Intel IT - Confessions of a Geek Mind
posted by Jeff Moriarty on October 09, 2006
Ah, what to say in the notorious First Blog Entry. Will I be posting to a ravenous horde of people craving every scrap of insight coming from the fantabulous Intel corporation? Or will I be posting out to a chorus of chirping crickets and mildly curious Intel employees? I quite strongly suspect the latter, but given some time I may claw my way up through the ranks to the former. We shall see.
My background and degree is in Computer Science, but over time I’ve drifted more towards program management. That drift has taken me through about every phase in a program lifecycle, some of which I liked far better than others. Overall my passion is creating - taking big, shapeless ideas, making them solid, and then building a consensus around them to make them a reality.
I’ve been at Intel since January of 2000. I started as a contractor, and was told they would hire me if we all survived Y2K, and I’ve been in IT ever since. I’ve worked on our internal laptops, information security, project management, product management, software architecture, and just That Which Needed Doing. I’ve fought the Budget Battle, been the Project Evangelist, and worn both the labels of The Hero and The Goat. I carry may IT related badges and scars (sometimes they are one and the same). I’m not a manager - I’m an “indivudal contributor” in the trenches.
So how does that qualify me to be one of the inaugural Intel bloggers? Perhaps because I’ve demonstrated that I’m a sucker for a challenge. I’ll be honest, I’m worried about these blogs being able to succeed. I’ve worked on many official IT@Intel briefs and white papers, and the process of authoring these things and taking them through legal, and political review is not for the faint of heart. Everything must be squeaky clean and very precisely aligned. These blogs are a much more open avenue of communication, and do not quite agree with some of the more conservative aspects of Intel’s nature. Some people inside Intel flat out don’t “get blogs”, and like the idea at all. That’s where I smelled a challenge, and I was hooked.
Then they hit me up for content ideas - my niche. I declined to help write pieces on the mind-bending magnificence of vPro, or the je-ne-sais-quoi of Viiv, as I’ll leave that to my more highly paid and colorful marketing comrades. Instead, I opted for the grey topic area of being an IT professional inside Intel. To talk about being openly mocked at events for working at Intel, and then being earnestly thanked for sharing key learnings without trying to “Intelize” everyone. The joy of trying to maintain world-class expectations in a company going through a wonderfully visible restructuring and reduction in force.
I’m still feeling my way through this, but if I can find a voice to share some of what makes being in “Intel IT” simultaneously rewarding, maddening, challenging, educational, and absolutely ridiculous, then I’ll be satisfied.
(cue the crickets)
Comments (22) (closed)
tagged: geek, Intel, IT
Comments
Oct 10 | Brandon Bohling said:
This could truly play out to be a successful space with you as a contributor…well done Jeff!
Oct 10 | [GAS] Tech. said:
I’m definitely looking foward to read about what you have to say. As time progresses and the Internet opens everybody’s eyes to the world, I think corporations need to show everyone that they have a “humane” side, and that they’re not only about products, but also about people. Blogging is probably the perfect way to do that.
Good luck to you!
Oct 10 | joe bruzzese said:
Hey Jeff, Robert mentioned you on his blog which should send some readers your way. I would be interested in your tracking results in the last day. My hunch is that your readership is greater than you might think. I echo the comments above from [GAS}. Corporate america might benefit from coming out from behind the curtain and sharing ideas and knowledge with the people that matter the most, their customers.
Oct 11 | Mike said:
I look forward to reading this. Intel the company and their technology have always been an interest of mine. As an IT professional maybe I can even learn something from the great minds at Intel.
Oct 11 | Dennis Plucinik said:
I agree, it helps remove some of the mystery for me ;)
Oct 11 | Chris Ernest Hall said:
Intel is sweet.
Oct 11 | Greg said:
Seeing as the blog is linked to by Hard OCP, it’ll probably not be the former, or the latter. This will definitely be a hotspot for Intel fanbois and haters.
Oct 11 | macewan said:
Anyone using a new Apple with the Intel chip as your primary desktop/laptop?
Oct 11 | Ben Seitz III said:
I enjoyed the first post.
How can someone “not get blogs”?
As an aspiring computer science major, I appreciate this effort by Intel and I hope to learn much about the IT life (Intel’s IT Life to be exact) during the rest of my college career.
This blog will reach a large population, it was posted on the front page of Hard OCP, which reaches many a gamer, PC enthusiast, and IT professional.
Keep it up.
—Ben
Oct 11 | Des Walsh said:
A great first post. Should be required reading for any corporate blogger and anyone who is putting up their hand (or being tapped on the shoulder) to be one. Great and valuable distinction between posting about company products - yes, leave it to marketing! - and posting about your experiences in and for the corporation. Power to your arm!
Oct 11 | Eric said:
Lets hope you can keep this fairly open and interesting!
Oct 11 | Carlos Gomes said:
I agree w/ Brandon’s comments above. Having followed and thoroughly enjoyed your internal blog postings (difficult not too since it’s one of the top internal blogs), I’m now looking forward checking out your external facing ideas. No crickets here. :-)
Oct 11 | Bob Deloyd said:
I was surprised to see an INTEL blog. This blog may hopefully take some of the marketing hype out and put some real honest posts from INTEL professionals, and also get some meaningful responses from us chirping crickets too!
Oct 12 | rbtbob said:
Where is the discussion of the technology that is being introduced? Is this site restricted to discussion of iT philosophy?
rbtbob
Oct 12 | Frashad Shah said:
Excellent first post. I’m sure the rest of the world will benefit from your very insightful er.. insights and coupled with that wry sense of humour of yours that you’ve displayed before, this blog will definitely be a star attraction on the Web.
Also kudos to Intel for having a public blog like this that will reach millions and give a little peep on what goes on in the minds of IT people@Intel.
Oct 12 | Heath Buckmaster said:
way to go jeff, and congrats on migrating externally to share your wisdom on IT :-)
it’s a great opportunity to share for many reasons…one to give insight into prospective employees, especially new college graduates - it’s often tough to find out what it’s REALLY like within a company and this is a perfect way to promote the great things Intel is doing in technology;
second: i think we sometimes do a poor job of CLEARLY communicating what we’re doing to the world. some of this stuff is exciting! it’s bleeding edge! this is the kind of thing that gets people excited and passionate about using technology to make their lives better!
Oct 12 | Igor said:
If Intel folks decide to listen to the feedback they get from people here, it may prove beneficial to them and to the company in long term.
Anyway, I welcome you to the blogging community and I am looking forward to some quality posting.
Regards,
Igor
Oct 12 | I'd like to say said:
You know, I am working for the company that is competing with you every single day and it’s nice to see what people ‘on the other side’ think….This is a very competitive industry and that is one of the best things about it. We get to compete in so many fields:from products to marketing, from court to convincing journalists that our solution is better and from tech support to big OEM wins.
What I would really like to have is a cross company dialogue between AMD and Intel and not just hiding behind NDA’s and IP that we can’t discuss…
Oct 12 | Tyler O. Ballou said:
Jeff, I read your Intel blog, and must say I was both supprised and extatic to see you were asked to post here. I look forward to all of your postings in the future, and am also happy to know I will be able to have a view into the company for some time to come.
Dec 14 | Computer IT Training said:
Some of the comments on here are very good and well said, i have been reading this blog for about 3 days now went into google done some searches for myself and hey presto you popped up and i am so glad you did. You blog is very good indeed.
Feb 26 | IntelWife said:
I just skipped across your blog entry tonight. As someone who is relatively new to blogging, I say, very well written. I am married to an employee who could be considered a dinosaur, but don’t tell him that I called him that! It is interesting to read what everyone’s experiences are and what brings them to Intel and what challenges them.
How about some more blogs from the females? Other long term employees?
Thanks!
Apr 16 | Douglas W. Goodall said:
I just sent back my quad Mac Pro infavor of a new 8-core Mac Pro (3GHz). My experience with the quad was very exciting, and luckily for me the announcement of the 8-core Mac Pro came within my return period (14 days). I am waiting with baited breath for the arrival of the new machine. After I just said NO to Microsoft, I had to look long and hard for the right workstation platform for my next development. After looking around at all the player’s web sites (IBM, Sun, HP, Dell…) I settled on the 8-core Mac Pro 8GB-ram. This workstation should take care of my computing needs for quite some time.