Through My Eyes a DEC Experience

This document, "Through My Eyes a DEC Experience," provides Bob Anundson's personal narrative of working at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) during the 1970s, offering an eyewitness account of the company's culture and his career trajectory.

Anundson joined DEC in 1968, noting the company's immediate emphasis on self-training and an informal, "make-it-happen" culture that valued initiative over rigid procedures. After an unconventional hiring process and a period of self-directed learning on products like the PDP 8 and FOCAL, he became a field software specialist. A significant turning point was his unexpected assignment as a sales representative for Los Alamos National Labs. Initially disliking sales, he championed the new PDP 11 against competitor Data General, ultimately securing a major deal through proactive engagement, which he attributes to DEC's risk-taking and supportive culture. This experience transformed his career perspective, making him embrace sales.

Moving to corporate marketing for the PDP 11, Anundson recounts experiences illustrating DEC's unique environment, such as disposing of an unpopular brochure design and significantly underestimating initial product forecasts. He describes DEC's unusual working conditions in an old woolen mill, where employees were highly dedicated despite informal surroundings. He was also instrumental in the development of the VT50/52 video terminals, designed to replace teletypes. He details the design challenges, cost considerations, and his "biggest failure" in choosing a wet-paper hardcopy solution. Despite internal criticisms, the VT52 became an industry standard, selling millions of units.

Anundson ultimately left DEC in 1980, citing two main reasons: the inability of the company's manufacturing and order processes to cope with the massive success of the VAX 780, leading to severe delays and customer dissatisfaction; and a perceived shift in DEC's culture, with "suits taking over" and a departure from its original innovative and informal ethos. Despite these frustrations, he concludes that his time at DEC, witnessing its growth from a $60 million company to one generating billions, profoundly shaped his life.