Work Experiences

Work experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. Or at least I learn more from those kind. They say experience is what you get, when you didn't get what you wanted. I'm not completely sure about that... but work experiences make us who we are (or influence it). This is too brutally honest to be in any Résumé, it's more a Dilbert-esque look at the working world, not to malign the companies I worked at (which were far from the worst places), but more to remind others or myself of what experiences and lessons I got, when I didn't always get what I wanted. ℹ️ Info           ~ Aristotle Sabouni

Work Experiences • [16 items]

1976 Ridgeline Country Club
Ridgeline Country Club - I was a caddy, gopher, dish-washer, bus boy, and sous-chef for the local posh country club (and the Presidential Chef, Skippy). It wasn't THAT posh, but I got good at golf and tennis -- and cutting/cleaning vegetables. While my parents were into status symbols and brand names, it didn't stick as well for me.

1977 Watts
Watts (Construction) - While I was a rural/burb kid, I lived summers with my Uncle in Hollywood, or Grandparents in Burbank. Hustling on Sunset, being "white bread" working in Watts. I learned a lot working in South Central. Most of it was not good stuff; racism, corruption, contempt/distaste for the inner-city subculture.

1978 Cinedome Theaters
I did a summer job I did was at the local movie theaters; the Orange Cinedome, which has since been torn down. It was one of the last 70mm theaters in the area. I was young, biking the 5 miles down wasn't bad; riding back after my shift, with an uphill grade, was a lot tougher. Getting there without being disheveled in the heat wasn't always easy.

1979-1982 Compusound
I hung out in a computer store, and I sold Computers by asking people, "What would you like to use it for?" By listening to their answers, I could solve their problem, and sell them a computer AND my programming services. After I got my drivers license, I was consulting to places like Brunswick Defense and Glendale Unified School District.

1980 Brunswick Defense
My first aerospace contract was Brunswick Defensee. The bowling ball folks had a weapons division in Costa Mesa, and I worked on two wespons systems there (anti-runway missile and anti-bunker rocket) writing Quality Control Software. I wrote the controls/analysis software for the Lab/Test Equipment that did pressure or temperature tests to make sure the toys made Boom-booms only when expected.

1981 Ford Aerospace
The defense industry was hysterical, and there are so many stories to tell about these weapons systems. There were thousands of people, but it was a small industry with characters, and insanely funny programming mistakes in the way that non-life-or-death software can never be. Ford had a few of the best "gaffes".

1982 Ideal Computers
I walked into the local Computer Store in Kankakee (while going to school in area), and just pretended I worked there. I was helping people with sales and support until I found the manager, and since I'd already sold one computer and supported another, I got him to hire me. Later, I made their largest sale until I was sabotaged by a professor.

1983 Pertec Computer Corporation (MITS)

Back from Illinois (first semester of College), I had to work to pay for school. So at 18 I went to work for Pertec part time (they had bought MITS of Altair fame: the first Microcomputer). I started "at the bottom" QA (Quality Assurance), as I didn't have a degree (and they had snobs). But I kept writing utilities, games and tools in my spare time that was showing up their programmers, so they let me go.

1983-1986, 1994 Rockwell • North American Aviation (NAAO)
I started coming of age at NAAO, working on the B-1B Bomber (Lancer). I got my security clearance, learned to deal with eccentric co-workers, learned about nepotism, Corporate Politics is about more than just hard work, and how not to mix substance abuse and work, got "hit on" in front of my parents, and learned how NOT to exit a company.

1986-1988 Rockwell • Collins
After I left Rockwell, I went to work for Rockwell. I moved from Airplanes (NAAO) to Collins Radio and was working on the MILSTAR Satellite Communication Terminal: a system that was used for most of the secure military battlefield communications. Never have I worked with such a ragtag bunch of humans... and had the time of my life. It was a lifetime of experiences in 3 1/2 years.

1988-1991 Baxter
After I left Rockwell the second time, I went to work for Baxter (Edwards Critical Care division), where I made medical instruments (including one used to save my wife's life). While saving lives wasn't as "interesting" as weapons systems to take them; it provided life lessons about dating on the job, the costs of defensive medicine, and just the problems in the provider side of healthcare.

1991 Relsys, Oracle (Alcon, Spectramed)
Dave Bajaj and I worked at Baxter, but the company had a cost cutting measure that eliminated the consultants. Dave started his own biomed consulting company: Relsys, and I was his first employee, working out of the spare room in his house, and helped with the demo that got him his first contracts (Alcon and Spectramed) beating out much larger companies.

1992 Workstation Technologies • UMAX • SuperMAC (Nortel)
I moved to Mac Application Development creating QT-VCR. The job was creating a QuickTime VDIG and a dithering algorithm for teleconferencing (for Nortel), and QT-VCR a commercial application used for recording and playback of streams, at a small startup WTi (Workstation Technologies, Inc), later acquired by UMAX/SuperMAC.

1992-1994 American Zettler

I combined Medical Device Interfaces and Mac Development, with Zettler's Nurse Call system (Sentinal). It managed Hospital administration and nursing staff to allow patients to call for nurses and track their responses. They were losing contracts and going into litigation, but I went on site to many Hospitals, hired Engineers and Quality Assurance teams, and turned the product from legal disaster to cash cow.

2006-Present Adobe
After I left 3M, I decided to do some time in the Valley (Silicon Valley), and work for Adobe. This was going to be a few year gig to fluff up my Résumé and move on. But the company stuck and I worked there longer than any other company. I managed their relationship with the largest companies in the world for 12 years, until I got a bad manager. Then I moved on to Program Manager for Adobe Sign.

Photoshop
Collection of stories about Photoshop

---

🔗 More

Aristotle Sabouni This section is all about me (Ari Sabouni). The initial founder/creator of the site.

tab

Favorites Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, these are a few of my favorite things.