In late Spring 2009 – nearly 12 years ago – the Mentor blog platform was introduced and I was keen to be a contributor. Since then, except for vacations and holidays, I have published two posts every week – normally one about embedded software and the other about whatever was on my mind. But all good things come to an end and this will be my last posting, as I will be leaving the company on Wednesday 31 March and entering retirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I joined Microtec Research in February 1986. I was the #3 person in Europe; the rest of the company was a couple of dozen folks in California. Ten years later, after we had grown considerably, we were acquired by Mentor Graphics. This was something of a culture shock, finding myself working for a company of nearly 5000 people, but I took it as an opportunity. Then, a couple of years ago, Mentor was acquired by Siemens. So I have found myself, 35 years on, working for a company with something like 300,000 employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has been quite an adventure. Apart from the changes in the company environment, the technology has progressed beyond all recognition, though some of the fundamentals of embedded software are unchanged. I have been lucky enough to travel to many interesting places – all over Europe and the United States and beyond. The biggest aspect of my job that I will miss is the great people that I have had the privilege to work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I decided to schedule my retirement, about 18 months ago, I had a plan. I would continue doing my job, traveling to various familiar places and meeting up with many colleagues and friends. But of course, that did not happen. There are places that I will never visit again and people to whom I will never be able to say goodbye in person. This makes me sad, but I am ultimately very grateful for having 35 years in which I have been paid a salary every month for doing something that mostly did not seem like a job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n