3 ms·

If most of your pro experience has been with Linux, and you seem to love your Macbook Pro, I'm really curious to know why you went to work at Microsoft? This is

If most of your pro experience has been with Linux, and you seem to love your Macbook Pro, I'm really curious to know why you went to work at Microsoft? This is a serious question.

sgk284 16y ago
Without getting into too much detail, I had previously worked at Google (which was a great experience, I recommend everyone does that at some point). I eventually found myself back in my hometown (Philadelphia) for a bit and my girlfriend and I decided we wanted to check out what was going on in Seattle. I had a bunch of offers but mostly looked at Amazon and Microsoft. I chose Microsoft because they are doing some amazing things internally right now. They also have some ridiculous talent (and their hiring changes over the past few years have only made it better). There is nothing better than working with other brilliant engineers. In the end though, it was just about interesting work. Microsoft has acknowledged that they need to step up their game, and convinced me to come along for the ride. I've been there for 10 months now and so far they've stayed true to their word. It is a lot of fun there. I wasn't sure how it'd compare to Google, but Microsoft has surpassed my expectations. The only thing I miss is the free food. It was never about what operating system or programming language, Microsoft offered me the most interesting challenge. So I took it.
- mkramlich 16y ago
  thank you for answering that!
leif 16y ago
Because if you like solving problems, the problem, not the technology, is the most important thing. Seattle's a pretty nice town too. At least, that's my answer.
- mkramlich 16y ago
  Yes but there are other important things in life other than simply solving technical problems. And there are plenty of problems to solve that do not involve Microsoft or Windows. And choice of technology mix has a big impact on things like personal productivity and quality of life.
  - leif 16y ago
    If you want to touch the lives of as many people as possible, you can't go wrong working for Microsoft. They might be evil, but if I can help out some percentage of their users, that's quite a bit of good done for the world. I won't say that's my biggest reason for working there, but it helps.
- berntb 16y ago
  Yeah, but... Microsoft has a monopolist strategy. That means, among other things, that their products need to be hard to both clone and/or be compatible with. Microsoft systems then need to have too much complexities and oddities to be bug compatible with. It should be hard to clone APIs etc as parts of other operating systems. And so on. The implementations also need to vary over time and be replaced periodically. Just look at their "open" document standards of thousands of pages... All that can't be fun to work with. Edit: Word choice, a bit grammar.
  - leif 16y ago
    Sometimes it's annoying, but overall, the problems (at least, the one I'm working on) are interesting, and, for some things, they have great tools.

If most of your pro experience has been with Linux, and you seem to love your Macbook Pro, I'm really curious to know why you went to work at Microsoft? This is a serious question.

sgk284 16y ago

Without getting into too much detail, I had previously worked at Google (which was a great experience, I recommend everyone does that at some point). I eventually found myself back in my hometown (Philadelphia) for a bit and my girlfriend and I decided we wanted to check out what was going on in Seattle. I had a bunch of offers but mostly looked at Amazon and Microsoft. I chose Microsoft because they are doing some amazing things internally right now. They also have some ridiculous talent (and their hiring changes over the past few years have only made it better). There is nothing better than working with other brilliant engineers. In the end though, it was just about interesting work. Microsoft has acknowledged that they need to step up their game, and convinced me to come along for the ride. I've been there for 10 months now and so far they've stayed true to their word. It is a lot of fun there. I wasn't sure how it'd compare to Google, but Microsoft has surpassed my expectations. The only thing I miss is the free food. It was never about what operating system or programming language, Microsoft offered me the most interesting challenge. So I took it.

mkramlich 16y ago
thank you for answering that!

leif 16y ago

Because if you like solving problems, the problem, not the technology, is the most important thing. Seattle's a pretty nice town too. At least, that's my answer.

mkramlich 16y ago
Yes but there are other important things in life other than simply solving technical problems. And there are plenty of problems to solve that do not involve Microsoft or Windows. And choice of technology mix has a big impact on things like personal productivity and quality of life.
- leif 16y ago
  If you want to touch the lives of as many people as possible, you can't go wrong working for Microsoft. They might be evil, but if I can help out some percentage of their users, that's quite a bit of good done for the world. I won't say that's my biggest reason for working there, but it helps.
berntb 16y ago
Yeah, but... Microsoft has a monopolist strategy. That means, among other things, that their products need to be hard to both clone and/or be compatible with. Microsoft systems then need to have too much complexities and oddities to be bug compatible with. It should be hard to clone APIs etc as parts of other operating systems. And so on. The implementations also need to vary over time and be replaced periodically. Just look at their "open" document standards of thousands of pages... All that can't be fun to work with. Edit: Word choice, a bit grammar.
- leif 16y ago
  Sometimes it's annoying, but overall, the problems (at least, the one I'm working on) are interesting, and, for some things, they have great tools.