Life at Microsoft (so far)

Coming to Microsoft was an adventure for me. I never thought I would work for them, but now obviously things have changed. For whatever reason, many people like to hate on M$, and there are probably some good reasons for that. Just like there are good reasons to hate on Duke basketball (sorry Dave). The common myths about Microsoft usually are things like lack of innovation, arrogance, bad products, etc. Unlike Apple, Microsoft in many ways does not have brand capital. These things were on my mind when coming to interview here.

The interview process was as important for me as it was for them in making a decision. I wanted to know if there was still passion for putting out a good product. Are they taking on the hard challenges and trying to win? At least in my interview, I felt that there still is that passion. Maybe not the bubbling froth that is the Apple passion, but people here care about putting out a good product. I also connected well with the hiring manager and that can't hurt.

For a long time Microsoft dominated an industry that was small, but growing like crazy. Over time new companies have emerged and have been able to not only compete in the same space, but thrive. What I have found so far is that Microsoft is in the process of changing their culture and the way they do business. However, it is a huge company (over 92,000 employees worldwide) and change isn't easy. I like what they say about the new direction. We'll see over time how it impacts the end user products.

After a day and a half of orientation, I came to my new office. There are space constraints here so I am sharing an office, but having come from a cubicle farm, this is bliss. On my desk were a bunch of boxes and a note on the whiteboard "Task 1: Set up computer." That took me a while, but can't complain too much. In the boxes were a tower (Quad core Intel, 4 GB RAM), two monitors (22" Samsung widescreen), and a Motorola Q. Since my job is to make Windows Mobile better, the phone and a plan with unlimited data are included. Not a bad perk. The tower was loaded with Windows Vista (64 bit). There has been much said about this operating system, but I like it so far. I am sure it doesn't hurt to have a loaded box to run it on.

My experience so far has been positive. There seem to be a lot of cool technology things going on here beyond just the desktop. I have never used an iPhone or a Blackberry, but my first week using a Motorola Q with Windows Mobile has been fun. Genni has already threatened to take it away a few times. It does everything I need and does them pretty well. My use is mainly focused on the business aspect (e-mail, calendar, phone calls) with a little fun mixed in (facebook, espn, etc.)

To sum it up, so far the experience has been great. My coworkers and manager have been very helpful. I mostly used non-MS tools (Firefox, gmail, igoogle, google maps, Linux) before this, so I have been test driving lots of MS stuff (IE 8, Windows live, Windows Vista). My bias will probably lean more towards giving these products a chance due to my stock awards, but I really think MS has done a good job in catching up and creating some good products. The problem they (we?) face now is changing the public's opinion. It took being employed here for me to give them a chance. The jury is still out on my final opinion, but they will get a chance now. What would it take for you? What are your opinions of Microsoft products? Would you give them a spin and see if they have improved enough for you?

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Saying goodbye

I still haven't found time to continue the previous post and probably won't for a little while. The movers come tomorrow and we fly out of here this weekend. Who knows when we will have time to do anything? We are off into the unknown. This is one of those times where I am grateful for the organization of the church. We know that when we get there we will be meeting people pretty much right away.

Ate mais.

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Lacking motivation

For some odd reason, I am really lacking motivation to work today. There are so many things going on here, but my time is coming to an end. Others need to step up and take over most of the stuff I am working, but that isn't really my problem. My problem is getting the motivation to finish up my previous tasks.

This whole job switch has been interesting from the beginning. I originally started it with the intent to work for Apple. They are doing some cool things from an embedded technology standpoint (iPod and iPhone) and seem to be in a good position for growth. While in the process of submitting my resume to them, I figured it wouldn't hurt to submit it to Microsoft also. A friend of mine recommended me at Apple, but for Microsoft my resume was just submitted to a job listed on their careers website that matched my interests. It seemed likely that Apple would contact me, but with Microsoft it was probably one of many thousands of resumes submitted.

Apple got back to me and scheduled a phone interview. The surprise was that an email arrived from Microsoft requesting to set up a phone interview also. This all happened the week before we visited California. They both went well and requested that I fly out for on site interviews. As stated above, the first desire was to work for Apple, but I was open to both. The on sites were scheduled for the same week. My week went like this:

Sunday - Fly out to San Jose
Monday - Interviews at Apple (9:30 - 4:00 PM) Fly home in the evening
Tuesday - Work at Raytheon
Wednesday - work in the morning followed by a flight to Seattle in the evening
Thursday - Interviews at Microsoft (9:30 - 6:00 PM)
Friday - Fly back to Tucson in the morning

As you can imagine, it was a tiring week. The interviews seemed to go well. The companies take different approaches to their interviews, as one might expect.

Apple was not as focused on the technical questions. It seemed they are looking more for a fit. They don't let you see too much on the inside. All the interviews were conducted in an interview room that is accessed from the outside of their main building. The only real glimpse of the inside was lunch at the cafeteria. Even then, it is a walk through the lobby of the main building, out through the grassy quad area, and into the cafeteria. The job for which I interviewed was not in my main area of interest, embedded technology. They wanted me to work on the Towers and Servers team. Basically, this team is responsible for working hardware/software integration issues. If a problem comes up when they are trying to run their operating system on new hardware, this team comes in and tries to find the problem. I am sure there is much more to it, but that is the basic gist of the job.

To be honest, I didn't feel the vibe during the interviews. I have no doubt I could do the job, but it didn't feel like a fit for me. They ended up not making an offer, but to be honest, even if they did my answer was going to be no. That was a hard conclusion to arrive at because working for Apple was what I thought I wanted. They have interesting ways of doing things there. Very free thinking, lack of structure. They have built up a lot of brand capital at this point and are riding that momentum to huge growth. It will be interesting to see how they handle the changes that may be required as that growth continues.

Microsoft was different, but there isn't time for it now. I will continue this later for all those that might actually be interested.

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The color green

We spent the last five days exploring the beautiful scenery of the Northwest and looking for a place to live in Washington. Many people like to mention that we are going from one weather extreme (hot and dry) to another (cold and wet). I am sure we will adjust when we get to go outside and see grass in our yard and lots of trees and green. The kids can even run around barefoot in the yard without fear of stepping on a scorpion or running into the rattlesnakes that like to hang out in this area.

After a failed house tour in a smoke scented car with a leasing agent telling us all about her pub visits at 8 am for soccer games, we found a house on craigslist. It is in a nice subdivision and the kids will attend what appears to be a really good school. Moving to that area and trying to stay within a half hour commute to Microsoft required a decrease in square footage, but we really like the house and can definitely make it work. Here is the picture from the listing:


During our time there, we enjoyed the scenery and even went to enjoy a Blue Angels show on Saturday. It was a nice little vacation. Now we are back home and getting anxious to move and get settled again. The Northwest is beautiful. I love all the rainforest and hills. I think we will really like it there.

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