The Smile Stash: Separation

On Friday, 3/31/23, I handed my badge and laptop and separated from Intel. With no personal devices other than my glitchy cell phone that barely lets me make phone calls and nothing else, I have been on a forced digital detox since then, and that has given me a lot of time for reflection.

If a crystal ball told me on my first day at Intel that I would accomplish all that I have now, 19 years later, I'd be mighty pleased. I have had my share of engineering innovations, problem solving, training, leadership and relationship building experiences to be proud of. However, it is my earliest days as an RCG that I most fondly reminisce. I was the 6th overall and the first Indian female engineer in the ~100 member team of Lithography when I joined. I was all of four years old in this country at that point, and I was the definition of naïve. My trainer on the night shift convinced me that I had to load the wafers on the left port on odd weeks and on the right side on even weeks. It took me two months to figure out that it was all a prank. An alarm popped up on a machine I was working on- "Your wafer is broken. Press OK to Continue". Only after my frantic call to my manager did I realize that it was all a setup. Thankfully I was not alone. Another new engineer was summoned to the sub-fab to respond to a major DI water leak he never found. To this day, he is nicknamed DI. I still laugh out loud when I think of the engineer that called for wafers by standing in front of the stocker and clapping three times.

I remember our RCG game nights every weekend. It was common for some of us on call to step away from our games to answer pages from work. We'd have every engineer's and GL's desk phone numbers memorized. Each of us wore that pager proudly on our waist as a badge of honor.

As the years passed, Some of us singles got hitched, the married ones had kids, we all bought homes, and the weekend hangouts dwindled. In due course, some of us became group leaders, individual contributors, focus team chairs and more. We all just grew older in all respects.

I spent my last few days at Intel going through the million emails I had in my Outlook. My earliest emails to my manager were verbose and in need of his constant validation. After a while, they became concise and confident, and eventually had the command and authority of a seasoned engineer. It is fascinating seeing my professional growth pixelated in those emails.

I am immensely grateful for everyone at Intel that influenced me, directly or indirectly, and helped me navigate my 19 Intel years and nurtured my growth, through pranks or otherwise. Some of my best friends are still at Intel, doing some of the coolest innovations to shape the future world, and I will always be rooting for Team Intel. As emotional as I get when I consider that I am now ex-Intel, I am thrilled for another shot at bringing out the inner child in me, and reliving the exciting days of a newbie at my next career venture!