Working at Microsoft – Day to Day Coding
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Working at Microsoft – Day to Day Coding
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Re: Working at Microsoft – Day to Day Coding
#2I've never read a post by Richard before, I don't want to seem like I'm giving him a hard time, and I'm a happy Windows user, so I'm a big fan of his work.
But this article isn't inspiring from a developer perspective. I've worked in a big IT department (300 people I think),as well as start-ups, so I'm not completely blind to the structures of different work environments.
When Richard first mentioned that everybody has an office, and that he was allowed to paint his, I thought about how uninspiring that is. Same with describing his hardware. Maybe it's just me, maybe it's Richard, but this article did very little to inspire me to go work for Microsoft.
I was hoping for some insight into code planning, the specific challenges faced by building the most popular (at least the most heavily used) desktop consumer operating system.
Richard makes it all sound very routine.
Re: Working at Microsoft – Day to Day Coding
#3I've never read a post by Richard before, I don't want to seem like I'm giving him a hard time, and I'm a happy Windows user, so I'm a big fan of his work. But this article isn't inspiring from a developer perspective. I've worked in a big IT department (300 people I think),as well as start-ups, so I'm not completely blind to the structures of different work environments. When Richard first mentioned that everybody h…
> Richard makes it all sound very routine.
To me, that is the most impressive part of all.
Re: Working at Microsoft – Day to Day Coding
#4"Most people in Windows have a private office – with a door"
At my office we've made an effort to keep our workspace communal to the point of removing the 12" dividers that were included with our work tables. This, as you might guess, does result in some distraction but in fostering the relationships at the office people are more apt to like being there.
I'm curious how other large companies and startups handle this.
[UPDATE] Its important to note that we let people work from home whenever they like. So, in the case where they really need to focus, they have the freedom to do so.
Re: Working at Microsoft – Day to Day Coding
#5I've never read a post by Richard before, I don't want to seem like I'm giving him a hard time, and I'm a happy Windows user, so I'm a big fan of his work. But this article isn't inspiring from a developer perspective. I've worked in a big IT department (300 people I think),as well as start-ups, so I'm not completely blind to the structures of different work environments. When Richard first mentioned that everybody h…
When the first few lines tell me about how surprised I will be, I expected to hear that people are encouraged to be creative, take risks, try working on project that might end up going nowhere -- in other words, that they promote a hacker culture.
Unfortunately, the things that the author focused on are not inspiring. Being able to paint your office? Great, but how about week-long hackathons where people can code on whatever they want?
Showing the three-level branch hierarchy of your repository doesn't seem to tell me a great story about what it's like to be a dev at MS. Not because there's anything wrong with the branch structure; if you work at a place where coders are given a lot of liberty and freedom, there should be more interesting things to talk about.
EDIT: he has another post which talks more about culture and projects here: http://foredecker.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/working-at-micros...
Re: Working at Microsoft – Day to Day Coding
#6I turned down Microsoft when they recruited me in college. Wow, what a great decision.
Now, I run a software firm where no one has an office, everyone pairs (including owners and interns), we have a /slightly/ better ratio than 1 test per 100 SLOC, etc.
Re: Working at Microsoft – Day to Day Coding
#7"Most people in Windows have a private office – with a door" At my office we've made an effort to keep our workspace communal to the point of removing the 12" dividers that were included with our work tables. This, as you might guess, does result in some distraction but in fostering the relationships at the office people are more apt to like being there. I'm curious how other large companies and startups handle this.…
I've worked in both environments. Honestly, the best environment, IMO, is working from home -- office is second. Shared office spaces are a distant fourth.
I'm the type of person who needs a lot of solitude at some times, and at other times, I love to blast music, pace, juggle, and gorge on chips.
When I need the solitude, when I'm in the zone, I don't want you taking a call from your gf, or deciding with some other guys in the office where to eat lunch.
Likewise, I may need to spend 12 hours doing nothing that looks productive. Just kind of thinking as I listen to music and do something mindless like pay bills. I feel like at even the most liberal of open floor plan offices I've felt inhibited if I spent a day or two doing what looks like screwing around. And don't get me started on pair programming.
Re: Working at Microsoft – Day to Day Coding
#8I've never read a post by Richard before, I don't want to seem like I'm giving him a hard time, and I'm a happy Windows user, so I'm a big fan of his work. But this article isn't inspiring from a developer perspective. I've worked in a big IT department (300 people I think),as well as start-ups, so I'm not completely blind to the structures of different work environments. When Richard first mentioned that everybody h…
When the first few lines tell me about how surprised I will be, I expected to hear that people are encouraged to be creative, take risks, try working on project that might end up going nowhere -- in other words, that they promote a hacker culture. Unfortunately, the things that the author focused on are not inspiring. Being able to paint your office? Great, but how about week-long hackathons where people can code on…
I have heard that people at MS do something called "app week". This appears to be a week between milestones where you take a week to build something that can be built in a week. Usually just tangentially related to their product. Maybe this author can talk about that at some point.
Re: Working at Microsoft – Day to Day Coding
#9Reading this almost makes me want to cry.
It's still all to common these days to find developers with 4 year old machines, comprised of scavanged parts (from people leaving) running Windows XP.
A level of bureaucracy forcing you to maintain 3 tickets (at least) in 3 different systems to make even a typo fix in a production system with 3 day minimum turn around time.
Servers with less RAM and resources then your 4 year old desktop. Laptops? Too expensive so just use this 8 year old IBM one when we need after hours support. Source control? Use TFS which is the most god awful ticket manager/source control system the world has ever seen.
Private office? No, shared space, with people having loud meetings behind the developers at all hours of the work day. Corperate firewall blocking things like stackoverflow. A view from the office? No, other people can have that, you look at a concrete wall.
I guess the moral of this is work for a company that values developers. Keep that in mind while looking for a job if you are one.
Re: Working at Microsoft – Day to Day Coding
#10"Most people in Windows have a private office – with a door" At my office we've made an effort to keep our workspace communal to the point of removing the 12" dividers that were included with our work tables. This, as you might guess, does result in some distraction but in fostering the relationships at the office people are more apt to like being there. I'm curious how other large companies and startups handle this.…
Do your developers have to do any creative work, requiring deep thought, or are they just code monkeys?
If the former, do you provide a way for them to get away from the distraction when they need to think deeply?