Microsoft Week 1

I just finished my first week at Microsoft and was pleasantly surprised. I’ve always worked for small (< 50 employees) companies. Transitioning to a company with 90,000 is quite the change and I didn’t really know what to expect. My prior assumptions about what it would be like working for a company of this size had been tainted by shows like Office Space.

I’m happy to say that my fears were almost entirely unfounded.  There’s certainly more bureaucratic overhead than I’m used to. However, Microsoft really tries to minimize the impact it has on their employees. All the common things like direct deposit, benefit enrollment, vacation requests, etc are handled through automated web sites.  They even have a utility to help you file your TPS reports on time.

The best part is the people. They’re all intelligent, motivated people who seem to truly enjoy working with each other.

The only real thing I disliked about the week was the unavoidable ramp-up time. After 3 weeks off I’m getting restive to do some actual work. Unfortunately, I’ve spent the entire week reading documentation, specifications and training. This is all necessary and highly valuable, but I’m itching to start coding.