What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

> One of the first things I noticed is that almost everyone working for Microsoft had this perfect life???a spouse, kids, nice houses, good cars.

I'm continually surprised how often this kind of life is considered 'perfect'. Every item in this list adds more liability and commitment to your life which is something very few 20-somethings (including myself) have enough experience with to handle it let alone know it's what they enjoy.

Beyond financial security, investing time in what you actually want to do with your life and your own hobbies is going to be much more rewarding and important than nice cars and houses. Even kids can become just another status symbol intended to virtue signal to your class appropriate 'friends' that years latter downgrade to just peers and colleagues.

> Huge campus, nice cafeterias, woods, a pond, overwhelming space. Everything seemed great....

Ugh, this trend to make work environments indistinguishable from a university campus is just the latest trend to warm up new employees until their fully committed to the boiling sewage that is a life that is all work and ass kissing. You only have to remember that FAAMNGS are committed to their shareholders to know that for every dollar invested in their campus, they need two back from you.

I actually saw some of this first-hand at a previous consulting job. One of our contracts in Phoenix was rowdy with drinking and strip clubs, and one of my coworkers got busted for DUI and had to live in Sheriff Arpaio's tent city jail for many weeks of nights and weekends (he was on work release during the day!). He was probably our cheapest consultant at that point, since he wasn't billing hotels or dinners.

I'm at a FAANG now and it's very boring. Someone died at my office recently and some random uninformed online comment was trying to blame it on widespread Adderall abuse, which is so disconnected from how things actually are at the office.

I really don't know why I read what I just read.

There's a lot of red flags - going to clubs, going to burning man, having an affair, renting a penthouse apartment in freaking Seattle.

I'm not passing judgement on those who wanna live life to the fullest, but the failure of achieving the white picketed fence type of life she originally wanted to live is totally on her and not on Microsoft at all.

It's simple. When the supply vastly outpaces demand, it opens up many doors for exploiting those lower on the ladder. Both grad school and classical music are 2 such areas.

Software Engineering still hasn't reached that point. The profits earned by having top percentile employees, far outpace the compensation packages they demand.

>If these co-workers or managers could share their side, what would they say?

Can't agree with this more. The Seattle bit feels incomplete, there was something there that I'd tentatively describe as 'culture shock' or 'cognitive dissonance event' and I really really wonder what would the 'seattle co-workers' say about this piece.