Steve Link's Page

A little background about me:
I grew up in a small town in Eastern Iowa, where I had the opportunity to experience the in-town life, as well as the farming life. My dad owned his own business (a feed store) for 50 years, so I got to work there from a teenager into my early adult years prior to leaving the nest. I also did some farm-hand work here and there and got to be apart of farming firsthand. Prior to Dad buying that business, he was a farmer (for his father). My dad's ancestors were farmers as well, so it is pretty much in my blood.

However, I wasn't sure my dad's business could support him, three of my brothers, and myself, and spouses, so I went to tech school for electronic engineering (something I kind of knew I wanted to get into since about 5th/6th/7th grade). So after gearing my high school classes towrds that field of study, I went on to a technical college and earned my Associate of Applied Science degree in Electronic Engineering. Since then, I have been in Corporate-America working at a large manufacturer of various radio/telecommunications systems and devices. I have been a bench technician for two-way radios, a lab set-up guy, and most recently, a system test engineer. I love new technology and sort of became a techno-holic along the way.

Now, after 20 years in this field of study, I find myself getting sick of the big corporate world. Their long term outlook is only 2-3 years at best, they know only of laying people off for cost improvements, and have a charter to send jobs over-seas. I watched too many of my friends get laid off, while the top managers have given up nothing to help the financial situation of the company. My inner-core tells me it is time to get back to my roots and get into the agriculture fields where the work is much more rewarding on personal levels.