Comment Re:Would a different approach be better? (Score 1) 554
This type of attitude is actually pretty widespread at Microsoft, I gathered.
Two years ago when I interviewed with the Shell team, they showed me their latest eye-candy interface, which looked quite a lot like the glassy OS X interface. I commented (perhaps mistakenly during my interview when he was showing it to me) that it looked quite a lot like Apple's latest market offering.
My interviewer's response: "I've never used that."
As a senior software engineer, he was simply handed down specs for him to work with, flesh out, and build; no questions about where the instructions came from, what influenced them, or why the interface was good or bad.
Unsurprisingly, I ended up not getting an offer from the Shell group that year, but eventually came around to interview again and got offers from both Avalon and Shell. Where did I eventually choose to work? Google, because by every indication, they pay attention to the market, where it's going, and they are actually innovating in as many sectors as possible.
If upper management wants to avoid competition to the point of zealotry (some of the open source gurus out there should take note of this!), it doesn't surprise me what they produce ends up sucking.
Two years ago when I interviewed with the Shell team, they showed me their latest eye-candy interface, which looked quite a lot like the glassy OS X interface. I commented (perhaps mistakenly during my interview when he was showing it to me) that it looked quite a lot like Apple's latest market offering.
My interviewer's response: "I've never used that."
As a senior software engineer, he was simply handed down specs for him to work with, flesh out, and build; no questions about where the instructions came from, what influenced them, or why the interface was good or bad.
Unsurprisingly, I ended up not getting an offer from the Shell group that year, but eventually came around to interview again and got offers from both Avalon and Shell. Where did I eventually choose to work? Google, because by every indication, they pay attention to the market, where it's going, and they are actually innovating in as many sectors as possible.
If upper management wants to avoid competition to the point of zealotry (some of the open source gurus out there should take note of this!), it doesn't surprise me what they produce ends up sucking.
