William Baker:  

I was the guy that taught the karate class and hung outside the library. After high school in 1977, I left for the United States Naval Training Center in San Diego California. I was in bootcamp Company 308. Once I completed bootcamp I was shipped off to Gulfport, Mississippi were I was trained as a Construction Mechanic then assigned to the 20th Naval Construction Regiment "I was a SEABEE " I completed my active duty with the 20th returned home to San Francisco to join my Seabee reserve component; Reserve Naval Mobile Construction Battalion Two ( RNMCB-2) on Treasure Island. After sometime looking for jobs as a heavy equipment mechanic with no luck, I relocated to Mountain View, California. In May of 1979 a friend was able to get me an electronic assembly job at NORTEL, then known as Northern Telecom Inc. It has always been my belief that you make of your life what you want to make of your life and at NORTEL I did. Progressively promoted from Senior Maintenance Technician (1979-1986) to Maintenance Supervisor (1986-1989), In-Circuit Test Engineer (1989-1991), Test Engineer (1991-1994), Senior Emergency Technical Support Engineer (1994-1995), Technology Design Engineer (1995-1997), and Staff Engineer in the Test Engineering Department (1997-2001). In 2001, after 22 years was laid-off (thank you NAFTA) or "optimized" as they put it from NORTEL left the silicon valley and moved to San Diego to see if I could make my ...Expand for more