Why Microsoft? 236
theodp writes "Before a large crowd of students at the University of Washington computer science department, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was asked why students should care about Microsoft enough to want to work there. Aside from the ending, which begs for an if-you're-happy-and-you-know-it-clap-your-hands remix, Ballmer seemed to handle the question adequately for an MBA-type, although TechCrunch has a different opinion, suggesting 'maybe it's time for the great salesman to hang it up.' Oddly enough, a recent resignation letter from a Microsoft developer en route to Facebook ('Microsoft has been an awesome place to work over the past twelve years. In college, I never thought I'd work for Microsoft. Then I interned in 1997 and fell in love.') may be more what the skeptical CS student was looking for in terms of a Microsoft endorsement."
Yes why? (Score:2, Insightful)
4 stories in a span of a couple of hours. Why Microsoft?
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Perhaps Slashdot, slowly accepting their continuing decline in the web forum discussion arena, is trying to reinvigorate what they perceive to be their original driving force (shitting on Microsoft) instead of trying to fix the actual problems (that the site is stale, the "editing" still is non-existent after all these years, and that other outlets on the web provide more open ideas than the stagnant masturbatory groupthink).
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wait, so you're trying to say that the site magically declined?
Is it hard for people to realize that slashdot hasn't really changed a whole lot from the start?
Re:Yes why? (Score:4, Insightful)
That said, my only problems with it are what seem to be an increasing number of Troll stories seemingly posted for the sole sake of getting a nice, hit-count generating flamewar going and a certain echo-chamber like quality amongst the mob where it seems people come here to tell each other that their ideas are radical and right (piracy group-think, I'm looking at you) and to shout at people who don't share the group think.
On topic, why the Hell is this a story? Reasons to work at Microsoft? They pay you money. Or is that out of fashion these days?
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These days I'll hear about tech news through co-workers, radio news, and gawker blogs not just earlier but usually by days or even a week or two. 9 times out of 10 when I see new stories pop up on the Slashdot RSS my reaction is "oh, they're just NOW reporting that?".
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other outlets on the web provide more open ideas
Those other outlets being? All technical web forum discussion seems to be in decline. Probably because you used to have to be technical to be on the web at all, now you don't.
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But we come here for the comments anyway.
Discounts (Score:3, Insightful)
In the End... (Score:3, Interesting)
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Who is this "we" you are speaking of? You and all the other Anonymous Cowards? You're called coward for a reason, you know. I know I wouldn't, just like I wouldn't assist most politicians, and dictators. If you want to force companies to change, you first have to change yourself.
Re:In the End... (Score:4, Informative)
I'm happy to assist dictators but draw the line at working for Steve Ballmer
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It doesn't make sense to not work as a high-paid lower-level employee if you don't like the CEO because chances are, his decisions will only slightly affect you.
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Re:In the End... (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, yes and no. It'd be interesting, but I have a friend in the Bing group and he's turned so totally fanboy about it that it's sickening on the level of listening to a true believer evangelist. Perhaps he always was and I never saw it, and perhaps it's more him than the company, but if working there turns off your critical thinking so wholly... no thanks.
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That's funny! I had a friend who worked for MS about 10 years ago and the exact same thing happened - he became a super fanboy. He was constantly dropping hints about secret things he couldn't talk about yet and was generally annoying. A few years later, he left the company to work with some friends at a start up and as the Microsoft influence faded, so did his love of all things Microsoft. These days, he holds the company in pretty low regard.
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I have a friend in the Bing group and he's turned so totally fanboy about it that it's sickening on the level of listening to a true believer evangelist.
Same here, I'm reasonably sure that they're "suggested" to talk up Bing when their communications are being monitored (using their company laptops/email, on Facebook, etc).
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> Looks like someone turned off their logical thinking skills.
> I google for things on Bing.
Indeed.
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I don't actually DISLIKE Bing, but I haven't found it to be ... good. It's got a pretty background, but the services it offers just aren't that much (if at all) better than Google's. It's irrational I'm sure, but when my buddy just gushes like a schoolgirl over it I have an immediate disgust and distrust of it. But again, that's just me.
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Microsoft does not bring any positive thoughts other than better PC 3d game frame rates.
Re:In the End... (Score:5, Insightful)
I wouldn't, even as a lowly intern (i.e. zero responsibility) for extreme amounts of pay. Make of that what you will. I did apply to Google for a datacenter job once but, let's be honest, so did a few thousand others no matter what the position. But MS? Beat a path to my door, offer me 50% stock, I don't really care - *if* I took the job it would be only to cash in on it immediately and I'd do the legal minimum necessary, but to actually WORK for them? Nope. Having said this I've probably ruined any chance of actually working for them anyway (as if being a Slashdot regular wouldn't rule you out immediately), and do I care? No, not really. Do they care? Probably not either.
I made a rule for myself when I left uni - never work for anyone that doesn't appreciate you. It's served me well through my own business (yes, I told customers to bugger off because I didn't like the way they were treating me - still made money, though!) and later employment and I've never had more than a week or so of unhappiness with a job in the 10+ years since - and you couldn't pay me enough to suffer that. I had workplaces change, even people change, to become less hospitable and almost immediately I provided the necessary minimum notice and left for somewhere else - usually for more pay, and more appreciation, and never have a problem finding the next job (I consider a 2-3 week window between jobs HUGE and the past three employments I've had my previous / new employers fighting over me for months and/or I have a definite job offer on the table before my existing employer even knows I'm looking - the new employer would know that I wasn't on notice when they offered the job, but they never cared about that, and I would eventually give due notice to my current employer, but I see that as my skills being in demand).
I trash Microsoft for making shitty products. I do it as a living, in fact. I also avoid Microsoft products where I can because of this (unfortunately, I work with established AD domains a lot on a contract basis so I can't really avoid Windows, but I have converted several schools to much better products - latest was an installation of OpenOffice in a private school that could EASILY afford site licences for Office but saw the actual benefits of Open software after several little chats). I would also avoid MS as an employer, because I know that even if the job is interesting, the tech is cool, the project was the best in the world, the colleagues were fabulous, the money was ludicrous, that I would have to eventually follow some horribly contrived mission statement, or ill-thought-out company policy (can you use Linux machines as an MS employee without working in their "Linux lab"? What about Firefox? What if I deliberately choose not to use the MS tools and/or develop cross-platform tools to get my job done? Can't see MS releasing those to the public, or even allowing them in the first place), or whatever new management fad is doing the rounds in those-above-me's golfing circles.
Not everyone sells out for the money. If they do, there's still a limit to what they would do for the money and that might be much lower than you think. But, to be honest, I hereby publicly state that MS can keep all their jobs. I actually make MORE money from going in, fixing up their messes and putting people on the alternatives, and I specialise in mainstream UK schools. The crappier they are, the more I make (Windows Vista and 7 "upgrades" have been an absolute god-send!). But, hell, I turn down jobs because I don't like the approaches of my predecessor there, or because the guy in charge that I would never have to talk to is a complete scumbag, or (another real-world example for me) because it means working for a school that think it's okay to spend £100,000 on upgrading a perfectly good network (and nearly the same again on a network manager) when the kids don't have exercise books to write in. That manager would have been me, but I told them to stick it and went to work for a primary school for 2 years.
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When I left uni I made a rule never to care about whether other people appreciate you at work.
Otherwise I'd still be unemployed twenty five years later.
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You can use any browser of your choice. I do.
I have never seen any employee use a Linux desktop. I can't imagine the pain you would have to go through to develop/debug windows stuff on a linux box.
I have seen people use their apple macbook-air to present things often enough though.
I have also seen the IT staff doing their best to help visitors to the campus with config issues even when they use linux.
I know several people who use windows ports of vim/emacs/cygwin etc in their primary desktops. Their code do
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Re:In the End... (Score:4, Insightful)
We all trash Microsoft for making shitty products, but in the end we would all work for them given the chance.
I've trashed Microsoft's shitty products, but I don't trash the ones that generally work well. I'm quite happy with Windows 7, thank you.
But I don't think I'd want to work for them. Partly because I hate writing code, and when I think of Microsoft I think of programming. Obviously they've got some kind of beefy network to handle all that coding... And they need someone to run it all... Which would potentially be the kind of thing I'm interested in... But that brings me to problem #2 - I don't want a giant organization where I wind up with an uber-specialized position. I like my little IT department where I can get involved in literally everything.
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If one believes that a mix of workers is best, those that have been trained in the status quo at top tier schools, those that have not been brainwashed by the top tier schools into thinking all their creative
Re:In the End... (Score:4, Insightful)
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[quote]It's a juggernaut built on the backs of broken promises and stolen dreams, with an army of giddy fanboys clamoring for their turn to be chewed up and spit out by the machine.[/quote] ... I don't think they really need drama majors, anyway.
That is what you are, right? Or did Slashcode eat the [emo] tags around that post?
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Just like with Sony (awful music department, surprising ebook department), Microsoft is too big to be monolithic. You need to subdivide the company in smaller blocks and analyze each of them separately, for they probably don't work the same way. I'd still rather join Google or one
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We all trash Microsoft for making shitty products, but in the end we would all work for them given the chance.
Actually no. I would not work for them because I don't and could not believe in any of their products.
Money isn't everything, but it's all they have to offer.
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A complete and total lie. Not every one can be bought at least not with money and of course the price some tricky geeks would demand no company is often willing to pay. Sure M$ could change from being an importer of cheap foreign labour, an out sourcer of the first degree, a employer who keeps staff on sack on a moments notice contracts, a company with a terrible reputation for monopolistic abuse and standards skullduggery, a company that prides itself on the bullshit in it's marketing, a company that does
Re:In the End... (Score:5, Informative)
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I do have a choice.
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I don't think standing up for your beliefs and refusing to give in to hypocrisy are the same as being "self-entitled". If you didn't have a choice it would be all the more impressive (though of course, also rather naive and stupid).
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I had to look up "self-entitled" as I haven't really heard it used before, and I got the impression more that it's for people who want and take what they don't really deserve or know how to use, perhaps like some rich asshole buying a supercar despite not knowing anything about how to drive. I think there is a difference between that and standing up for your beliefs, but there is also something to be said for having cool stuff.
Re:In the End... (Score:5, Insightful)
You would be surprised how much rationalization a higher salary can buy.
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You would be surprised how much rationalization a higher salary can buy.
Really?
The careers person at the CS department at my university, when explaining the process for applying for jobs for our placement year, said something like "[because of how good this university is] Barclays will employ 50 of you, Morgan Stanley 60, Goldman Sachs 25, (etc, etc)". There were 48 students. She then seemed surprised when someone asked about working somewhere that wasn't a bank -- half the salary, but ten times as interesting. Some people are motivated by money (half to two thirds, IIRC), othe
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You would be a hypocrite to work for a company that conflicts with your moral and ideological beliefs; however, I suspect when you look back in ten years you'll think that your current moral and ideological beliefs were some combination of naive and misguided. Probably not that they were wrong, exactly, but more likely that some things that you thought were very important actually aren't important at all.
Then kids ten years younger will call you a sell-out and the cycle will repeat.
That's not to say that y
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OK, while personally I think the GP is a bit of an idiot for getting into Computer Science/Software Development with the attitude he has toward closed source software (which is, after all, by far the largest employment segment in software development) I also think your criticisms are ridiculously harsh. He doesn't like the company so he didn't take the interview. It's perfectly valid. I'd never work for Walmart (ignoring the fact that they could never hope to pay me enough below the executive level to ev
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OK, while personally I think the GP is a bit of an idiot for getting into Computer Science/Software Development with the attitude he has toward closed source software (which is, after all, by far the largest employment segment in software development)
To many, there's a difference between shrink-wrap and custom software. I personally don't have much of a problem with either - but I see Microsoft as having ethical problems in the way they act in the market, which makes me have qualms about working for them. (These problems seem to be getting smaller over time, and so are my qualms.)
I also think your criticisms are ridiculously harsh. He doesn't like the company so he didn't take the interview. It's perfectly valid. I'd never work for Walmart (ignoring the fact that they could never hope to pay me enough below the executive level to even tempt me). His beliefs about F/OSS software are important to him and he chooses not to work for a company that in many ways represents to antithesis of those beliefs. Makes sense to me.
Now I personally think that open and closed source products can and should coexist; and I will happily (and have happily) work with both. I also think that getting into software development while essentially deliberately cutting off three quarters or more of your most lucrative possible employment avenues is a little silly.
This is only if you assume he's dropping custom software development for companies; that part used to be 90% of the field (I have no recent numbers, while shrink wrap used to
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I would never hire someone that sounded like you; that placed themselves on a pedestal and made claims of moral superiority. Good luck with that endeavor.
I would hire someone who put their morality ahead of their bank account like a shot. So would anyone who (a) was sensible and (b) wasn't wanting to put that person to work doing immoral things. Now I don't know whether you fall down on the being sensible part, or not engaging in immoral things (or both), but your post is borderline nonsense. You think *you* are "providing a luxury" to this person? They have a job so they're not living off you. And if you regard morality as a luxury, then you don't really un
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I would hire someone who put their morality ahead of their bank account like a shot.
Would you ask?
In the interview for my current job I was asked something like, "you could clearly get a job in IT at an investment bank and earn £10-15k + bonus more than what we're offering. Why have you applied here?" I explained that I wouldn't work for a bank on principle, and that I imagined the work to be boring anyway. I hoped a science (ish) job would be more useful to the world, and that the work would be more interesting.
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If they also happen to believe in what the company does, or at least doesn't have a moral problem with it, it's more likely they will stick with the job and maybe even do better work. Monetary compensation only gets you this far, at some point it won't be enough to pay for rationalization.
While I might accept a job for a company that doesn't match my own philosophy, I would also leave it
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I'm comfortable in my current IT position, but I'll never forget what it took to get here. Taking odd jobs and doing sewer repair certainly doesn't sound as awesome as "I would be a hypocrite for working for Microsoft, as that conflicts with my moral and ideological beliefs" would on my resume... I think. I would never hire someone that sounded like you; that placed themselves on a pedestal and made claims of moral superiority. Good luck with that endeavor.
As opposed to someone who will do whatever it takes to get ahead? I'll take a moral team player over a backstabbing ladder climber any day.
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I'm sure glad we've provided this luxury for you.
Huh? What the hell did *you* do to allow this guy to make an employment choice based on something other than financial desperation?
Working for a company based on your morals and ideals is probably the #1 reason US unemployment is over 10% nation-wide.
Shit, *that's* the reason? And here I thought it was opportunistic douchebags doing anything for a buck, completely disregarding any kind of moral [or] ideological beliefs in the pursuit of the almighty buck,
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Oh, I dunno (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe because if you have just a semi-successful career there, it looks awesome on a resume? I mean, let's face it...unless your office is run by an anti-Microsoft kind of person, the average company hiring IT folks (programming or otherwise) would likely be extremely impressed to see that on your resume, especially if you stayed there for multiple years and leave on your own rather than being fired.
One of the biggest lessons you can't learn in college: sometimes, a job is worth taking for no reason other than how it contributes to future opportunities. Ditto for taking classes post-college.
Re:Oh, I dunno (Score:4, Insightful)
One of the biggest lessons you can't learn in college: sometimes, a job is worth taking for no reason other than how it contributes to future opportunities. Ditto for taking classes post-college.
And ditto for college.
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So, you would rather take a crapshoot over the sure thing? Of course Google isn't going anywhere, but seriously... some random startup? Maybe I'm just not as young and adventurous as I once was.
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Re:Oh, I dunno (Score:4, Insightful)
Damage it to whom? Given, I'm a *nix admin type, not an application developer. Working at Microsoft would be sort of pointless for me, and since they don't likely have any jobs I'm really qualified for or interested in, however I fail to see how working at MS could be worse for your resume than working at some ridiculous 4square rip-off with a bunch of stoner kids who only program in Ruby.
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Oh boy. Will you ever be miffed if that 4square ripoff turns out to be the next Facebook :D.
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Yes, actually. The last thing we need is another damned facebook.
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I think you have this exactly backwards. If you love developing software and want to make a difference, Microsoft is not the place to be. It is a bureaucratic mess. It is a mature company run by lawyers and MBAs serving other mature companies run by lawyers and MBAs. If you want a safe paycheck and can handle lots of meetings and corporate politics, you could be happy there.
Working at a startup can be extremely satisfying.
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No. Just no. Ignore your notions of the quality of Microsoft's work for a moment. I'm not saying your notions are right or wrong, just ignore them for a moment. Microsoft is the single biggest software house in the world. They produce literally dozens of titles simultaneously. If you've worked with them (and managed to stay a few years) it shows:
1) You can work in a team environment. Everything Microsoft does is done in teams larger than most will get a chance to work with until much later in their c
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Having a big name like "Microsoft" on your resume matters mostly to HR reps from other big name companies. And the Microsoft brand isn't what it used to be.
Microsoft used to be able to attract top tier talent. Google arrived and that started to change. Lots of Microsoft's best people left for Google and now both Microsoft and Google are losing some of their best talent to Facebook and other companies in the social
Developers (Score:5, Funny)
Because Microsoft has a proven track record for Developers Developers Developers!
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Because Microsoft has a proven track record for Developers Developers Developers!
Hmmm .... not sure if I understand this expression. Is it something like the "Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo" thingie? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo [wikipedia.org]
Developers develop developers?
"Not Sexy" (Score:4, Insightful)
It doesn't even matter that this was Microsoft, other than the fact that if it were IBM we'd never have gotten an article about it. However, the kid in question may have been asking why IBM, or why Ford? Why not? Healthy, established companies with plenty of money that pay dividends. Everyone has heard of them and if you're "good enough" to work for them, then you should be "good enough" for anyone else later. Just because you and your buddy start a website in your dorm room and print up business cards declaring fancy titles doesn't mean that's going to be a good reference when you find out that becoming an accidental internet billionaire is harder than you thought and have to go find a real job.
But, oh yeah, Apple is "changing the world" with their "magical" products (disclaimer, this is being typed on a Mac), so clearly everyone who is anyone should want to go work there. Or the new flavor of the week Rails shop. Or wherever. And for some people, maybe that's a better option and if they can make it work, good for them. I work for a small company practically no one has heard of, and right now it works for me. But, I'm to the point where I would much rather have the greater stability that working for a larger company would provide. In a few years the questioner will likely start to see the same thing.
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I think you're kind of missing the point.
Why should I work for X? is certainly a valid question. Depending on the company you have different pros and cons. Maybe they pay well, but they've got crappy benefits. Maybe they don't pay so good but they've got great benefits. Maybe there's tremendous name recognition. Maybe there's an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of something spectacular. Whatever.
What's vaguely interesting about this is that until fairly recently, nobody would have asked that
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If you don't work only for money/good CV but you value being satisfied by the outcome of you job, working for Apple is probably much better than working for Microsoft.
For example, if your field of specialization is writing software for mp3 players, would you find more satisfying being an iPod or a Zune developer?
Many Reasons Why Not (Score:2)
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I call shenanigans. This may have been the case for a few years in the late 90s and early 00s but these days it seems to pretty much be back to mainly geeks (with a bunch of "I made a myspace profile and I roxx0rz at headshots d00d" gamers who think they're 1337 h4xx0rz because they're the person in their own social circle who is the least tech illiterate).
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I know a few people who work in education and sadly, those students make up the overwhelming majority of today's CS students. They also tend to have exceedingly unrealistic expectations too...
Because they are huge and have tons of cash (Score:5, Funny)
The downside is that you have to hide your MacBookPro and iPhone from public view.
Re:Because they are huge and have tons of cash (Score:5, Interesting)
Microsoft will pay you well and you feel you are part of a community.
The downside is that you have to hide your MacBookPro and iPhone from public view.
You're modded funny of course but it has quite a bit of truth.
Apple does not pay well. Microsoft pays better.
Microsoft makes you part of their community, Apple does not, everything is segmented and you have no access to other's information.
Arguably, Google is more Microsoft-like, except you're also allowed to bring your MacBook at Google :P (however, forget about the iPhone, it's N1!!)
It's odd you would say that... (Score:4, Informative)
A friend that recently departed from M$ said the internal organizations are so politicized other groups would refuse cooperation or willfully withheld information "because they can."
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Re:Because they are huge and have tons of cash (Score:4, Informative)
Never having worked at Microsoft, I couldn't comment about them.
Having worked at Google, I can comment about them: MacBooks are perhaps the single, most popular, laptop. iPhones are very common with perhaps the only reason why there are a lot of Google phones is because people got them for free as their Christmas bonus/gift. I would say that iPhones are probably the most popular personal phones which employees actually paid for.
Not everything is completely open at Google, except maybe most of the source code. Like any large corporation, some individuals have carved out their personal empires along with all the associated politics...
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Another thing to consider is the country you live in and what influence it has on the product design and development.
I know of quite a few people who work in big US-centric organisations (but are based outside of the US) and although they have a job title that implies that they have responsibilities, they really are only performing a sales/account management role and have to rep
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Mike Burrows [wikipedia.org] spoke at Imperial College London at a Google recruitment event.
Afterwards, some of the staff cornered him (plus me and another undergrad) and asked him why he'd moved from Microsoft to Google. IIRC, he said Google had a better community and he had more freedom to do what he wanted, although he also said the Google staff worked longer hours (which for him was a plus, but got him some funny looks).
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Microsoft isn't that bad... (Score:5, Insightful)
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I once got asked by a recruiter to interview for a Microsoft job but, despite offering a better salary, I told the recruiter I simply didn't want to work for a software company where "proprietary" is the watchword. (I currently work in the telecoms industry for a company that does pretty much everything on Linux).
However, I recommended a colleague (who I knew wasn't happy with his job) to the recruiter & he ended up getting the Microsoft job & a better salary. As far as I know, he's still there
Re:Microsoft isn't that bad... (Score:4, Insightful)
You can tell that many managers at Microsoft seem to still think it's 1998 and Microsoft is it's own biggest competitor. They will do ANYTHING they can to keep their own little empires, and the bonuses that come with them, alive.
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Re:Microsoft isn't that bad... (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft wouldn't really be that bad to work at because all their problems occur in management.
And yet all my jobs which have turned into nightmares were because of problems in management.
If your manager is ineffectual you can't work. If your manager is a bastard you may be thrown to the wolves. A bad manager is the number one thing to fuck up a good job.
Answers: (Score:3, Interesting)
Why Microsoft?
Easy. Limited possibilities, so you don't have to think much, or solve real problems. Many mediocre job opportunities.
Why not?
Difficult, you are faced with real challenges, which some folks find positive. Also much better pay and growing market. You also get much less dispensable at some random downsizing. Ethically correct.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
I only hear good things (Score:3, Informative)
I mean, say what you want about their business practices, quality of software and anything else, they've always come across as a good employer.
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The difference, if there is one, is time.
Compare articles about workplace life/perks at Google with similar articles written about Microsoft ten years earlier and you'd have a hard time telling them apart.
Why did the developer leave? (Score:2)
Oddly enough, a recent resignation letter from a Microsoft developer en route to Facebook ("Microsoft has been an awesome place to work over the past twelve years. In college, I never thought I'd work for Microsoft. Then I interned in 1997 and fell in love.") may be more what the skeptical CS student was looking for in terms of a Microsoft endorsement."
Reading the rest of the long post, it's not explicitly clear why he left MS but he hints at several reasons. One of which was brought up by mini-microsoft about the little fiefdoms that became the culture at MS:
A PM once remarked of a former Microsoft VP known for being ultra-aggressive in meetings: "I'd rather have him pissing from my tent than into my tent." Everyone within earshot chuckled at this witty political insight. I'd actually rather not have anybody pissing on any tents, mine or otherwise.
The other is the perks are going/gone. Some of it is understandable but he seems concerned that MS was focusing on the wrong things.
Standard petitio principii comment. (Score:5, Informative)
We are constantly inventing new phrases and new usages. Why raid an ancient and well used phrase, disembowel it, and stuff a completely new meaning inside? If you want to play alien body snatcher, do it with real humans, not with time honoured Latin phrases.
Re:Standard petitio principii comment. (Score:4, Insightful)
Language evolves, as any linguist will tell you.
I have my own list of pet peeves (such as "could care less"), but the fact is there's a good chance it'll go from being the phrase of choice among illiterate morons to something in common parlance within a generation. "Begs the question" is a phrase that I'd say is substantially further down that road, to the point where your explanation is probably less well known than the colloquial meaning of "raises the question".
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Why is /. obsessed with Microsoft? (Score:2)
I'd like to see more news for nerds and stuff that matters make it to the feed.
Not prudent (Score:3, Funny)
Ballmer should just never, ever appear on camera. He just shouldn't do it. Some P.R. person needs to take him aside and convince him that it would be better to have some spokesmodel than for his simian presence to scare the young.
161 comments and counting - Did anyone RTFA (Score:3, Insightful)
I liked the insight into How to get ahead the best. - Maintaining skills, performing good work, meeting commitments, act on your ideas, no unnecessary gossip...
I would hire this guy if I could based on that one blog post.
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But I want my own division with lots of spending and employees!
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2005 called. It wants its statistics back.
The Gaming division has been making a profit [pcworld.com] since 2008. While the article doesn't say how much of that is on the hardware, I seem to recall seeing another article (that I can't find now), from either late 2007 or early 2008, that stated MS was finally making money off of each 360 sold.
The
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2005 called. It wants its statistics back.
It's not statistics. It's called basic accounting. Even in your article, 2008 was the first year they made a profit. It lost $2 billion the previous year. Before Xbox can be called financially successful, it has to break even first.
The Gaming division has been making a profit since 2008. While the article doesn't say how much of that is on the hardware, I seem to recall seeing another article (that I can't find now), from either late 2007 or early 2008, that stated MS was finally making money off of each 360 sold.
MS Earnings for Entertainment and Devices /Home and Entertainment/ Consumer Software, Services, and Devices Division
Net the divisio
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Businessmen don't sweat. They utilize an evaporation-based heat management solution.