8 ms·
This reminds me of the time about 7 years ago when my team (in Redmond, WA) wanted to send me to Beijing for a year. I didn't agree so they sent someone else in
by chihuahua 5y ago
This reminds me of the time about 7 years ago when my team (in Redmond, WA) wanted to send me to Beijing for a year. I didn't agree so they sent someone else instead. He spent most of the year living in Beijing and working with a team in Bellevue, WA.
- rootsudo 5y agoThat isn't so bad per se. It's pretty common at MSFT from experience, sometimes it helps. But if you are connected in the Seattle area/have a mortgage and such it can def see annoying then to leave.
- chihuahua 5y agoI would have found it pretty annoying to travel thousands of miles only to work with a team that is 8 miles from my previous office.
- rootsudo 5y agoI meant it in the non family, adventure in China way and work maybe late evening hours to 1:1 w/ the redmond team. I had something similar happen to me when I was also at msft, I volunteered to go to Manila and Tokyo (since no one else wanted to go) and it was the same exact situation except to interface with same redmond team and barely any with the international office. My lease was expiring, I didn't feel like renewing, I was home searching (wish I just bought something instead, this was 2015, so imagine the prices) and well I spent over 18 months living abroad with more than quarterly tickets home and I was not even mid 20's. I loved it, but I 100% get it. If I had a family and truly deep network of friends and long term connections there, I would've probably said no, but I wanted to travel. Only downside was, it was Japan in Winter when I arrived. :)
- syrrim 5y agoThe timezone difference would be murder, I imagine.
- winrid 5y agoWith the nightlife in Beijing, you could manage! :)
- dataflow 5y agoI'm confused, what was the point of making you (or your coworker) live on the other side of the globe then? Were they running an "let's see what happens if we expel someone out of the US just for kicks" experiment? The way you described it it sounds like they deliberately did something completely pointless, which seems... unlikely?
- tootie 5y agoI once flew to Alberta, CA from New York to have a conference call with a team that was in another part of Alberta.
- hunter-gatherer 5y agoThis is one of thise asinine things that I can't beleive though at the same time, I know you're telling the truth. Our world is so dumb sometimes.
- jrockway 5y agoI always found it kind of sad when I would have video conferences with people in the same building. But I didn't want to walk up 12 flights of stairs (very dodgy elevators in that building; wayyyyy under capacity for an office building), and they didn't want to walk down 12 flights of stairs, so there we were. This is even worse at corporate campuses like the Googleplex. It might be a mile walk to go meet someone in person, while that 1 person video conference room is just footsteps away. Sad, but what can you do. (That said, I've been in meetings where I realized the other half of the group was next door, and said "wait, I'll just come over". Sometimes it's just unfortunate incremental iteration on the list of conference rooms and not actually a good reason.)
- rfrey 5y agoWell, those long distance charges will kill you.
- irrational 5y agoFrankly that sounds awesome. Company paid opportunity to experience another culture in depth? Yes please!
- seattle_spring 5y agoMy thoughts exactly. I had a similar opportunity about 10 years back and I turned it down. I still think about what my life would have been like had I chosen otherwise.
- lpapez 5y agoThe perspective depends heavily on your position in life. E.g. I can't imagine many parents taking up on such an offer.
- gumby 5y agowhy not? It sounds great to me. The only “bad” case I know of is my cousin who moved to Finland from Australia: her teen struggled because high school was impossible to follow. The younger kid didn’t care as much, and otherwise they all had a great time. I feel like I know plenty of families who have done this.
- brtkdotse 5y agoWorking with a team offset by 12 hours? No thank you!
- gumby 5y agoWhat if you don’t have to overlap for the full day? Our team is all over the world and people are used to having real-time overlap with some people only for a couple of hours. I have to be able to talk to everyone so my schedule is crazy (but is a schedule, so I’m not up at 2 AM every morning, and do get enough sleep). But I’m the only one.