To say I'm proud of my first boy is putting it lightly, he is doing exactly what he is supposed to at this time in his life. I am happy we kept pushing him and got him to finish his degree, there were times I wasn't sure he would get here. There was a time when he started pushing back and his friends were trying to encourage him to think that the degree is just a piece of paper, especially if you go into software engineering, like writing programs and code. I don't know enough about that to speak to it, but I do know that a degree will open doors and remove some barriers, even if the degree itself doesn't make you better at your job. We just live in a world where people need to show it to move to the next level, in most facets of life.
He had started at Applied Materials almost two years ago but without the degree, he was a few classes shy of finishing. In that time, we were also going through Covid, so it certainly wasn't helping, but most of the world did shut down because of it. Suddenly, he finished his degree, his company adjusted his salary up to the level of an engineer and now, along with all his other responsibilities where he works in assembly of test equipment and special projects, he is also being flown to oversee and test out new tool installations. His first trip was out to Japan, where he was about three months ago for a total of two weeks. He came back, spent some time off going out to San Francisco with his girlfriend, and currently he is on his second big trip, this time to South Korea, seeing yet another install. So far, he was supposed to be there three weeks, but the tool has come out of the box working flawlessly, so he might be able to come back a week early, he was telling us thru text a couple days ago.
These opportunities, whether he can give us credit or not, wouldn't have happened if he had listened to his friends and not gotten the degree. Now, one of those friends has started working there with him and he is being pushed by his managers to finish his degree and both of them could be getting sent out to work together overseas. I just wish people listened to us from the get-go, things would go much easier. Either way, Mijo comes back for the holidays, and he is already on notice that another trip to Japan might be in the works for January. He was talking about taking his girlfriend along with him this time, which is just a great opportunity to visit the world with the help of your company. She has to pay for her plane ticket, but once there, she can stay in his hotel room and stuff. I am happy Mijo gets to live that fancy lifestyle.
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