A direction out of the muck for Microsoft (Score 1)

Ballmer personifies and promotes the extremely damaging image of Microsoft as an arrogant, belligerent behemoth whose only ideas involve buying some else's work. For an industry that prizes creative talent, what is the logic to having an anti-talent CEO at the helm that can only think with mouth and wallet? How do you think this impacts recruiting? Sure, there are lots of (starving) applicants, or applicants wanting to hone up before jumping to Google or Amazon. But who writes off Microsoft from the get-go, simply because they are good enough to have that choice? Those are the people you don't want to have go elsewhere, and guess what? They do. HR should wake up, and get with the program. Google started in a garage with two guys...and an idea. At that very moment, Ballmer had legions of 'developers, developers, developers'. So what is the equation for success? Two guys with an idea vs tens of thousands of Microsoft developers that can slap a whiteboard full of code...and slap the crap out of the code base with their damn bugs, gunned in just like in the interview. You get what you interview for (surprise!). I have received intense push back on the idea that team members need to know their product, competitors, and have ideas for making the product better. For the most part, internal awareness does not exist at Microsoft. Most are squirreled away in their little dlls or microscopic code base, and that's as far as they can see or even want to. These are who are selected. Microsoft needs to interview for creativity, and ideas. Passion for technology is fine, but what has the candidate done with their passion? What have they innovated lately? How would they improve the product this team is interviewing for? No no no...its "slap a linked list or hash table on the board & join Ballmer's other developers developers developers". Now and then, there is a huge company meeting, with lots of useless entertainment, and embarrassing displays by the CEO. Most softies can't name 5 products the company makes, and the CEO decides the best thing it to do about it is to jump around on a stage. That needs to be replaced with a different kind of company meeting, one that requires each product team to present their wares as if at a trade show. Such would increase the awareness of the average Joe and Jane about whats going on around them, and encourage cross-pollination. Hell, just preparing their own presentation would likely clue them in on just what the heck they have been working on for the past year...for the first time. Change the CEO, update the screening process for crying out loud; its working in reverse, and get the company together annually to present to each other. Grow the damn company, like it was day 1, because in this business, every day is.