62 Testers
Microsoft has put 62 testers on notice (links: Microsoft Watch, Seattle Times, Seattle-PI, Beta-News, ...)
First of all, if you are a Microsoft tester and not at least a 59 SDE/T:
- Do not assume large debts.
- Update your resume and brush up your skills.
- Save up some money.
- If you really really want to stay at Microsoft, do whatever it takes to be a 59 SDE/T.
- But before you do that, consider all your great options elsewhere...
Best of luck to those targeted for layoffs in finding new jobs outside of Microsoft. I believe that software development in general has to realize that for all the capital X's you slap into fad code development practices, you still need a person disassociated from authoring the code to test features and track down bugs that the code's author has a psychological blind-spot to.
I'm tangentially affected by all this and while I certainly wasn't involved in the culling, I knew about the process being used and had plenty of enthusiastic hallway conversations about it. Was this a heavy-weight process simply to move on dead-wood in testing? Perhaps. But in the end, it's provided a lot of transparency and visibility into the testing ranks here. And I think it's a success that should quickly spread and be implemented through-out the company.
For Test. Dev. and PM. (Oh, and the rest of you all.)
So even if you're not a tester and you've sort of plateaued in your Microsoft career, take a moment to read some of those bullet points above.
All managers should re-sync about their reports' core competencies and, for the competencies where the reports are lacking, what is their potential to actually achieve what's expected of them? If they have maxed out then move them on.
17 comments:
What I don't get is...
They are laying people off because they are automating the process... okay, fine...
But why are they then moving those jobs to India? I thought they were being automated - so therefore not needed?
[All managers should re-sync about their reports' core competencies and, for the competencies where the reports are lacking, what is their potential to actually achieve what's expected of them? If they have maxed out then move them on.]
It's almost sad that a) you have to reiterate advice like this and b) get scorned for doing so. Sounds like business 101 to me - at least outside of MSFT.
IT investment is about automation and automation is about lowering tco and lowering tco is mostly about lowering head count! You create/test software for the IT industry, enjoy the seeds you've sowed!
Some parts of Microsoft do have good management, where the senior management drill these things into the managers (such as my group). And, my understanding is that it is happening throughout the company.
I guess Raikes must have missed the good news memo:
http://secfilings.nasdaq.com/filingFrameset.asp?FileName=0001193112%2D05%2D000001%2Etxt&FilePath=%5C2005%5C01%5C19%5C&CoName=MICROSOFT+CORP&FormType=4&RcvdDate=1%2F19%2F2005&pdf=
For those keeping track, that's 2.7M shares sold in 03, 4.6M in 04 and now 3.3M (of his remaining 7.9M) in the first month of 05 alone. The total disconnect between the internal/external message of confidence in the future vs the actions of senior insiders would be comical if it weren't so pathetic.
I hope they do the same in Office. All the 5 year 58s in my group holding headcount need to go.
What's a 59 SDE/T?
Between dev, ua, pm , marketing and test , they start laying off testers? Thats just fucking hilarious...
They should start the layoffs with middle managers. There's this guy who goes by Mini-Microsoft who seems to want out.
The review process is mostly subjective. If you get stuck with a manager that sucks, can't make you visible and/or isn't a good politician you can kiss your career goodbye. My advice is that, regardless of what they tell you, never quit. Microsoft will not, regardless of what they say, ever hire you back on and they have to give you COBRA benefits. You might as well get unemployment.
can you elaborate on the "transparency and visibility into the testing ranks" this provided?
A 59 SDE/T means level 59 s-det - a tester capable of writing code. Typically this has been the most talented of the testers. Makes sense with the need to be writing more and more automation (mostly to make sure things don't break, I imagine).
The only transparency I can imagine is that you can look into the address book now and see if someone is an STE or an SDE/T (at least for Windows and Office, who recently went through this calibration). Testers can see who their peers are and who is up a rung in the level ladder.
The transparency goes even further - you'll be able to guess a tester's level (+/- 1) thanks to the different titles (SDET, SDET2, Sr.SDET, etc). See HRWEB for more details...
More drivel from the Microsoft PR bullsh*t machine. The layoffs in Windows test don't have much to do with automation. A good number of those who were booted out can (and were) coding and automating tests. Why weren't they 59's already? Because the promotion budget for the last few years has been miniscule. In the group I was involved with, 12 were submitted for promotion this past cycle but there was only enough for 2. At that rate it would take 6 years just to get these people to a level they are already working at. All this at a time when testing for Longhorn is vitally important, given the shortened schedule.
Until MS takes code quality as seriously as expenses, the mediocrity of the product will sadly continue. Although I wasn't directly impacted by this layoff, I argued against it and the effect it would have on my group and the features I owned. After being roundly ignored, I chose to leave Microsoft as well.
The main problem confronting progress in commercial software product quality is that customers continue to accept and buy the low quality software that is available today.
Customer behavior has taught commercial software businesses that the rewards for innovation are greater than the costs for poor quality. This in turn supports practices like selling unfinished products, devoting inadequate resources to software testing, etc.
Microsoft specific advice in addition to that in this post -
1. Across all disciplines, always try to get into groups that have executive attention. You can usually figure this out by listening to or reading earnings releases, micronews features, etc.
2. If you are in a group where your career isn't growing, move. Now, I realize that MS as a company doesn't make it easy to move internally, so you may have to work at this.
3. If you are ambitious and in the test org, move into development or program management. There is a level differntial between the disciplines, and if you work at MS, you know what that means.
Good. Lay em off, lazy fucks they are.
Oh, this is rich. I heard the news long ago about the layoffs, but only just discovered this blog and the comments. Marvelous stuff, this, Microsoft choosing a military style way of getting rid of people who've been at the same "level" too long. Yeah, that's it, the military, they know how to do things right.
Yeah. You know, did it ever occur to anyone to look at how good these people were at doing their jobs rather than whether they'd been "level 58s" for a certain period of time? Crap, are you making the code better is the question.
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