5 ms·

> I read that Microsoft also has an "AOG" crew, to fix broken critical software systems. From what I know, back in the day (more of less 10 years ago) MSFT had

by braza 3y ago

> I read that Microsoft also has an "AOG" crew, to fix broken critical software systems. From what I know, back in the day (more of less 10 years ago) MSFT had some Premier Field Engineer (PFE) that operated more or less like this, at least in some places in America. For databases, I saw some of those folks fixing quite complex scenarios of corrupted log shipping, spin locks, disaster recovery, fixes of corrupted of hundreds of GBs and so on. I did not had access but I read in some docs that MSFT used to charge almost thousands of dollars for that kind of support.

rvba 3y ago
Thousands of dollars is.. not that much. When I was a junior strategy consultant they charged 175 dollars per hour of my work. And the company managed to find clients who paid for days of such work, sometimes even with overtime. As much as I like to think of myself as a smart person, the decks that I made were solid but in my opinion nothing special, nothing really groundbreaking. Just standard strategy decks, based on "research" (google), internal analysis (data pulled from ass) or statistical model (excel with lots of assumptions). I also doubt they pushed anyone anywhere apart from making some sales. On a side note, the rates for tax consultants were generally lower, for example a partner charged 500 per hour, but they usually couldnt charge the client for more than few hours. So I could imagine those microsoft guys charing something like 2000 per hour, or rather something like 15 000 per day (because it sounds much better) for someone who is actually critically needed. Or maybe those guys think that others are ones charging high rates because the grass is greener on the other side (Obviously you would take maybe 15% of your hourly rate...) tbh sometimes I think the most important skill for any consultant is being able to find people who will pay for your services, anything else is secondary
qingcharles 3y ago
I remember getting a call from an unnamed bank who needed to connect two Microsoft software components. They had spent tens of thousands with top-line Microsoft support and their final answer was that it was impossible. For some reason the bank called me and my buddy. I asked why they called me. "Because you never use the word 'impossible'." I told them I wanted $20K if we got it working. Two hours later we had it working. I waited two weeks to deliver it because it needed to seem like they got their value out of us o_O

by braza 3y ago

rvba 3y ago

Thousands of dollars is.. not that much. When I was a junior strategy consultant they charged 175 dollars per hour of my work. And the company managed to find clients who paid for days of such work, sometimes even with overtime. As much as I like to think of myself as a smart person, the decks that I made were solid but in my opinion nothing special, nothing really groundbreaking. Just standard strategy decks, based on "research" (google), internal analysis (data pulled from ass) or statistical model (excel with lots of assumptions). I also doubt they pushed anyone anywhere apart from making some sales. On a side note, the rates for tax consultants were generally lower, for example a partner charged 500 per hour, but they usually couldnt charge the client for more than few hours. So I could imagine those microsoft guys charing something like 2000 per hour, or rather something like 15 000 per day (because it sounds much better) for someone who is actually critically needed. Or maybe those guys think that others are ones charging high rates because the grass is greener on the other side (Obviously you would take maybe 15% of your hourly rate...) tbh sometimes I think the most important skill for any consultant is being able to find people who will pay for your services, anything else is secondary

qingcharles 3y ago

I remember getting a call from an unnamed bank who needed to connect two Microsoft software components. They had spent tens of thousands with top-line Microsoft support and their final answer was that it was impossible. For some reason the bank called me and my buddy. I asked why they called me. "Because you never use the word 'impossible'." I told them I wanted $20K if we got it working. Two hours later we had it working. I waited two weeks to deliver it because it needed to seem like they got their value out of us o_O