tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post8302916940761898841..comments2024-03-18T12:52:48.117-07:00Comments on Mini-Microsoft: Microsoft FY11Q4 ResultsWho da'Punkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18205453956191063442noreply@blogger.comBlogger452125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-23871063521129214012014-07-18T17:27:47.830-07:002014-07-18T17:27:47.830-07:00As people from India pile in to take most of the I...As people from India pile in to take most of the IT jobs here in the US, time to look abroad, with a global view, Europe, China, or even Russia. Why not, you need no boundaries when it comes to job hunting. Just hope the Indians won't follow you. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-81068237837833692792011-10-31T09:24:10.723-07:002011-10-31T09:24:10.723-07:00Who is up for a class action suit? They forced peo...Who is up for a class action suit? They forced people into a ranking? How is that legal? If you earn your rating you should get what you deserve.<br /><br />http://www.garylawgroup.com/law/practices/classaction.html is a good start.<br /><br />This BS has to stop.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-86296793947764018302011-09-07T16:24:57.490-07:002011-09-07T16:24:57.490-07:00Alright, it's September 7th. Don't see tho...Alright, it's September 7th. Don't see those layoffs materializing. Anyone? Buehler?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-3032672041362662512011-08-30T12:38:16.568-07:002011-08-30T12:38:16.568-07:00Mr Terry Myerson (the great "reset" guy)...<i><b>Mr Terry Myerson (the great "reset" guy) even organized an iphone funeral and all in campus after phone 7 shipped [...]"</b><br /><br />Yeah, it's too bad that the corpse never turned up.</i><br /><br />Oh the corpse turned up. Just not the one that Terry expected.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-17889578993736876392011-08-30T08:47:06.976-07:002011-08-30T08:47:06.976-07:00Uh, you or your friend have not been paying attent...<i>Uh, you or your friend have not been paying attention. 1 = good; 5 = bad.</i><br /><br />True for the moment but just wait until Lisa Brummel gets back from her, uhh, vacation and starts working on her review goals for next year. Hey, she's gotta do something to justify that comp package...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-88539370880761783482011-08-29T22:21:41.863-07:002011-08-29T22:21:41.863-07:00"Beware, apparently now it's possible to ..."Beware, apparently now it's possible to get a 5 without warning! And what's worse: you can't even find out what to improve!"<br /><br />My sampathy. Maybe Microsoft should fire the entire HR division and replace it with a random(1, 5). At least everyone will feel being treated fairly!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-84730960821938581812011-08-29T22:08:05.802-07:002011-08-29T22:08:05.802-07:00I would give SB a 4.5, LB a 5.
It doesn't real...I would give SB a 4.5, LB a 5.<br />It doesn't really matter, thay "own" the company. Get it?<br />You are slaves.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-35905277344277019422011-08-29T02:39:24.051-07:002011-08-29T02:39:24.051-07:00Got a 5 without any warning or hint. No sign of ba...Got a 5 without any warning or hint. No sign of bad performance in MYR, no negative word about performance in weekly 1:1s. In fact even in review manager said I did a 'good job'?? HR says I'm no case of "Performance Management"?<br /><br />Beware, apparently now it's possible to get a 5 without warning! And what's worse: you can't even find out what to improve!<br /><br />Love to hear from others what their experience is with this.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-91952497773774297082011-08-26T12:00:55.574-07:002011-08-26T12:00:55.574-07:00Review today: expected a 1 or 2 since I exceeded a...<i>Review today: expected a 1 or 2 since I exceeded all commitments. Got a 5.<br />Reason: the curve?!<br />I thought it is not possible to get a 4 or 5 if you exceeded commitments?</i><br /><br />Welcome to the new review system, where the curve doesn't sharply peak around the middle as it used to (nearly everyone got 3's or 3.5's) but now must conform to a relatively low bell curve. Since 30% have to get 4's and 5's, of course many of those will have exceeded their commitments. In fact, if you're on a V1 team, the vast majority of people will have been killing themselves for a year or more trying to ship, and 30% of them will get hosed. (Ok, probably a few percentage points were somehow slacking in the midst of the tornado and deserved it - but 30%? No freaking way.)<br /><br />Now what? If you stay, how does this affect your motivation to do squat for the next year? I'm guessing negatively. Maybe that's the point of performance reviews for half the folks now?<br /><br />BTW, word is that HR has been directed to rewrite the description of what 4's and 5's mean since so many people who've exceeded their commitments are getting slapped with them. Yep, that'll make everyone feel better. "You got a D! That's actually *good*!"<br /><br />The 10% era was bad enough but things just took a big flying leap downhill for a big chunk of the company.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-41884032157939859672011-08-22T15:27:43.554-07:002011-08-22T15:27:43.554-07:008.22
12:15p
Despite the positive changes that occu...8.22<br />12:15p<br />Despite the positive changes that occurred when Bill Gates left Microsoft, they are used to promote wasteful software/computer purchases with their intentional incompetent operating system. <br />Protecting the data and the computer in the tretcherous world around a computer is the job of an operating system ,and despite Apple understanding this and generally getting it right Microsoft is corrupt and, much like the relationship between the automobile and petroleum industries in the 20th century and beyond Microsoft has a similar relationship with PC manufacturers to sell units in an environment which is not conducive to repetitive purchases. This is achieved through degradative performance justified with "viruses" and "spryware".<br />You are welcome, preditor motherfucker antients.<br />If...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-9293246908016425762011-08-21T13:09:58.214-07:002011-08-21T13:09:58.214-07:00"Windows 8 takes four years to do six months ..."Windows 8 takes four years to do six months of coding in soviet style bureaucracy while apple has released version after version of their stuff. Bing is losing billions. Windows Phone is dead on arrival. Azure died before arrival."<br /><br />A common pattern in the above is that msft is trying to copy success, but sucking at execution.<br /><br />W8 is copying ipad but stevesi takes 4-5x the time and effort and his bureaucracy works when you have a monopoly to protect but not against good competition. Even if w8 is comes out better than ipad, w9 will come when the category has been redefined and profits harvested by apple. <br /><br />No one can beat Google in search, period. For the first time, msft seems to get how to do online services in Bing, but its the wrong battle to fight. The energy there should be spent elsewhere, otherwise it will be like a slow death like yahoo. <br /><br />Windows Phone has two strong incumbents to take on and team is full of hubris. They seem to hate getting feedback and then get surprised when people dont buy their half baked product. how many of these issues here would have been found if the team listened http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=836373. It would be good that if they learn from HP and cut the bleeding like HP with webOS.<br /><br />Azure is trying to copy AWS but the costs are going to be a big prohibitor against lean and mean amazon. msft is not designed for the margins that aws operates under and the value added stuff is just not there to deserve a premium. <br /><br />The good thing here is that if msft goes back to its roots in engineering and shakes the laziness that comes with the big profits, all the businesses are still new and up for grabs. The bad thing is that this means cultural shift which is hard to achieve as the people in power are all used to the old ways and comfortable with that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-67046179713390364922011-08-20T22:20:22.106-07:002011-08-20T22:20:22.106-07:00Anon 12:38 - so much judgment in your rant that I ...Anon 12:38 - so much judgment in your rant that I don't even know where to start.<br /><br />First, I'm in a business role that actually attempts to turn the steaming pile of $hit that the engineering org cranks out into a revenue-generating product.<br /><br />Second, at no point in my post did I say I deserved a 1. I don't care what the number is - it's just a means to an end. And the end is my total comp. Which happened to be substantially lower than as a 62 when I had much less measurable impact to the business. Which tells me that the review system is a blunt tool that doesn't work well. That is all.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-8246643618826176552011-08-20T19:43:36.568-07:002011-08-20T19:43:36.568-07:00Re:wp7...the only people who love must only use ex...Re:wp7...the only people who love must only use exchange and zune music. My hd7 collects dust. All it does well is display the text "loading...please wait..." for every freaking app you launch... Its a joke. <br /><br />My android phone crushes it in terms of actual functinality. But hey if you like sliding blue squares around alot thne get one...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-80017831289521764542011-08-20T12:44:04.002-07:002011-08-20T12:44:04.002-07:00“
If you're a dev then there's a certain l...“<br />If you're a dev then there's a certain level of accountability that's inherent to the position. It's going to be pretty obvious if you break the build, or if your feature is completely different from the spec, or if it's causing so many bugs that it bogs down the entire team. But if you're a PM, there's basically no accountability.<br />“<br /><br />Could not have said it better, a good analogy is that the PM Job is like a weatherman while dev job is like a fighter pilot. You could be just right 1 out of 10 times if you are a PM and no one cares. You could reset your own decision and direction every few weeks and actually get credit for that by your Pm peers. But with a dev, every small mistake is magnified ten fold. You not only have to do kick ass job but also convince other devs that your job is good, which is very hard…Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-55968509577752475962011-08-20T12:38:55.565-07:002011-08-20T12:38:55.565-07:00Responding to the person who posted this
"
Re...Responding to the person who posted this<br />"<br />Reviewed this week. L63. Several years of E20s in a row. Got a 2 this time around. Total comp for the year (base, bonus, stock) ends up being less than last year, even accounting for moving some stock to base, despite a promo last year AND delivering at much higher level than last. Mini was right - this system sucks.<br />“<br /><br />With that attitude, you are lucky you even got a 2. When you move from 62 to 63, it is a whole new ball game. You are in a big pond with the big fish and competing with big boys. You are expected to have technical leadership on entire skip level team, you can’t just do your job and go home. Even l62s need to have such skills at a very high level to be even be considered for promo in some competitive groups.<br />Your assumption that just because you got an e20 in 62 means you should get also get 1 in 63 is BS. Maybe you are not even ready for the senior band and need a demotion back to 62…<br /><br />Unless you are in one of those non flattened orgs with an org chart so deep that it has five Gms or you are not in dev org but rather in Pm/test/sales/marketing or someting stupid, in which case who cares about you, everyone is a Senior or Principal in such blaoted orgs and it is pointless to work in such a group for any self respecting engineer…Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-79692002243604514802011-08-20T00:31:46.577-07:002011-08-20T00:31:46.577-07:00Reviewed this week. L63. Several years of E20s i...Reviewed this week. L63. Several years of E20s in a row. Got a 2 this time around. Total comp for the year (base, bonus, stock) ends up being less than last year, even accounting for moving some stock to base, despite a promo last year AND delivering at much higher level than last. Mini was right - this system sucks.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-83985444808915963252011-08-19T19:56:02.642-07:002011-08-19T19:56:02.642-07:00http://tanishqgoyal.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-sac-ou...http://tanishqgoyal.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-sac-out-life-at-microsoft.html<br /><br />mini is right that the company has too many people. i wont be surprised while this guy celebrates lack of work his managers are busy talking about shortage of resources on their team.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-38405013334067051622011-08-19T19:20:14.364-07:002011-08-19T19:20:14.364-07:00In this last year at Microsoft, it has become pain...In this last year at Microsoft, it has become painfully clear to me that the giant machine is just too strongly geared toward rewarding and promoting mediocrity. There is little incentive to do one's best and innovate as the rewards just never seem to come close to matching the efforts and results. <br /><br />I have a feeling the very innovative and most talented people who have the means are likely to be leaving the company in droves either bound for new companies or their own startups. Why work to death at MS making a mediocre salary when you can work to death at your own startup with the stronger potential of making several million within a few years?<br /><br />More and more I feel like staying at Microsoft is detrimental to my self-development.Anonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10942236364942532307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-32701810594481407512011-08-19T12:25:53.170-07:002011-08-19T12:25:53.170-07:00mini - you are asleep at the wheel. HP selling th...mini - you are asleep at the wheel. HP selling their PC business is a huge seismic shift in the industry and a telling comment on Microsoft's prospects writ large.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-29815995025236775232011-08-19T10:54:34.564-07:002011-08-19T10:54:34.564-07:00"Can someone clarify whether one needs to sta..."Can someone clarify whether one needs to stay till the review with manager is complete and signed off before you get the bonus ?"<br /><br />No you don't have to stay. Last year, I resigned as soon as I knew that stacking is completed. The criteria for bonus is you should be there till June 30th. And I got the bonus in end of September.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-45543744792660187362011-08-19T09:30:35.258-07:002011-08-19T09:30:35.258-07:00"To all US based ex-softies,
It’s time to f...<i>"To all US based ex-softies, <br /><br />It’s time to form an association of us all who can share thoughts and take some good advice from each other.....there has been a lot of blood letting in the past few years and much of it was not necessary.<br /><br />Can someone take the lead to form such a group, I would strongly request someone to take the lead?"</i><br /><br />There are a few ex-MSFT groups around already.<br /><br />I don't understand why you need a support group for ex-Microsoft employees... what purpose would this solve? Microsoft isn't different than any other giant company with a toxic political culture. <br /><br />Instead of creating an association of ex-Microsofties who will all just sit around and bitch about Microsoft, why not create an association of displaced tech workers with a specific agenda to network? Much more effective.<br /><br />And why don't YOU take the lead if you're so hot for it? Don't be a passive pussy. Take action for the things you want.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-81345646808182350442011-08-19T08:15:42.983-07:002011-08-19T08:15:42.983-07:00Uh, you or your friend have not been paying attent...Uh, you or your friend have not been paying attention. 1 = good; 5 = bad.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-77883400407968929532011-08-18T23:23:29.464-07:002011-08-18T23:23:29.464-07:00http://tanishqgoyal.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-sac-ou...http://tanishqgoyal.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-sac-out-life-at-microsoft.html<br /><br />I am surprised that this dude didnt get fired for posting the truth with his name on a blog. I work as a dev in redmond and can verify the same. The microsoft today is about status quo, committees and mediocrity. <br /><br />Windows 8 takes four years to do six months of coding in soviet style bureaucracy while apple has released version after version of their stuff. Bing is losing billions. Windows Phone is dead on arrival. Azure died before arrival. <br /><br />'Come to the office any time you want, check your mails, have lunch, play something, do (or pretend to do) some work, go for snacks, gossip a lott, play something, go for a walk occasionally, do some work or forget it and come home. This pretty much describes my schedule for the past four months here.'<br /><br />This describes my day if you add stupid meetings called by PM to justify their existence. <br /><br />I am working on an evening MBA program and find it more demanding than my six figure job.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-51515709581601667352011-08-18T22:51:21.169-07:002011-08-18T22:51:21.169-07:00Sounds like your objection isn't to Steven'...<i>Sounds like your objection isn't to Steven's organizational structure, but rather to the realities of a working on a project at the scale and quality bar of Windows.<br />...<br />It also means each discipline pushes on the other to keep things centered, in evenly matched triads (which aren't all of them, but on average should be,</i><br /><br />Employees are using 'scale and quality' as an excuse for bloat and lack of agility- it's true to a degree but it's added orders of magnitude more process than necessary. Look at the size of Apple vs Microsoft. Don't let the size of Windows let you off the hook- the process is slow and inefficient, fix it. I shipped the feature above to over a hundred million people in very short order- not quite Windows scale but much more impact than anything I could get done at Microsoft. <br /><br />You should not need a committee to have the right balance between features and quality. The PM/dev/test roles are too technical overall to produce balanced decisions. Drop PMs for UX designers, ditch test managers and bring more sales & marketing into the discussion at the feature level.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1942283197684312012011-08-18T20:52:06.344-07:002011-08-18T20:52:06.344-07:00@Tues, 8/16, 8:08
RE:http://tanishqgoyal.blogspot....@Tues, 8/16, 8:08<br />RE:http://tanishqgoyal.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-sac-out-life-at-microsoft.html<br /><br />I'm a Microsoft employee, and these are solely my opinions (guess who just took the Standards of Business Conduct training...)<br /><br />That post is from a 4mo new hire in STC-India (Bing). I don't know if his team is an outlier or not, but it's obvious that his projects are being horribly mismanaged (managers giving four weeks to do two week projects?). And he himself is not motivated enough to do anything beyond coasting through the job.<br /><br />From what I've seen, that's just not typical behavior for engineers in Redmond/Bellevue. I would be shocked if someone slacking to that absurd level would get above a 4/5 (on the new review scale) if he/she worked on any of the teams I've been on.<br /><br />Well I guess depending on how prevalent that culture is across the team/division, the fact that this particular dev (allegedly) does finish his deliverables could mean that he would fall in the middle of the curve.<br /><br />(Aside - the curve/quota is only enforced at a roll-up level, in the dozens or so (?) number of engineers, at least in my org. It'd be ridiculous to force small teams to fit the distribution. And it's mostly a matter of bonus/stock budget - if everybody got a 1 or 2, then how does the money get split?)<br /><br />The fact that he's a new hire though, really makes me question what kind of work he's being assigned... You're also not really supposed to be taking that much vacation in your first six months.<br /><br />Maybe that entire post is a troll? I haven't worked with too many teams in India, though I can believe it's not pure exaggeration (personal observation from some of the work I've seen come out of there).<br /><br />I AM a bit jealous of the free snacks though.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com