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Longevity – I grew up at Intel

Vikki_MuellerEspinosa
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Vikki-Badge.jpgIf I look way back, I grew up here at Intel. I joined the company a year after graduation and completed 21 years in August. I’ve learned so much and am so grateful to work for such a fabulous company. Intel has changed so much since I first joined. We’ve moved from a standard 8-5 / 5 day a week workweek (for non-fab workers) to nearly full flexibility – get your job done and it doesn’t matter what hours you work. This is very helpful when you work for a multi-national company. Some days I have meetings that start at 6AM, other days I have meetings that start at 10PM. It’s great to be able to take a few hours off in the afternoon to pick up kids, dry-cleaning and do some grocery shopping. When I first started working at Intel, that wasn’t the culture. My, how things have changed – and it’s because of the technology we’ve created! I can work at home over a secure connection, I can work at the Gymnastics center while my daughter takes a class, I can even pop into my favorite coffee shop and access everything I need to do my job. It is such a contrast to 21 years ago when I had to log onto a desktop and be at work to get anything done. I remember going for the dot-matrix monster printer to pull off enormous mainframe reports that I then went over with a ruler and a pen and paper tabs to reconcile accounts. Now everything I do doesn’t require any paper or plastic overheads for the projector. 


At Intel, we work very hard to lessen our impact to the environment. We may bleed Intel blue, but boy, are we green! We work to conserve energy, reuse water, and harness solar energy. Intel is the largest voluntary purchaser of green power and most recently, we matched 100% of our US electricity use with green power. You can read about our Solar facilities and learn about the other things we do by reading the Sustainability report.

We also work hard to volunteer and give back to the communities where we live and work. Intel employees volunteer millions of hours to help locally. Even better, Intel matches each hour we work with real dollars for the non-profits and educational institutions where we choose to volunteer our time. I sit on a local non-profit Board of Directors and for each hour I help them out, they get cold hard cash from Intel’s Foundation. If I donate money to my alma mater, Intel matches my donation. Talking about bang for your buck—and your time!

We also get involved when disasters strike. We fly in experts and set up networks – we help people connect with their loved ones. We go to other countries and teach teachers how to use technology in the classroom. Intel matches our personal donations to the Red Cross and other agencies around the world.

You should see our recycling percentages! I remember when recycling was just a little idea – some of the facilities guys collecting cans and getting $$ back so they could buy some new equipment to do their jobs. Now we recycle tons of waste and work with our community leaders to help recycle the harder things – old electronics, chemicals and paint.

Vikki-current-badge-circa-20031.jpgWhen people ask me why I’ve stayed at Intel for so long – one of the primary reasons is because I am so proud of what this company does – and I can see what we will continue to contribute in the future.

What Intel is doing in the medical field is also amazing. We have all sorts of projects going to help our aging population live in their homes longer. We’re involved in telemedicine and research. There are a bunch of engineers here that support Stephen Hawking with his voice and computing needs.

My favorite project this year is “Girl Rising” – Intel sponsored the making of this film showing the extraordinary stories of girls around the world tackling nearly impossible odds on the road to education. I am so proud that we are working to shine a light on the importance of educating young woman across the world. As the Oregon Women @ Intel Chair, I am leading a team of Women from McAfee and Intel to help young women find their path forward. We are hosting 80 young women for three hours of speed mentoring with 60 Intel women from diverse backgrounds (engineering, legal, anthropology, construction, human resources, finance to name a few). They will be able to ask questions, gain clarity on different careers, understand what to study for each type of career and see the diversity we have here at Intel.

I hope you will join us and help us continue to extend computing to the ends of the earth while we enrich and enable people’s work and dreams.