The Utah tech sector was really made by Word Perfect and Novel. The University of Utah and Brigham Young University provided the tech talent that really didn't want to leave the state, and WP and Novel provided the jobs and, ultimately, the capital that started many of the companies south of Salt Lake City that turned the area into a tech hub (the UofU's graphics program was crucial to companies like Evans and Sutherland further north).
It is unfortunate that, today, we don't have that kind of "anchor" company in our "Valley". Omniture was starting to take on that role, but it sold to Adobe. Adobe has turned the area into a second home, becoming an anchor to quite the little tech office community between Salt Lake City and Provo, but it's not the same as having a company headquartered and growing capital here.
I started working in the area right as WP was starting to ramp up speed on its downward slide. I remember working at a small company, going through resumes of people laid off from WP, seeing one guy who had spent the last 5 years working on the "File" dialog. These guys were also making double or more the going rate for software engineers.
As a young software engineer, I learned an important lesson at that time: make sure I keep learning and changing, because every company fails and it's really hard to get a new job when your career has been as the "File" dialog guy. I also learned some important business lessons about what not to do from WP and Novel, most of which came from hubris more than anything.
It is unfortunate that, today, we don't have that kind of "anchor" company in our "Valley". Omniture was starting to take on that role, but it sold to Adobe. Adobe has turned the area into a second home, becoming an anchor to quite the little tech office community between Salt Lake City and Provo, but it's not the same as having a company headquartered and growing capital here.
I started working in the area right as WP was starting to ramp up speed on its downward slide. I remember working at a small company, going through resumes of people laid off from WP, seeing one guy who had spent the last 5 years working on the "File" dialog. These guys were also making double or more the going rate for software engineers.
As a young software engineer, I learned an important lesson at that time: make sure I keep learning and changing, because every company fails and it's really hard to get a new job when your career has been as the "File" dialog guy. I also learned some important business lessons about what not to do from WP and Novel, most of which came from hubris more than anything.