tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post2378588966209896743..comments2024-03-18T12:52:48.117-07:00Comments on Mini-Microsoft: Mini, a Devil, and Fine WhineWho da'Punkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18205453956191063442noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-4173739667519601082007-04-23T17:14:00.000-07:002007-04-23T17:14:00.000-07:00"What's your little first rule of being an effecti..."What's your little first rule of being an effective manager?"<BR/><BR/>"If the team has to suck-it up and eat a shit-sandwich to get the job done, I take the first and biggest bite."<BR/><BR/><BR/>Thank you for this.<BR/><BR/>If more managers just followed that one little rule, this company would be a better place to work. My manager left at 3 today, and didn't come in at all on Friday. While I empathize that people are busy, enough is enough. <BR/><BR/>I have been in the trenches getting dinner with the team every night, and I received the worst review of my life because I didn't "shine" enough. Maybe if more folks followed your example, we'd have a happier work place.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-13959801028040235022007-04-09T21:09:00.000-07:002007-04-09T21:09:00.000-07:00Okay, I'm probably going to "out" myself here, but...<I>Okay, I'm probably going to "out" myself here, but I'm one of the biggest trolls on the "InsideMS" blogs. Why? Because it makes me physically ill to read comments that are either rah-rah Kool Aid posts or are so insipidly stupid as to make me ashamed to work with people so dense.</I><BR/><BR/>Holy crap, I thought I was the only person on InsideMS that did that. If I had any idea who you were I'd shake your hand.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-55168597187308845592007-04-07T21:31:00.000-07:002007-04-07T21:31:00.000-07:00Here's my rant. Career compass is a complete waste...Here's my rant. Career compass is a complete waste of time. I found the competency definitions unbearingly ambiguous. As a result most of my mid-year discussion (about 90%) was spent arguing of what the terms actually mean, while about 10% was spent on actual growth plans. The only good thing that came out of the discussion was my team realized just how far out of synch their day to day roles were with the the company definition. I certainly can't say that that helped our morale.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-68284593609516251122007-04-07T14:18:00.000-07:002007-04-07T14:18:00.000-07:00But it's also true that the product teams themselv...<I>But it's also true that the product teams themselves generally make zero commitment to documentation. If you want great documentation, be an active part of the documentation process and make it part of your product group's goals. Or STFU. It's that simple.</I><BR/><BR/>How true. When I was doing dev. work for Microsoft I used to write the documentation in rough form, hand it off to my UA writer, they'd massage it into a more professional format, I'd review their work and fix any technical errors introduced and we'd go back and forth until we had it right.<BR/><BR/>The developer understands their component better than anyone else and it should be their responsibility to see that it's properly documented.<BR/><BR/>I think Microsoft's management doesn't believe in this kind of "end to end" work on the part of its developers. There's a lack of ownership by development teams and a lack of pride in the finished product. It's sad to see but the "me me me" atmosphere at the company places more importance on advancing your career than on delivering quality products.<BR/><BR/>Also, with respect to documentation, I believe that the language barrier between the foreign, barely speak English, development staff and the UA writers gets in the way of the UA people understanding the product well enough to write good documentation. It's the price we're paying for that cheap immigrant labor.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-79656516964044804512007-04-03T08:42:00.000-07:002007-04-03T08:42:00.000-07:00"Windows documentation sucks, has sucked, and alwa..."Windows documentation sucks, has sucked, and always will suck. Our documentation is pathetic."<BR/><BR/>Yes, it's true. The documentation orgs have some of the worst politics in the company, some of the least capable people, and a management structure that's only good at getting in the way of and stepping all over the few people in those orgs who have any real talent. No surprise at all that those orgs are so disfunctional and produce such abysmal results. But it's also true that the product teams themselves generally make zero commitment to documentation. If you want great documentation, be an active part of the documentation process and make it part of your product group's goals. Or STFU. It's that simple.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-67297463561289625652007-04-03T05:39:00.000-07:002007-04-03T05:39:00.000-07:00>There's nothing wrong with expecting to be well-c...><I>There's nothing wrong with expecting to be well-compensated for an original idea that nets the company big bucks.</I><BR/><BR/>I'm really surprised by all you folks who want to have your cake and eat it too. If you have an original idea that is worth millions then go found a startup. Seriously, who expects to join an established Fortune 500 company with over 70,000 employees and expects to become a millionairre? <BR/><BR/>It's not like college hires joining GE, Home Depot or the Ford Motor Company expect to become millionairres after working there for a few years. Why do Microsoft employees think they are any different?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-65718393929245997002007-04-02T17:14:00.000-07:002007-04-02T17:14:00.000-07:00IF you whiners had been born 10 years earlier, or ...<I> IF you whiners had been born 10 years earlier, or joined Microsoft when it was a small, $600m company like we did, you might be stressing about your new yacht like us. </I><BR/><BR/>So kids, the moral of this story is: Look elsewhere if you'd like to create something new and be well-rewarded for it. You missed the boat.<BR/><BR/>There's nothing wrong with expecting to be well-compensated for an original idea that nets the company big bucks. I'd like to point out that at some places, like oh say, *cough*oogle you still have a chance for being rewarded for doing something great even though the general lottery has passed (via the Founder Awards system). At MS, well, just work hard and cross your fingers and hope you have a chance to reach partner....someday.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-67998793277532432092007-04-02T11:59:00.000-07:002007-04-02T11:59:00.000-07:00Okay, I'm probably going to "out" myself here, but...Okay, I'm probably going to "out" myself here, but I'm one of the biggest trolls on the "InsideMS" blogs. Why? Because it makes me physically ill to read comments that are either rah-rah Kool Aid posts or are so insipidly stupid as to make me ashamed to work with people so dense.<BR/><BR/>As for Dawn-Marie, well, Dawn-Marie was good attrition. I was on Dawn-Marie's interview loop when she was first hired at MS all those years ago and I gave her a solid "NO HIRE". Her constant "I'm a VICTIM!" comments were pathetic. She's the archtypal example of someone barely performing who chooses to play the victim card rather than step up and take a hard critical look at her career. She was a programmer/writer. Windows documentation sucks, has sucked, and always will suck. Our documentation is pathetic, and we have an army of Dawn-Maries to thank for it. <BR/><BR/>The fact that she was able to scrape out an existence "stubbing out reference pages" is a testament to the ills plaguing Microsoft right now.<BR/><BR/>Revolution starts from within kids.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-87121769527473719782007-04-01T21:55:00.000-07:002007-04-01T21:55:00.000-07:00I had the best MYCD this year in my career at micr...I had the best MYCD this year in my career at microsoft. The career compass tool seemed so painful and elaborate my manager skipped it entirely<BR/><BR/>I work in a product group, and looks like the teams that spend less time on things like career discussion, commitment setting and career compass seem to be the happiest employees. in fact the first reaction to saying that mid year review deadline is approaching makes managers and employees both cringe. I would much rather be writing code than commitments, and be discussing the design rather than abstract concepts full of generalization.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-60308843312703570162007-04-01T21:18:00.000-07:002007-04-01T21:18:00.000-07:00People in the 90s worked harder and sacrificed the...<I>People in the 90s worked harder and sacrificed their weeks/weekends to make the company what it is.</I><BR/><BR/>Correct! When several of us came to Microsoft from DEC in 1988 we received options for ~10k - 15k shares @ ~$40. The stock was flat for over a year. Didn't matter to us. We were not at Microsoft to become wealthy. We came to Microsoft to build an operating system.<BR/><BR/>We came in an built a system from scratch. We spent countless nights, weekends, summers, etc. building the system, iterating through NT 3.1, 3.5, 3.51, 4.0, Win2k, XP, etc.<BR/><BR/>We won the lottery. Thats all that happened. We didn't come to Microsoft to get rich, BUT by sheer luck, thats what happened. Thats not what drove us though. What drove us was building the system.<BR/><BR/>I'm sorry that you resent us for building the system and being in the right place at the right time. Remember though, it was just plain dumb luck on our part. It was time for a new system and we were there to build it. Our friends over at Novell and Sun weren't as lucky as us.<BR/><BR/>So yeah. We became partners. Big deal. You think we asked for this treatment? Nope. Some dork in HR invented that program. We were just L14's and L15's. We joined as L12's and L13's and got promoted along the way...<BR/><BR/>Remember, Jvert and Davidtr joined us fresh out of college. They were great engineers, BUT like most of you whiners were new to Microsoft. They just lucked out and ended up in our team, produced quality code, and gained the respect of davec, markl, loup, stevewo, darrylh, etc. As a result, they were rewarded for their efforts, AND they continued to produce and they put in 15 years here. BUT, all that really happened is that through sheer dumb luck, their timing was good, the joined during a period of explosive growth, and they too, "won the lottery".<BR/><BR/>IF you whiners had been born 10 years earlier, or joined Microsoft when it was a small, $600m company like we did, you might be stressing about your new yacht like us. <BR/><BR/>Remember though. We just got lucky. The same thing might happen to you, BUT I can garuntee that if all you worry about is $$'s, you wont ever see them. You need to jump into something that excites you, stick with it, kick some ass, AND if you are VERY VERY lucky, you might win the lottery. I know it can happen. It happened to me once already at Microsoft, and once again post ms. They key is to chase what excites you, NOT to chase the $$'s...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-16063489865634201432007-04-01T13:28:00.000-07:002007-04-01T13:28:00.000-07:00>> I have sacrified my weeks and weekends for >> a...>> I have sacrified my weeks and weekends for <BR/>>> a year and a half, for the good of my project.<BR/><BR/>You're either a recent hire, or you're not very smart. You can't do this for months on end. You will burn out and hate life after a few months. Honestly, I think extreme overtimers should be punished at review time, not rewarded. Come to work, put in your honest 8 to 9 hours that you're paid for, go home. Lather, rinse, repeat for 10 to 15 years, move on. That's what Microsoft wants from you these days. When there's crunch time, it's OK to pull all nighters, but don't do it for more than a week, and get additional vacation from your management in return. They'll be delighted to give you a couple of days off if you help meet the deadline.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-71271918086407010792007-04-01T09:37:00.000-07:002007-04-01T09:37:00.000-07:00Mini - This doesn't meet your comment bar, but I w...Mini - This doesn't meet your comment bar, but I was challenged to point out the lies<BR/>in the first paragraph of that article. My comments are not specifically about the DRM<BR/>topic, but about the article itself.<BR/><BR/><I>Windows Vista includes an array of "features" that you don't want.</I><BR/><BR/>Lie<BR/><BR/><I>These features will make your computer less reliable and less secure.</I><BR/><BR/>Lie + FUD<BR/><BR/><I>They'll make your computer less stable and run slower.</I><BR/><BR/>Lie + FUD<BR/><BR/>"They will cause technical support problems."<BR/><BR/>Just a guess, but it can be said about any feature added to any product ever created. So it's FUD.<BR/><BR/>"They may even require you to upgrade some of your peripheral hardware and existing software."<BR/><BR/>Unless he goes into more specific detail in the article, this is just FUD.<BR/><BR/>"And these features won't do anything useful."<BR/><BR/>Lie<BR/><BR/>"In fact, they're working against you."<BR/><BR/>Lie + FUD<BR/><BR/>"They're digital rights management (DRM) features built into Vista at the behest of the entertainment industry."<BR/><BR/>Hey, finally an actual fact!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-6077364431006087992007-04-01T09:34:00.000-07:002007-04-01T09:34:00.000-07:003. I challenge you to prove me wrong.You want some...<I>3. I challenge you to prove me wrong.</I><BR/><BR/>You want someone to prove to you that a secret conspiracy doesn't exist?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-87841587264620661922007-04-01T09:33:00.000-07:002007-04-01T09:33:00.000-07:00"This week is the first week in 2007 that I have p..."This week is the first week in 2007 that I have put in less than 75 hours. My longest weeks this calendar year have involved in excess of 100 hours in building **."<BR/><BR/>Any project that has people working 14 hour days 7 days a week has got to be complete shit. People's productivity goes down significantly after 60 hours.<BR/><BR/>Let me guess what you're working on...live search?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-32263252743485698572007-03-31T23:55:00.000-07:002007-03-31T23:55:00.000-07:00> Get real. People in the 90s worked harder and sa...> Get real. People in the 90s worked harder and sacrificed their weeks/weekends to make the company what it is.<BR/><BR/>Speak for yourself.<BR/><BR/>This week is the first week in 2007 that I have put in less than 75 hours. My longest weeks this calendar year have involved in excess of 100 hours in building **.<BR/><BR/>I have sacrified my weeks and weekends for a year and a half, for the good of my project.<BR/><BR/>Am I getting rewarded, stock-wise? Yes, noticeably more than the average SDE. Commensurate with the hourly wage I'd make as a 40-hour dude, no. And anywhere near the reward level seen in the 1990's for similar effort? No chance.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-62607638435795269322007-03-31T11:50:00.000-07:002007-03-31T11:50:00.000-07:00> Get real. People in the 90s worked harder and sa...> Get real. People in the 90s worked harder and sacrificed their weeks/weekends to make the company what it is. They reaped the rewards of their work.<BR/><BR/>They were motivated to do so. Nowadays, even if we want to have people work on weekends, we can't convince them their work is worth enough to the company and senior management.<BR/><BR/>Work smart then hard. If there's nothing smart about working, why work hard?<BR/><BR/>Didn't someone complain years ago of the number of cars in parking lots in the evenings? We're all geeks here. I'd love to pour my soul in smart work. That would be dumb. With the processes and politics, I'd be wasting my creative energy. Instead I am one with the machine, doing the little that's expected of me in 25 hours a week and still get great reviews as a Senior SDE.<BR/><BR/>Looking ahead, it doesn't seem it'll get better. CareerCompass made clear what I have to work on: Scope and Influence competency #3 (for engineers) specifically requires demonstrating a control of chains of influence. As an I/C I must play political games to further my project's technical needs.<BR/><BR/>Here's the "Tao of Linden", makers of Second Life.<BR/><BR/>http://lindenlab.com/employment/tao<BR/><BR/>> No Politics!<BR/><BR/>> Never act to advance your own interests or someone else's interests at the expense of the interests of the company. This is the one principle, outside of violations of law, for which violation will likely result in immediate termination.<BR/><BR/>Would I myself be terminated if we applied this rule? Maybe I'd sleep better.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-42279117077791415352007-03-31T11:23:00.000-07:002007-03-31T11:23:00.000-07:00"The problem is that we don't seem to have ANYONE ..."The problem is that we don't seem to have ANYONE with any special, unique spark of insight at the partner level."<BR/><BR/>Beg to differ. I think we have plenty of special people at partner level with sparks of insights. We got the best of our best (and we only hire the best, right?) that still wanted to work for us.<BR/><BR/>Sadly, they mostly have no communication skills, leadership skills, people management skills and business skills.<BR/><BR/>But they're the best coders and architects at MSFT.<BR/><BR/>Now if only we held them accountable for "communication skills, leadership skills, people management skills and business skills", maybe they'd wake up, work on these and become useful to the masses at the bottom. Or make room for those looking for a challenging career path.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-64269544152773528212007-03-30T20:51:00.000-07:002007-03-30T20:51:00.000-07:00I've been taking the MS poll for years now....and ...I've been taking the MS poll for years now....and I *don't* mean the survey.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-71000566872377313832007-03-30T18:56:00.000-07:002007-03-30T18:56:00.000-07:00> The people who got rich at MSFT in the 90s were...> The people who got rich at MSFT in the 90s were not better than the rest of us, they just got in on the scam earlier.<BR/><BR/>Get real. People in the 90s worked harder and sacrificed their weeks/weekends to make the company what it is. They reaped the rewards of their work.<BR/><BR/>The work of the 90s allows the employees and partners to milk the cash cow now without doing anything.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-68080747462947166622007-03-30T12:58:00.000-07:002007-03-30T12:58:00.000-07:00What bugs me the most is the way people seem to re...<I>What bugs me the most is the way people seem to resent partnership as if they themselves are entitled to the lofty rewards just because they work hard, or code better than a peer.</I><BR/><BR/>No, that's not the problem at all. If our partners were like Steve Jobs, I don't think anybody would have a problem paying them 10 times what they make now. Jobs may be a dishonest pompous a**hole but he clearly has special insight into the market and knows how to execute--his presence at Apple brings in billions.<BR/><BR/>The problem is that we don't seem to have ANYONE with any special, unique spark of insight at the partner level. "J" is supposedly our Jobs-type but his big ideas were to burn through billions aping the PlayStation and iPod. You can get this level of strategy and insight from any level 59 at the company, so why is "J" making the big bucks?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-6475913960851504812007-03-30T07:10:00.000-07:002007-03-30T07:10:00.000-07:00>No, keep demanding accountability from the partne...>No, keep demanding accountability from the partners; I hope that someone is rewarding them on their merits in some way, and defrocking them when necessary.<BR/><BR/>There is no accountability at partner level. Partnership is for life.<BR/><BR/>If you want to become a partner, attach yourself to a new group being formed. Make sure you report to the top honcho not some sucker down in the chain. VP will promote you to be the partner to use up his quota for partners. Then enjoy million dollars a year for life.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-61293501859331136702007-03-30T01:30:00.000-07:002007-03-30T01:30:00.000-07:00If you really want to stick it to HR - stop postin...If you really want to stick it to HR - stop posting on InsideMS. As was mentioned - HR is pissed that their efforts to draw people from mini is a failure. We were all excited when InsideMS was first created. Finally - a chance to have a forum where we can say what bothers us and actually be listened to! Things are going to change!<BR/><BR/>Yet, the post LisaB made that told us to stop complaining about compensation ended that dream. Now she just talks about whatever bs SHE wants to talk about. Brilliant. <BR/><BR/>While there is sooo much I hate about MS there is still a little bit that gets me out of bed in the morning wanting to drive across the 520 bridge. Sadly - I'm sure that will eventually go away and I'll be force out, or worse, sent off to a team that ships crap - yeah SpotWatch! I'm talking about you!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-42472909031416259042007-03-29T21:47:00.000-07:002007-03-29T21:47:00.000-07:00What's a KIM? Acronym? What makes them so good at ...<I>What's a KIM? Acronym? What makes them so good at what they do?</I><BR/><BR/>Welcome to the MiniMSFT blog, I'd suggest starting with this post from the Archive and then some of the more recent ones: http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2006/11/no-so-limited-kim.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-86771441707635784042007-03-29T20:30:00.000-07:002007-03-29T20:30:00.000-07:00I've grown increasingly weary of all these slams o...I've grown increasingly weary of all these slams on the partners. I don't deny that many of them are incompetent, corrupt, ill-mannered, and unhygienic, but the concept of partnership itself doesn't bother me one bit. The demands on people at that level are extraordinary; if you think not, then you wouldn't be screaming so loud about their failures. <BR/><BR/>I was not a dev, so it was rather convenient that I didn't want to be a partner; it wasn't going to happen. <BR/><BR/>What bugs me the most is the way people seem to resent partnership as if they themselves are entitled to the lofty rewards just because they work hard, or code better than a peer. I agree that there's a problem with incentivizing partners on stock rewards at a time when they are meaningless for the rest of us, but the idea that there are people who have, by dint of their talent, vision, and accomplishment, are rewarded disproportionately to a disgruntled code monkey is not inherently wrong. <BR/><BR/>The people who got rich at MSFT in the 90s were not better than the rest of us, they just got in on the scam earlier. In fact, we're earning the E that their P (as in P/E) was speculating upon back then. Too bad infinite growth is impossible. <BR/><BR/>No, keep demanding accountability from the partners; I hope that someone is rewarding them on their merits in some way, and defrocking them when necessary. But avoid thinking two things; first, that becoming a partner is something you get by wanting it bad enough. (I cracked up when the college hire asked how you become a partner.) You earn it through work, vision, and imagination that you either have or you don't. Second, just because you write better code than someone else doesn't mean you have the business sense, the political acumen, or the intestinal fortitude that these positions require. <BR/><BR/>Finally, can someone tell me the inside scoop on Satya Nadella's transfer? I've heard very little good about him, and he didn't seem to have a strong execution record. Maybe this is too far down the food chain, but does this mean ultimately that someone is going to stop Rajat Taneja from throwing shareholder money away?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-47559037077531530402007-03-29T19:40:00.000-07:002007-03-29T19:40:00.000-07:00Quick question: What's a KIM? Acronym? What makes ...Quick question: <BR/><BR/>What's a KIM? Acronym? What makes them so good at what they do?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com