As a young engineer working at Motorola semiconductor, I would have agreed completely. As a somewhat older technology professional working with Amex, I became somewhat less sure. They were super organized about the way they went about cross-stakeholder large project meetings.
As dilbert-esque as it can all become, I'm not sure that the opposite is a good thing either.
I went to a small engineering college, but simple things like getting up and going to class (where attendance was counted) and getting your work done by the deadline seemed to be a stretch for my many of my freshman (and some sophomore) year classmates. Being reliable and getting stuff done on time isn't "just institutional bullshit".
And, I would argue that sitting through meetings with customers may sometimes seem like a waste of time, but the occasional nuggets of gold make it worth it. To me, anyway.
EDIT: Since neither Motorola, nor Freescale (Motorola SPS) are around any more, your point about large multinationals is definitely 'heard'. Still, I wouldn't mind doing an extended gig at Toyota or GE Power Systems.
As a young engineer working at Motorola semiconductor, I would have agreed completely. As a somewhat older technology professional working with Amex, I became somewhat less sure. They were super organized about the way they went about cross-stakeholder large project meetings.
As dilbert-esque as it can all become, I'm not sure that the opposite is a good thing either.
I went to a small engineering college, but simple things like getting up and going to class (where attendance was counted) and getting your work done by the deadline seemed to be a stretch for my many of my freshman (and some sophomore) year classmates. Being reliable and getting stuff done on time isn't "just institutional bullshit".
And, I would argue that sitting through meetings with customers may sometimes seem like a waste of time, but the occasional nuggets of gold make it worth it. To me, anyway.
EDIT: Since neither Motorola, nor Freescale (Motorola SPS) are around any more, your point about large multinationals is definitely 'heard'. Still, I wouldn't mind doing an extended gig at Toyota or GE Power Systems.