hello hello did i reach the Dallas area
hello
you sure did to to whom am i speaking
yeah that's what
my name is Fernando
hi Fernando i'm Bill
hey how's it going do you work for TP
yeah yeah where you calling from
North Carolina State University
oh for goodness sakes that's great great you a student there
yep
how what do you do
i'm getting a Master's in computer science and computer engineering
uh that's great how did you get introduced to this program
um i took a voice IO course
oh okay i just saw there was an advertisement within TI to sign up for it and i just i just uh signed up for it
well uh one of my teachers went to a to this conference up in Bethesda Maryland
um-hum
and so he saw it there and he just said you guys want to make some money and talk five minutes a day here you go so
yeah yeah uh uh Fernando uh uh Fernando are you from excuse me you from the North Carolina area
uh not originally
oh where are you from originally
Argentina
Argentina oh my goodness how do you like North Carolina
yeah
uh well i used to live up in New York and Maryland and i uh i like i like bigger cities i like i like more populated areas because i used to live in Buenos Aires but they have ten million people
uh-huh
yeah
but uh this area is nice it looks like it's got a lot of uh job opportunities especially at Research Triangle Park
yeah
yeah
and so it looks it looks well it's the third largest growing area in the country for businesses
yeah i like the pine trees
yeah yeah
yeah i've i've been over there from time to time uh you're you're at the University of North Carolina
no North Carolina State
oh oh North okay NC State the wildcats
yeah no the Wolf Pack
no
Wolf Pack okay the Wolf
yeah no we're we're not we're not the Tar Heels
yeah i knew you weren't the Tar Heels uh no somebody gave me a pair of running shorts and with the logo on it and i thought it was a wildcat but it was a wolf yeah
for the N C State uh Wolf Pack
why why do you run
yeah i'm a runner
oh okay my dad is too
in fact i went up there visiting i had a friend at Davidson one time and i went up there visiting him and and he took me out running through the trails in the piney woods up there and i just loved it
yeah yeah it's nice
so well what are we supposed to i i was kind of fumbling this was the first i haven't been home other nights when they've called so this is the first time i've participated
yeah
and uh uh and i i was fumbling for my uh pin number uh when she was talking about what to talk about and what are we supposed to discuss
it's it's clothing
yeah uh how you dress to go to work or something like that
right how you how you dress to go to work and how it changes from season to season
oh
and from day to day
okay well i'm ready any time you are sir
okay
okay ready i'm going to press the one
hey uh how does this work Fernando do we talk for five minutes and does somebody cut us off or
no then then we say bye and uh i i probably
uh how do we know how do we know when the time's up
well i i got a stopwatch here
oh okay
so i'll probably say you know it's like well we've been talking for five six minutes so okay
okay you want to go first or me
well uh we'll just open it okay i'll press the one ready
okay
ready one
okay
okay so well you see since i don't work i just go you know to class it all depends because i like to wear like sweat pants
yeah
because it's more comfortable for me but you know it's like when you're in school you either wear sweatpants or jeans
yeah uh you know i i i can remember back to my college days
and uh it was uh T-shirts and jeans in the warm weather and jackets and jeans in the short weather uh the thing is here i'm i'm supposed to be an executive you you can uh uh take that or or not depends on where you're looking from
yeah
and however and you normally think people in our position wear shirts and ties well many do but i am absolutely not comfortable with a necktie
yeah
i carry one in my briefcase and i wear it i wear it when the occasion demands if somebody important is coming to visit well i take it out and put it on
uh i wear a sport jacket sometimes and i wear uh well reasonably not not real dressy dressy pants but but reasonably decent reasonably decent pants
yeah
and uh comfortable comfortable that way and a good loose fitting pair of shoes that i take off under tables when i'm in a conference room because i can't stand having anything on my feet
and uh say i like my shirt and short i wear short sleeved shirts all year round i just
okay are they like T-shirts or are they like do they have
yeah yeah no short sleeved sort of semi dress shirt
oh okay
but i i i absolutely cannot stand anything down over my elbows and when i'm working and and i mean that's even in the winter time
well
because how how hot i mean like like in the coldest that it gets in winter down there how much is it
well we'll have a day or two that it'll be down near zero as it has been the last two years just before Christmas
but at uh uh normally it'll be in the thirties and forties on the coldest days and we've experienced some seventies here uh to eighties recently
yeah yeah that's
but i i don't ever feel the need to dress that warmly i i don't have to travel that far to work uh what what what what about uh your clothes in the winter time up there
well it's basically you know it's like i got like a leather jacket or a you know so i just put on a T-shirt and a leather jacket and i usually stay in class that way and if not i would wear a sweatshirt underneath it
and then you know you'd but what happens is uh what i've seen here on campus it's very strange because a lot of black people here they wear like dress pants and dress shirts to go everywhere
um-hum
my goodness i i've not see that at all
okay
and they wear either that or they wear dress pants and b lack turtlenecks or white turtlenecks
um-hum
yeah
and so the thing is you know is like i asked a guy you know why why do you wear that he goes well it costs me the same amount which is true because some dress pants you know cost me twenty five dollars which is the same as jeans
yeah
but um but basically all over here everywhere everybody wears jeans and if not what the what the thing is that they're wear ing now is sometimes you wear like shorts with biker pants underneath it
which is
okay that that sounds pretty good uh it sounds like it's a very relaxed atmosphere on campus you know i've uh i've uh always TI is a very informal company
uh i i think the thing that i've noticed in more recent years there's more ties and jackets and shirts as the younger the younger crowd seems to want to dress those of us i've been here thirty two years those of us been here for a long time don't care to dress up
but when we came to work i was told that the president of the company set the standard of dress and he's he dressed like the janitor so we all we all did
and the feeling has always been that without the shirts and ties and suit coats that people were in a more relaxed atmosphere and you could have a freer exchange of information
yeah
and i've seen this actually i spent seven years overseas with TI and while i was gone
where at
where at
uh Malaysia four years in Malaysia and three years in the Philippines
oh okay
and and while i was gone this change to people wearing ties and jackets came about because when i came back i saw ties and jackets in TI for the first time
yeah
what was interesting Malaysia is a tropical country just uh two degrees above the equator
yeah
and when i went over there i packed a lot of clothes and i packed two sport jackets and two ties and the ties got lost and never got there and i was there three years or four years rather and never missed them
i absolutely never wore anything out in the tropics like a necktie
but the thing is when you started with TI was it as big a company as it is now
oh no no uh i think it was something i started in nineteen fifty nine we're talking about at the most eight to nine thousand people world wide and at that time the whole world was right here in Dallas as far as TI was concerned
yeah
yeah which is which is basic i mean when hello
uh is that uh i'm sorry that's
you probably got wait calling
yeah i got a wait call hang on a second
okay
well i guess i'm supposed to talk alone while he's on the wait call about clothing right
so i don't know what to say i don't wear any clothing
we're at nudist camp we don't wear any clothes here
you still there Fernando sorry uh
yeah oh that's okay
and anyway uh where uh oh we're talking about the size of the company yeah it was uh about eight or nine thousand people when i got here it has in the past gotten up to eighty six thousand we're not we're that high right now
yeah
but uh in in many many many many countries or
was that in the seventies
uh no i started in nineteen fifty nine i
no no but uh when it it had gone up
oh yeah yeah yeah it peaked out in the seventies yes yeah i've i've i've got thirty two years in
yeah yeah i remember
i i quit i sort of remember that i'm only twenty two but in the seventies i heard you know TI was even making uh those little watches you know those those uh LED watches that you couldn't see in the sun
okay
right
right right we made those
yeah yeah yeah i used to referee soccer games and uh uh i would use those watches to time the games and i'd be out on the field middle of the field at high noon
yeah
and have to cup my hand over it and peek down there with my eye to see what time it was
and uh yeah we were about the first ones to make those and went out of that business in nineteen eighty one
so
yeah
uh back to uh uh back to clothes i don't really i don't really have what you'd you'd think was an expensive wardrobe i mean some people are very very very clothes conscious uh
well they said that women like the the you know executive women or women that work whatever they spend uh five hundred dollars on clothes a year so but but for me
huh
um-hum um-hum
yeah i wouldn't i i would think they'd spend at least that as the at the cost of clothes
yeah i mean women go all i mean what i've seen like you know they like to wear something different every day and for me it's like people know how i dress and we we have you know like the gym here
yeah
they give you shirts right which which you use and then you take back they give you a clean one
yeah
yeah
and so sometimes you wear you know the shirts from from the gym everyday of the week the only thing is that you can tell them apart because they have the year that they were bought in
yeah
um-hum
so i mean you don't feel as bad because it's like they they give you different year sometimes you know so you're wearing you know sometimes you're wearing eighty nine the other times sometimes you're wearing ninety one the other times you're wearing you know eighty six so it's okay you know
is that for like gym classes for PE classes and things like that
right see when we take PE you have to dress in the in PE clothes but it is it's issued to any one that wants one that's in the university
yeah
yeah
right right right how many hours are you taking
well right now since i'm graduating i'm only
