I worked my way through the company for 14 years. I did everything from testing devices to billion dollar sales. I did this for 13 years. In the 14th year, they brought in a sales person, who had no experience in testing or processing.

What broke the camel's back: I became a director of the non-profit organization that deals with industry standards, an organization that I worked on in my own free time. My name came up to become VP of the prestigious non-profit.

In our department we all went by first names. But when I was going to conferences, meeting people from a different department, they referred to other people by more formal titles, but no one every referred to me by doctor.