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Proudly Serving My Corporate Masters

Author:

piloti

Topic:

Diaries

Posted:

Feb 08, 2002

Comments:

Another interesting article of that bastion of liberalism, Salon. Proudly Serving My Corporate Masters by former Microsoft programmer, Adam Barr, is reviewed here.

Apparantly Microsoft's sucess is more down to hiring extremely able people and sucessfully evangelising its products rather than the monopilising tendencies alleged by the Lunix weenies. I can well believe that as a highly skilled MSCD, I find Microsoft's support of their developers is superb with their MSDN site being extremely well organised. I can't find this equivalent in the shareware world. My lesson from this is that you have to pay for excellence.

More diaries by piloti

	I loathe computers
	An essential fashion item
	Is brain power that good?
	Boys can never be sexually abused by women
	I thought you lot were exagerating about geeks

	Actually, (5.00 / 1) (#1)
	by tkatchev on Fri Feb 8th, 2002 at 05:38:41 AM PST

	No. Actually, the success of the Microsoft hiring strategy is in hiring students early and working them like slaves. Clueless, but clever CS students think that working for Microsoft places them in some sort of CS elite, when in actuality working for Microsoft is one of the worst places you can be stuck in as a CS graduate. Combine this with a very aggressive marketing strategy targeted at undergraduates, and you get a very effective brainwashing initiative. -- Peace and much love...

	And what's wrong with brainwashing? (5.00 / 2) (#2)
	by CommunistPartyAnimal on Fri Feb 8th, 2002 at 05:50:29 AM PST

	After all, what institution has ever been built without it?

	Typical geeks then (none / 0) (#3)
	by piloti on Fri Feb 8th, 2002 at 06:06:47 AM PST

	Good at coding, crap at detecting lies and bullshit. My hearts bleeds if they are truly that stupid.

	yea u can talk (none / 0) (#13)
	by PotatoError on Mon Feb 11th, 2002 at 12:35:28 PM PST

	That you managed to set up an email account, link to this site, submit a user account form, log into the user account and post this message just shows that YOU are a geek. <<JUMP! POGO POGO POGO BOUNCE! POGO POGO POGO>>

	bah (none / 0) (#15)
	by nathan on Mon Feb 11th, 2002 at 10:11:01 PM PST

	That's like saying I'm a motorhead because I know how to change the oil in my car. Nathan -- Li'l Sis: Yo, that's a real grey area. Even by my lax standards.

	fair enuf (none / 0) (#16)
	by PotatoError on Thu Feb 14th, 2002 at 07:27:01 PM PST

	anyone who writes about stealing IP is obviously a dunce. <<JUMP! POGO POGO POGO BOUNCE! POGO POGO POGO>>

	erm? (none / 0) (#4)
	by fzr on Fri Feb 8th, 2002 at 06:38:15 AM PST

	Microsoft is one of the worst places you can be stuck in as a CS graduate A fantastic training programme, a decent wage, job security, plenty of career opportunities and a great name on your CV. Sounds awful. How is anyone "stuck" at Microsoft? Only if they lack the courage to leave, and who's fault is that?

	You don't understand. (none / 0) (#5)
	by tkatchev on Fri Feb 8th, 2002 at 06:58:34 AM PST

	Microsoft isn't a "great name". You typically make more and get better treatement from a more low-key employer. Unless you happen in to be in a key management position at Microsoft, you don't get treated too well. -- Peace and much love...

	I've never worked for MS... (none / 0) (#6)
	by fzr on Fri Feb 8th, 2002 at 07:42:51 AM PST

	Nor do I personally know anyone who has, so I guess I can't really comment. However, even if I was right about salaries etc. I'm certainly prepared to believe you don't get as much creative input there as at other, more "low key" (smaller?) places. For me that's a reason to avoid them, but for a fresh faced CS graduate I'm not so sure. The security a name like Microsoft offers (or do they? not so sure anymore) is worth a lot these days.

	You want security? (none / 0) (#7)
	by Anonymous Reader on Fri Feb 8th, 2002 at 08:18:02 AM PST

	Get out of the USA. It's ridiculously easy to sack people en masse over there. In the socialist paradise of Europe, it takes several months and a mountain of paperwork and money to sack a large number of people.

	What do you mean? (none / 0) (#8)
	by Anonymous Reader on Fri Feb 8th, 2002 at 12:27:14 PM PST

	You are far too late in the game to be pitching jobs at startups. Are you a headhunter for small IT companies?

	Whatever. (none / 0) (#10)
	by tkatchev on Fri Feb 8th, 2002 at 01:26:17 PM PST

	Just because the economy in your local neck of the woods collapsed, doesn't mean that the rest of us should just roll over and die. Most of the world (and most of the U.S., as well) has no lack of IT startups. -- Peace and much love...

	Their tactics didn't work on me! (5.00 / 1) (#9)
	by poltroon on Fri Feb 8th, 2002 at 01:24:29 PM PST

	I guess I must be even cleverer than the typical clever CS undergraduate, because Microsoft didn't lure me in! I was in the CS program at the closest university to MS, where they'd shower free MS software on us and pay for new buildings, etc.

	You did not... (none / 0) (#12)
	by elenchos on Mon Feb 11th, 2002 at 11:42:47 AM PST

	...go to Cascade Bible College (note what the purple zone represents). Liar. I do, I do, I do --Bikini Kill

	Yup, (5.00 / 1) (#14)
	by poltroon on Mon Feb 11th, 2002 at 05:21:49 PM PST

	You've proven I'm a liar... So, you'll never know where I went to college! Maybe I've been lying all along. Mabye I did study bibles.

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