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What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

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Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#71

Post by rdiddly »

danmaz74 wrote: post #38
kerng wrote: post #27

I'm not sure what to make of this post. 3.5 years of which 2 years or so are in dedicated program to rotate jobs across the world seems like an amazing deal to kick off a career many would dream of. Not much responsibility but a lot to learn and observe! More objectively reflecting ones own performance and actions might good to understand reasons for what happened. This is business and work, not family and friends. I…

The point IMHO was that this business and work swallowed up all time from family and friendships.

But that just amounts to using business and work as your family and friends. Which is still kind of a failure to distinguish and is all the more tempting if your "work family" provides all the validation your regular family used to, plus throws in a bunch of perqs.

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#72

Post by j2kun »

yuy910616 wrote: post #43
devinmcafee wrote: post #11

I think many young people in tech learn this lesson the hard way. They get excited with all the free food, laundry services, and events that tech jobs offer. They end up spending all of their waking hours at work and work becomes an identity. Then one day something changes and they realize they spent the last N years of their life at work, not building real lasting relationships, pursuing hobbies, dating, etc. It tru…

I think a lot of people learn this the hard way, yes. But I kinda don't see what is wrong with this. Having work life balance is somewhat of a luxury, and it's a luxury to be able to say "money doesn't make me happy". It's a luxury to come to that conclusion. How do you arrive at that conclusion without going through the ringer first?

> Having work life balance is somewhat of a luxury,

Tell that to the history of labor unions

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#73

Post by rdiddly »

mathattack wrote: post #24

Yes a lot of big companies are like that. Everyone’s friends, but when your time is done, it’s done. In many cases like this one people are conditioned to push through bad situations, and the company does a favor by terminating the relationship.

Absolutely. If you're thinking about quitting, but keep putting it off, and they end it instead, they've done you a couple of favors:

1) They supply all the initiative you can't muster.

2) Having been involuntarily terminated, you can usually collect unemployment if need be, and sometimes a severance package.

If even, say half, of your emotions about it consist of relief, it was the right thing; it needed to happen.

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#74

Post by unreal37 »

j2kun wrote: post #72
yuy910616 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of people learn this the hard way, yes. But I kinda don't see what is wrong with this. Having work life balance is somewhat of a luxury, and it's a luxury to be able to say "money doesn't make me happy". It's a luxury to come to that conclusion. How do you arrive at that conclusion without going through the ringer first?

> Having work life balance is somewhat of a luxury, Tell that to the history of labor unions

Talented and ambitious people would hate being in a labor union. It's a place where doing more than what is expected is actively shunned, and knowing how little work you can do is the optimization.

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#75

Post by userbinator »

pinewurst wrote: post #37
PorterDuff wrote: post #12

Lots of fuss and fury about what is basically just another large company. They're not your friends and never will be. Dunno why there's so much surprise here, I guess it's just another youngster hitting the immovable object of the working world. A friend of mine who went and got a job at Microsoft (a rarity in my circle, they don't seem to be heavyweights in the graphics or video world) and made a smart move. His dea…

The Microsoft interview experience remains awful, Satya or not. I’ve tried a few times but with one exception I was treated like dirt every time by recruiters and interviewers. (Edit) One interviewer blew cigarette smoke in my face, for example. That’s not to say that there aren’t plenty of decent people there.

One interviewer blew cigarette smoke in my face, for example.

Literally? That sounds like something you'd experience in the first half of the last century, but not with a tech company today.

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#76

Post by pinewurst »

userbinator wrote: post #75
pinewurst wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Microsoft interview experience remains awful, Satya or not. I’ve tried a few times but with one exception I was treated like dirt every time by recruiters and interviewers. (Edit) One interviewer blew cigarette smoke in my face, for example. That’s not to say that there aren’t plenty of decent people there.

One interviewer blew cigarette smoke in my face, for example. Literally? That sounds like something you'd experience in the first half of the last century, but not with a tech company today.

Literally. It was outside between buildings, as punctuation for declaring that if I wasn’t an expert on X, I couldn’t know anything about Y. X being a common tool in some areas of Y, which I’d done for several years.

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#77

Post by justinclift »

Hmmm, there's no mention of burn-out in the article, but it sounds a lot like that was involved too.

eg too much time focused on one thing ("overdose" on it) -> burn out -> lack of motivation/focus -> needs 5 week (or more) break to gain perspective. (etc)

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#78

Post by task_queue »

unreal37 wrote: post #74
j2kun wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Having work life balance is somewhat of a luxury, Tell that to the history of labor unions

Talented and ambitious people would hate being in a labor union. It's a place where doing more than what is expected is actively shunned, and knowing how little work you can do is the optimization.

> Talented and ambitious people would hate being in a labor union

Doubt it. Mentorship and apprenticeship opportunities are abound. Unions provide a floor for negotiations from which you can up-negotiate.

If your categorization was true, actors would never have breakout opportunities despite their union representation. Reality disagrees with your assertion and any movie star ever acts as evidence contrary to your claim.

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#80

Post by akersten »

tracer4201 wrote: post #62
burtonator wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a cult and they deliberately want to make it a cult. This is one of the reasons they provide free food, corporate vacations, team building exercises, etc. They want you completely dedicated.

As someone who’s worked at multiple big tech companies, I don’t think this was true, at least not on the teams I worked on. I probably averaged 50 hour weeks. I also earned enough to max out retirement accounts and make substantial investments in my post-tax accounts. I had enough to where I could start taking bigger risks. I had two vacations per year while building wealth. I also got married during this time. I rea…

> I probably averaged 50 hour weeks. I also earned enough to max out retirement accounts and make substantial investments in my post-tax accounts. I had enough to where I could start taking bigger risks.

I'm in a similar situation, and feel sad that a "bigger risk" for me - and probably a lot of employees in tech - is putting my foot down and working only 40 hours a week. Without having money saved, I'd have a much weaker hand in sticking up for myself.

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