Who is Ryal Haakenson?

WHO IS RYAL HAAKENSON?

Chapter 3 - Career Years

Los Angeles 1959-1961

After a brief vacation in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, I moved to Los Angeles to make my way in this world. I packed my belongings in my '56 Chevy and drove the 2000 miles from Sioux City to Los Angeles. I moved in with a friend of mine, Paul Jenkinson, from Sioux City who had moved to California the previous summer. We were roommates for over 2 years and he was best man at my wedding. With my college degree in hand I began my job search. I interviewed two insurance companies, Occidental in downtown Los Angeles and Prudential in the Wilshire District. I also interviewed with System Development Corporation (SDC) in Santa Monica because a college friend of mine, David Werts, was a neighbor of one of their recruiters, Sally Guthrie. The position was for a computer programmer trainee. Each of the three companies offered me a job, and I took the one at Prudential. I did not take the one at SDC because at the time I had no idea what a computer was, much less a computer programmer.

At Prudential I was a management trainee, making more money than the clerical staff but doing clerical work. I would learn a job and then be transferred to another. This was to learn the various aspects of the business as management training. While at Prudential I continued my interest in sports by playing for the company softball and basketball teams. Meanwhile a friend of mine, Bob Kaiman, had just been discharged from the Army and was in Los Angeles looking for a job. I arranged for him to interview both Prudential and SDC. He took the job at SDC and liked it so much that he talked me into working for them.

After only 9 months at Prudential, I resigned and went to work for SDC. The first eight weeks were an intensive training class where I learned to be a programmer. At the end of the class I was given an assignment and thus my 32 year career in computer software began. After a year and a half working on various programming assignments for SDC in Santa Monica, an opportunity came to transfer to Falls Church, Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC. Just before my transfer, I met a young woman named Rose Marie Kirkwood, who had come to California from her native New York the same year I arrived. I asked her to marry me the last week before my transfer and she accepted. I moved to Arlington Virginia, and she moved back with her parents in New York City.

Falls Church, Virginia 1961-1962

After I spent the summer by myself in Virginia, Rose Marie and I were married in New York in August of 1961 and spent the Autumn and Winter in Virginia as I broadened my computer experience with Department of Defense contracts and did a lot of testing in the Pentagon. I continued my interest in sports by playing on the company softball and basketball teams, where we often opposed military teams. We enjoyed the DC scene for a while but became homesick for California. In April of 1962 I resigned from SDC and took a position with Aerojet General Corporation in Azusa, California.

Aerojet General Corporation 1962-1965

I started work at Aerojet in Azusa in April of 1962 and Rose Marie, who had been working in Virginia, did not seek employment because she was pregnant with our first child. Ryal Joseph Haakenson was born in September of 1962. I enjoyed working for Aerojet and did some traveling to their corporate headquarters in Sacramento. At Aerojet I got my first experience doing other things besides coding programs. I did systems analysis and some project management. It was a nice atmosphere to work in and our DP Department had a twilight golf league in the summer and there were monthly golf tournaments for corporate employees. At first we lived in an apartment in Azusa, but purchased the home where we still live in nearby Covina when Rose Marie became pregnant again. Paul Miller Haakenson was born in February of 1964. As I was to learn later it was nice having a one mile commute from the apartment and a six mile commute from our house. In 1965 an opportunity came to work for a new company in El Segundo called Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). I resigned from Aerojet in August of 1965 to accept employment at CSC.

Computer Sciences Corporation 1965-1978

I worked for CSC a total of 12-1/2 years, which were the most exciting years of my career. While my other employment was more even keel, the days at CSC were either very good or very bad. There were exciting new projects in an exciting new industry and a lot to learn, but there was also incredible stress at times. One Saturday evening I went with my wife to a play at the Los Angeles Music Center and then had to spend the wee hours of the morning testing a system at a nearby data center as she kept me company.

One of my first assignments was to go back to my old job at Aerojet. Aerojet contracted with CSC to get me back to finish the project I had been working on. While there, Aerojet tried to hire me back. That assignment was nice because I was with old friends and did not have to deal with the 47 mile one way commute from Covina to El Segundo that I dealt with off and on for 12-1/2 years. Other aerospace companies who contracted for me included Lockheed and North American. Other similar projects I worked on were facilities management contracts where CSC would manage the data processing of a client. United California Bank and Orange County were facilities management contracts on which I worked. Being a contract programmer was relatively low in stress.

The most stressful assignments were the developing and marketing of banking systems for sale to banks. Our aggressive marketing people made impossible promises which we were expected to fulfill. These projects were exciting though and required a great deal of travel. For most of the time I worked for CSC we flew first class everywhere. We were truly jet setters in those days. Also, I was able to learn a lot about various applications in banking and other industries. We worked on all kinds of hardware and programming languages. At CSC my experience broadened significantly as I was involved in all aspects of computer software including project management, requirements analysis, system design, programming, marketing support, quality assurance, security, system test, customer presentations etc.

Of course, up till now all of my experiences had been on large, main frame computers. The PC hadn't been born yet. One project I worked on, however, was a precursor to the PC. National Cash Register (NCR) in Dayton, Ohio contracted with CSC to develop accounting applications for a new "personal" computer they had developed. That was my first exposure to the smaller computers.

During my years at CSC I became a father three more times. Ann Marie Haakenson was born in May of 1967, Kristin Elizabeth Haakenson was born in September of 1970, and Jennifer Lynne Haakenson was born in April of 1977. In 1972, the year my oldest son started playing youth sports, I made a conscious decision that I have never regretted. On the high stress jobs, I had been a workaholic, devoting all my waking hours to working or worrying about work. In 1972 I decided I needed to spend more time with my kids. I would still work hard and work overtime when necessary, but would never again let over aggressive marketing people pressure me to perform beyond my capabilities. I suspect I may have achieved higher success in my career had I not made this decision, but since that time I have lived a more balanced and happier life.

In 1978 I was beginning to tire of living project to project. There was never a guarantee that when one project was completed another would be waiting, although I had never found a problem finding new projects. I was also tired of the long commute. So in March of 1978 I resigned from CSC and went to work for Southern California Edison.

Southern California Edison 1978-1991

I began working at Southern California Edison (SCE) in March of 1978. It was really a change of pace after 12-/1/2 years at CSC. I was to learn that there was less stress most of the time, but there were also no real "highs". The biggest difference between working at SCE and working at CSC was that at CSC, my talents were stretched to the maximum and all my abilities were utilized fully. At SCE my potential was never fully appreciated, in my opinion, and, with some exceptions, I wasn't given the opportunity to do what I do best, develop computer applications. I might be partly to blame for this as I did not aggressively seek positions in application development, but I also feel I was typecast by management.

My first job was as Change Control Administrator, where I would hold weekly meetings where changes to operating software, facilities, etc. were proposed, and I was to ensure that conflicts did not occur. I also printed a calendar with the results of this meeting. This was a boring job that I didn't like. My first months on the job I had no boss, as my immediate supervisor was on an extended sick leave and his boss, now a VP, was on a leave of absence to study for the California Bar exam. I used the time to write a COBOL program to automate the printing of the Change Control Calendar.

After a period of time, I was told that I would have the additional responsibility of implementing a data security package, ACF2, and becoming data security administrator. This was an interesting project and I gave it my all. I came in weekends to refine access rules I had developed and to monitor security violations. I did a helluva job implementing the system and maintaining it, but I don't believe the extent of my contribution was recognized by management, partly because my immediate supervisor had no idea what I was doing. It was looked upon as a clerical task by some. I did this for several years and finally was able to dump the Change Control job on someone else. A benefit of working with ACF2 is I got to go to a lot of conferences in Chicago and around the country.

After working in data security for several years, I finally squawked that I would like to get involved in application development. Finally, I was given the opportunity to develop structured analysis models (entity/relationship) and information mapping as tools for developing on line applications and following up with programming in on line languages such as CICS, GA, and IDS. However, just as I was getting the hang of it, I was again transferred away from the on line development group. It worked out fine, though, because I was assigned to developing COBOL programs for the PC, which was my first exposure to PCs. This assignment was the most rewarding of all the work I did at SCE over 13-2/3 years.

Finally, I was assigned to a group formed to provide assistance to application programmers and to teach classes on various products. This assignment indicated to me that management had confidence in my ability. I conducted weekly forums for application programmers and taught classes in products such as Xpediter and Endevor. I wasn't too comfortable in assisting others in areas where I had little or no experience, but it was a good learning experience. The plus side is that I got to go on more conferences in places such as San Francisco, Dallas, and New Orleans. This was the assignment I was on when I opted for an early retirement.

In the summer of 1991 I decided that I would apply for an early retirement because my financial status would allow it with my pension and health care being locked in, income from investments, and my wife's job. (She had resumed employment in 1980 after 18 years as a homemaker and mother). I did not know what I would do, but I planned to seek other employment, if only on a part time basis. Options I had were returning to SCE as a part time employee, applying for a judicial assistant position and training at the Los Angeles County Superior Courts, working part time as a television and movie extra, and seeking employment with another company.

Although my days at SCE were less exciting and rewarding than my days at CSC, they were also less stressful. CSC was a new company and had not yet developed a pension program so I had no vesting from those days. SCE provided me with financial security due to periodic pay increases, the pension plan, and the health care plan. My only regret is that had I waited another year, SCE began to offer incentives for early retirement that would have significantly enhanced my retirement package. My retirement was effective November 1, 1991.

This page was last updated on September 11, 2003