Entries tagged 'photography'
Microsoft employee photographers' book now available
By Gretchen Ledgard
Back in February, we shared the story of Larry Golden and the team behind the homegrown Photographers@Microsoft book, which last year raised $60K for the United Way. When we last talked to him, Larry was just kicking off the planning for Volume 3, and I was excited to see on the Photographers@Microsoft page on Facebook the newest edition is now available! Needing an afternoon walk anyway, I headed over to our company store and just picked up my copy (which I’ll probably also put in our recruiting lobby in case interviewees want to check it out.)The 300+ page collection of images taken by worldwide Microsofties includes a photo description written by the photographer and technical details so you can geek out on how each photograph was taken. And purchases made by eligible Microsoft employees can be matched by the company, with all proceeds going to the United Way Worldwide again this year.
How can you buy? If you're in the Seattle area (employee or not), swing by our company store. Hey, that's a pretty fun trip anyway. Or check it out online at http://www.photographersatmicrosoft.com/
More links!
Fan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PhotographersAtMicrosoft
Follow on Twitter: http://twitter.com/PhotogsAtMSFT
Our coverage of the 2010 book: http://jobsblog.com/blog/microsoft-photographers-bookGretchen
Microsoft photographers’ book raises over $60K for the United Way
We were absolutely enthralled when we first picked up the gorgeous 208-page Photographers@Microsoft coffee table book. So we tracked down Larry Golden, one of the driving forces behind getting the second hefty volume published, to get his take on the Microsoft photographers’ community, being published in a Library of Congress book, and the thrill of having one of his photos selected as Bing’s photo of the day.
‘Softie in question: Larry Golden
The job title: Account Manager for TV/Video Advertising
First, the book: Tell us how the Photographers @ Microsoft book come about.
Three years ago, a few Microsoft employees—Daniel Moore, Bernard Hymmen and Tanka Sunuwar to name a few—who were photography enthusiasts said, “Hey, we’ve got this idea, what if we made a book?” So they got together, started months in advance and put together a timeline and a list of specs. They started a photo selection committee with multiple judges then took the top 146 submissions from other Microsoft employees.
And they did this outside their normal jobs?
Yes, the project was done with all volunteer hours. Microsoft matches US employees $17 for every hour volunteered,
so there was probably $10,000 donated to the United Way of King County just from those hours.
This year, for Volume Two, it was even a bit more because we had more people, and it was a larger process. We raised the money for United Way Worldwide this year. Before matching, it was $30,000. After matching it was about $45,000 with about $17,000 in man-hours. So, a little over $60,000 went to the United Way from Photographers@Microsoft.The Secret of Networking: it’s a lot easier than you think
Dear JobsBlog:
I am able to network when I already have an “in” with someone. But what about networking with strangers? Do you have any pointers on how to approach contacts you don’t know?-Scared to Cold Call
Dear Scared to Cold Call:
There are many different mediums and places you can meet work contacts: conferences, LinkedIn, restaurants, you name it. I’m not going to go into those, because I think the secret to networking is the same no matter the medium.And the big secret is not really that much of a secret at all: be genuine, be polite and ASK for what you want!
Here’s a story about how I recently did some networking with great results…
Microsoft via Pakistan, Purdue & Google
‘Softie in Question: Qudsiah KhanJob title: Software Development Engineer, Windows Web Services
Tell me about the path that brought you to Microsoft.
I was born in Lahore, Pakistan. I studied Computer Science there and then came to the US in 2005 to attend grad school in computer engineering at Purdue.While completing graduate school, I interned at Google in Mountain View. I worked on the Google Toolbar team.
Did you intend to work for Google after graduation?
I enjoyed interning at Google, but I decided that I wanted to explore other bases and find something different. I wanted to go somewhere that had a lot of great projects to choose from.I found the best blend of opportunities here at Microsoft.
