Might As Well Do Something That You Enjoy

I think I have remarked in previous posts that I started my career at The Mother Ship not in Software Engineering but in a job titled Systems Engineer. In the Federal Systems Division, this was a weird position combining aspects of systems design and planning as well as proposal development and prototyping for large-scale DOD projects.

The job title of Systems Engineer in the rest of IBM was distinctly different than the FSD version. In the rest of the IBM world outside of FSD. a Systems Engineer was basically a Technical Sales role, complementing the Marketing Reps (who were non-technical salesman). In a typical non-FSD IBM Branch Office, new SEs would go through this standard training regimen, intended to indoctrinate one into the ways of Big Blue.

In 1985, somebody had the brilliant idea in FSD to institute a Pilot Program in which selected FSD System Engineers would go through the same education that commercial Branch Office SEs did. I am not sure of the motivation for this – FSD was like a completely different animal than the rest of IBM – a completely different culture – like I said before, FSD was weird.