $20 more per hour writing about gas turbines. Universal was the last job I ever quit!

I worked for GE 3 years as a technical writer, the first time I made it my primary occupation. Part of what got me in the door was my proficiency with Word, which I had been using since it was a DOS program. Another was my experience turning wrenches on trucks, ships and aircraft. I worked in the power industry for over 20 years as a writer. But it's cyclical work, so I would sometimes fall back on my IT side which had me working for Panasonic for a while writing software development plans for EOM car stereos, data center cooling and backup power audits and a SOx 404 project for a gas exploration company.

When I encounter recruiters one of the first things they remark about is my variety of jobs. The more old fashioned of them will suggest that I couldn't hold down a job. And they'd be right to some degree. But not because I was the problem, but because I got tired of being laid off. I switched over to contract work because frankly, it was more honest. Before that I has a string of "permanent" jobs that suddenly ended with no warning. Contract work had an advantage, I already knew it would come to an end. Which meant constantly looking for the next gig.

It was my grandfather who suggested to me that putting in 30 years, getting your gold watch and going fishing was a fading relic. Even CEOs are swapping jobs. His advice was to be flexible and learn to wear many different hats. I took it to heart and to this day I raise my hand for the weird, problematic or even risky projects. I have traveled around the world for clients and along the way managed to stay out of debt.

I make no arrogant claims about my skills. I also maintain integrity and have never abandoned a project to chase a more lucrative offering. If I can convey that message, it's worth the effort. I have built a very unconventional career in part by necessity, but in a greater measure by curiosity. There is no generic path to success because it is really measured by you. You know when you have reached your goals while shedding the ones that didn't hold up.

My fondest regards, Thomas