I’ve been thinking about professions. About the jobs people do. And about how the jobs are all connected to each other. I have been working in the semiconductor industry for quite a while now. And am amazed at the number of people and industries involved in building something like say the iPhone that eventually fits in your pocket. I work at a company that designs chips. Our designs are sent off to a fab in China that turns this design into millions of silicon chips. These chips are integrated with several other of their cousins by guys called OEMs or module vendors. In addition to these chips, which are perhaps worth a couple of dollars each, the OEMs also procure a bunch of 5 cent capacitors and wires from companies that build nothing else but that. The OEMs put this all together on a circuit board. This is then packaged in a bigger box with a “Made in XXX” sticker on it and sold in stores like Walmart and perhaps these days over the internet.
And then you have the ecosystem of software companies that develop all kinds of wonderful applications for the users on these products.
And then, if it is a mobile application, you have all these telecom carriers who come up with equally wonderful plans to make your wallet and head lighter to start using these applications.
Its humbling when you think about it, the role that one plays in building a small fit-in-your-palm sized product.
What intrigues me however, is where this chain ends. And that’s where I am beginning to realize that my industry is connected to a much larger ecosystem; perhaps is a small appendage to it. All the companies involved in the chain above were funded at some point by investment houses. And even for those that were funded and are perfectly operational, we see that they are still controlled by a handful of private equity companies on Wall Street who can change its course at the drop of a few cents of investor confidence. (eg: The Icahn-Yahoo deal). It’s funny when you think about it; the distant and yet obvious connection a Wall Street banker has with a coder breaking his head over a computer program in the wee hours of dawn.
We all aspire to grow in our profession. To understand the big picture.
The question is how big is the paper that you are drawing the picture on.
