Today Acer Computers announced that it will be acquiring Gateway Computers Inc. This marks the first company that I have worked for that, essentially, no longer exist. When I started Cal State Fullerton, I was living off my loans and grants. During my sophomore year, I needed more cash, so I went looking for a job. I was hired by a temp agency and my first job was at Gateway.
I was going to school in Fullerton, and then commuting to Lake Forest for work. During the summers, I worked full time in the marketing department. I created brochures and catalogs for the business marketing division. When I started, Gateway could do no wrong. Free lunch, bonuses, and perks abound. It was a great place to work. My boss was laid back, and all the people were driven and believed in what we were doing. The people made the company.
It was a good time to work for a tech company. But of course, the bubble burst and Gateway took a hit along with all the other tech companies. The whole company changed. No more free lunch, no more free soda. We started clocking in and out and submitting time sheets. The upper managers were trying to protect themselves. Saving cash wherever they could and trying to make their numbers.
This went on for several months, and then 9/11 happened and the rest of the economy slipped. Gateway laid off a lot of middle managers. The people who moved to Orange County from Iowa and were there from the beginning. All the people who put their heart and soul into the company. People who gave everything to something they believed in. Those people were the first to go.
The Gateway Campus turned into the Gateway Ghost Town. The building I worked in, with it dozens of people, and multiple departments was reduced to a nineteen person crew. Marketing, support, development, we all had lunch together daily. We all had nothing to do. We would put together our ideas, ship them to our bosses in Iowa, and never hear from them again. I collected a paycheck. I clocked in, surfed the web, read, wrote, designed, ate lunch, and repeated. The days were slow.
9 months later Gateway moved the Lake Forest campus to San Diego. I was given a package and sent on my way. Gateway survived another 5 years, until now. It was fun, I learned a lot in those three years. I worked with some really great people. I was given a lot of freedom to learn and innovate. Looking back, Gateway always seemed to be playing catch-up. They never had the lead. Not in sales, products, or R&D. Dell crushed them on price; Apple and Sony were pushing the limits of innovation, and Compaq had the back to school market cornered.
Life Lesson: Cool companies become less-cool when the going gets rough. Your job is never safe.
