Best Comments Heard at Microsoft's “Meet the Company" Presentations on College Campuses this Year
As you loyal readers know I am pretty open to constructive criticism about Microsoft, and there is no finer place on earth to find people who ask the “tough” questions than in a Meet the Company Presentation on a college campus. College students are my favorite - which is why I recruit them. They are honest, bold, sometimes misinformed, and sometimes they hit the nail right on the head.
In my school set we have visited 20 schools already this year, and without a doubt the best comments and questions come from these presentations. A lot of times, when I'm at a school and the crowd seems a bit timid, I ask everyone to tell me their favorite Microsoft rumor, “horror” story, or myth they’ve heard. Then I spend the next 20 minutes trying to answer them to the best of my ability. Most times, I don’t even need to ask because the students bring them up on their own.
I wanted to share some of my favorites that I have heard/been told/seen at a presentation. Maybe it’s something you’ve been thinking- or maybe you were the one who asked it!
MY FAVORITE SEVEN THINGS SAID/ASKED/SEEN DURING MS PRESENTATIONS THUS FAR (school names withheld, to protect the identity of the innocent):
7. “During an interview my friend said he met with 10 people, and they each asked him the same question over and over just using different verbiage--- the same question. Is that true?” Typically, our interviewers ask a variety of questions.
6. A group of “protestors” showed up, wearing Linux t-shirts and holding stuffed penguins. I love that!
5. “I heard that Seattle has the highest suicide rate in the country… do you think that has anything to do with Microsoft being headquartered there?” Ouch.
4. “Okay, I hate using computers—what other type of jobs would you recommend for me at Microsoft?” You might be out of luck.
3. “Are people at Microsoft allowed to own or use on campus I-Pods or Macs? I heard that managers take them away if you are found to have one?” Um, no, that doesn't happen.
2. “I heard that Google has more users from the Redmond, WA area than anywhere else in the country, and that the internal servers now have to block it from Microsoft users due to the fact that all employees use Google.” That’s quite the conspiracy theory!
1. "Does Microsoft come up with any original ideas? It just seems as though you copy things everyone else does but just make a lamer version.” That was my favorite.
Do you have a pressing question you wanna ask? A horror story or myth I can put to rest? Please let me know. I’m ready for it.
- Janelle
12 Comments
James said:
7 - sounds like an urban legend; I prefer the one (from my own old university) in which the professor peered over his newspaper at the candidate, said "surprise me" and resumed reading. The candidate thought for a moment, then lit the newspaper.
6 - back when a certain person had just donated a nice shiny new computing building, we were asked for suggested names. One suggestion involved inserting the word 'Memorial' in the middle of the final name, 'Gates Building'; a slightly more tactful alternative was to name it the 'Torvalds Building'. It always felt slightly odd booting up Linux in there...
5 - That would be the weather, surely? ;-)
4 - Well, there are several good restaurants on campus, shuttle buses to be driven, Building 19's latte cart probably doesn't operate itself...
3 - Hm, confiscating Macs when found. That would work well in the MacBU, not to mention the Xbox 360 devkits (which were Mac G5s, since that uses the same type of CPU)...
2 - Well, it's more popular than the Live Search people would like, but...
1 - It does sometimes look a bit like that - but then, however big a company may get, there will still be more innovation going on outside than inside. Arguably, Linux and Mac OS don't innovate terribly much either
Hatem said:
1. "Does Microsoft come up with any original ideas?"
Rarely! Microsoft is expert in catching up with the changes around it, but it rarely is the one who innovate.
Albert said:
Hello everyone!
I'm a newbie here, so bare with me. So, I'm a senior in high school and very, very interested in working at Microsoft after attending college. I've been searching around for information about paths people have taken to end up working there and miraculously I seem to have found the answer: this blog. I hope to be a very active reader in hopes of further pursuing my goal of becoming a Microsoftie and giving my part in fulfilling the "Computer on every desk and on every home" dream.
Chakkaradeep said:
When I started reading this topic, I thought Janelle would write more, but I was put down by seeing only 7 , lol. Anyway, nice one :)
said:
It's interesting to here both sides.
Side A. Microsoft big evil conglomerate that stifles creativity.
Side B. I've met Microsoft guys, and they are the complete opposite of stifled. They're encouraged to be creative and outspoken. On the Canadian It Professionals site there were even links pointing out innovation in Linux (including one with a pure OpenSource solution one company implemented)
Sure it sparks debate, but what creative process doesn't?
All in all a lot of what you'll hear is just pure speculation and probably a bit of urban legend.
Except for the fact that Mr. Gates probably has a gold plated laptop. That of course naturally is probably fact. (NOT!)
Sean
Jane said:
I have a question.
I notice that almost every product that Microsoft launches this few years has the word "server" attached to it e.g. SQL Server, Forms Server, SharePoint Server, BizTalk Server, PerformancePoint Server etc.
Hm.... is that a coincidence :P ?
said:
I know... Let's try a new one.
Microsoft Waiter. Nah. Just not the same "sound"...
James said:
Jane: Just a mistake, I think - looking at recent years, I see Windows Vista, Office, OneCare, Windows Defender, Windows Live, Live Search, Visual Studio - plenty of non-server names and products!
I think you have a point that there's more emphasis on server products than before, perhaps because in recent years MS has finally 'found its feet' with a server operating system (OK, I did install Windows NT 3.51 Server for my high school, but at the time it was a long way behind Netware and Linux: not even quota support!) - giving it a sensible platform to develop on for other server applications. Still a long way from 'almost every product' being a server one, though!
said:
Actually I've gone to quite a few of the seminars and the family is huge!
There's a few.
Server
Office
Windows
Hardware
Xbox
And each one splits from there too. I wonder if somebody from Microsoft could post the full product list. It is both cool and scary to realize how wide the spectrum really is!
Did you know they have a product called Biztalk that will interface with just about any database and interconnect them all together? DB/2 chatting with SQL, MYSQL and allowing them all to interconnect.
MOM listens to problems on the network.
SMS (I think's that still there) let's you keep track of all that inventory of computers so you can tell Suzy is running an old Pentium 1 in the back office and that's why she whines all the time.
Not a precise description mind you, but could somebody at Microsoft post the full list or provide a link? It might be an eye opener for others. It was for me. I just kept thinking "Server Exchange SQL Windows Xbox"... DONE.
Boy was I wrong!
Chakkaradeep said:
You should be able to get the whole product list here - <a rel="nofollow" target="_new" href="http://www.microsoft.com/products">http://www.microsoft.com/products</a> :)
said:
Ahhh yer just showin' off... :)
Karthik said:
“Are people at Microsoft allowed to own or use on campus I-Pods or Macs? I heard that managers take them away if you are found to have one?”
LOL! What kind of a question is that!
Reading the post I was actually wondering why I haven't come across any of these questions. Maybe my love for Microsoft deafened my ears from these questions?!