Freedo !: Career Path

Find a good place and stay or Do what you want?

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:21:07 GMT

早前看过一个文章，说有个外教，问中国的学生，人生的理想是什么，很多人答：
Find a good place and stay!

他觉得不可理解，我觉得挺好理解，眼前可以浮现青山绿水，隐居山林，携爱侣种菜浇水的生活。
他的想法是，人生是运动的，应该从一个地方到另一个地方去，不停地寻找 fun, 呆在一个地方会多没意思啊。

话题拉回到我的老本行，说到工作的理想。
大致地可以分两种：
1.找到一个梦中理想的公司，然后安定下来，不要再跳来跳去了。 Find a good place and stay!
2.不管怎样，坚持自己的理想，做自己喜欢做的。 Do what you want!

清明节的时候去徐家汇买东西，结果去早了，商场没开门。顺便就到港汇Windows Live 办公室喝杯热饮，第一次光顾微软没有人的时候的办公室。
桌子上的小装饰灯开着，鱼缸还在滴水，白板上的讨论清晰可辩，卸掉机箱的电脑仍然在运行着，指示灯一闪一闪。在过道上踱步，路过很多仰名字的人的office,Fibert 喜欢古董车和water skii, 桌子上就放着一辆，有人喜欢板球，球鞋和球具就扔在office里。
一切都好象人刚刚走开。有一种兴奋的感觉，就是我真的，在这里？

当初微软给我 offer 的时候，我也有过犹疑，在Flextronics的时候我是manager, 在微软我是IC.
然后问自己，不考虑别的，我心里还有冲动吗？答案是是的，所以就加入了。

如果要说说两家公司最大的不同，在Flextronics我是 lucky, 写个邮件给GM 说想做别的领域，然后就做上了 PM. 这和个人能力有关系，但更多的成份是 lucky, 因为不是每个人都可以有这种机会。

在微软是感觉到有一个庞大的体系，培养和发掘每个人的潜力。
在微软一年有两次 review 的机会，在年中的叫 MYCD, Midyear Career Discussion, MYCD 是个很重要的工作，每个员工包括他的上级需要去完成的。其中包括对个人职业目标的设定，回顾，员工可以选择自己的 career path, technical 和 management, 每一个方向上都有哪些职级，哪些能力方面的要求，从 engineer 到 GM 都有一目了然的说明。
除了这个，需要完成对自己所在的工作中需要的和个人希望发展的能力的计划，对于每一项能力，比如：
HR -> Staffing -> System thinking, 会有一个 guideline, 告诉你这一项能力的衡量标准有哪些，在公司内部有哪些资源，途径你可以用来发展这一能力：比如说，on job shadow; 你可以选择去 observe 他人的工作来提高， training, 列出现有的培训课程， MS Library, 微软的图书馆是 7*24 小时开放的; 还有很重要，微软内部有一个 mentor 网站，你可以选择去 mentor 别人或者找另人当 mentor 来提高自己。

通过 MYCD 的机会，我参加了 SQL Server BI team正在进行的一个项目，可以从各个方面完整地观察微软的研发是怎样的流程，而且 Group Manager 和我作了重要沟通，让我充分地理解项目的背景，范围，有和 Redmond 沟通的会议，哪怕是纯技术上的，也会叫上我一起参加。感觉非常振奋。

另外一个让我很意外的 case 是，我在自己的职业发展计划里面说了希望能够更多地了解微软的技术领域，和HR manager 说了以后，她表示理解，觉得在公司内部就是要“头顶星空，脚踏大地”。我于是上了内部的 mentor 网站，注册了自己的profile，列明了自己的要求，表明了自己想要找一位资深的软件开发人员当我的老师。注册完以后收到了通知，一是参加 mentor 要培训，二是mentor 的阶段至少要为期一年，每个月至少要保证2到4个小时和mentor保持沟通和交流，并且要先接收怎么样利用好 mentorship program 的培训。

然后我收到了另一个邮件通知是，已经有 available 的mentors可以让我去挑选了。看到那些 profile 确实是有点眼花缭乱的感觉，最后硬着头皮点了一位位于 Mountain View的 Dev Lead, c++/c; Java; Profile,20年的软件研发工程经验，一点关于她的个人的小介绍：

"I have a fairly balanced work/home life. I enjoy playing with my grandkids; especially video games, pokemon and yu-gi-oh. I'm a videophile, bibliophile and a connosieur of laughter. " :)

根据微软内部的mentorship program 的经验，当人们处于不同的地域，时区，换句话说：跨国界的mentorship效果会更好。但是双方也是双向选择。给我big suprise的是，对方接受了，并且认真地和我讨论关于 mentorship 的plan, 说对她也是一个学习的过程。

我说:
It's going to be an interesting process that a SDE Lead teaching HR on how to coding, I joined MS for the dream of could hang around with geeks and technical guys.
她说：
Well then you must be in heaven

是的，我感觉确实象是在天堂。

中国有句古话说：朝闻道，夕可死也。只要今天能让我在这儿coding, 不在乎明天没有饭吃，哈哈。

----------------
我的同事也很 seriously地问我说：有没有计划想在微软内部做真正的coding工作，我说没有，内部的人实在太强了。我更愿意把它作为我的兴趣， enjoy it.

在我为 SQL team 做招聘的过程中，也有遇到候选人拒绝微软的。因为面试仅仅能考察的是候选人的很小的一方面，技术和能力，但是仅有这两者是不够的。对于没有接受微软邀请的人，我心理从来没有感到过遗憾。因为我相信，如果微软是一个给任何人offer,任何人都会来的公司，我一定不会在这儿。

当然，也没有一个公司是完美的。有很多人喜欢拿微软和 google, 和一些startup，或者是要IPO的小公司比，从完善的培养人的体系的角度，内部产品线以及给人的机会的丰富程序，我认为是很少有哪家公司能比拟的。世界上有哪家公司是可以提供数以万计的软件高手可以给你做mentor的？

再回到开头所说的，关于职业的两种理想，Find a good place and stay! 你可能会失望，公司没有完美的，也不是为你一个人开的。 Do what you want! 不计前提的追求，你可能会窘迫，毕竟你还要每月交房租水电煤费或者还房贷。

那么，为什么不是： Fine a good place and do what you want?

Simple questions about change your job

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:19:00 GMT

关于换工作的几个基本问题：

1.什么时候想换工作？
很多人的回答，感觉到每天的事情很 routing, 没有挑战，缺少上升的空间的时候。

　　我的理解：当你真正切身感觉到发展受限的时候，是不是已经太晚了。
　　一方面，从技术层面已经生锈了；另一方面，个人已经心里害怕改变了。

2.想换工作以后下一步做什么？
很多人的回答，找工作，找自己心仪的公司。

我的理解：你可能不会顺利。机会会向你敞开，但你未必已经准备好了。因为新公司不会因为你在之前一家公司的业绩而录取你，他们会看你的技能是否能很好地迁移以及身上长远的Potential.

3.很多人问自己：我有耀人的业绩，广博的经验以及对软件行的深刻认识，为什么没有被录用？

　　我的理解：
　　一，找一个你自己认为擅长的领域，以局外人的角度不停地challenge自己难度逐渐加深的问题，看自己是否能挺到第十个问题。很多人只是感觉良好，但是深度肤浅。
　　二，翻开大学里的算法书，看看里面还有多少题会解。是的，这不是你的错，日常coding　中已经脱离它太久了，但是让自己的脑子生锈，这是你的错。

　　两个维度来衡量微软人：专业深度和思维灵活度。

　　人生需要提前布局。

Freedo's web: www.up9rade.com

To be or not to be a lead?

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:09:15 GMT

这是一个很有生命力的话题 :)

看了我以前写的博客，有人理解成为我对于 Lead　不怎么感冒，这完全是一种误解。
比如说，有的候选人在面试的时候坚持要做 Lead，我们完全不会因为这个而对他有不好的印象。
微软的文化之一是, self critical, 一个人要不断地反省自己，发掘自身的长处，所以如果觉得你有领导者的潜质与优秀品质，为什么不呢？

我说的对一个人追求 Lead 的态度是：　需要有正确的 motivation.
为什么想要来应聘 Lead 的职位？
1. 因为资历，工作的年限很长，以前就是管人的。　错，在这儿不看资历。
2. 因为钱多。　　错，在微软不是以 title 划分薪资。
3. 因为可以管人。　错, 在微软研发中心，没有纯粹的 people manager的职位，写代码有可能需要是日常工作的一部分。
4. ...

正确的 motivation 是:
对团队有 commitment; 对产品有 creative innovation; 对客户和技术有 passion.

你希望 career track 是在技术和管理结合的道路上是因为：
1. 能帮助团队成长，不论是在技术能力层面还是在处事经验上面，你都能给他们以裨益，而且是帮助他们超越于你。 :) 微软选聘人的标准之一是，需要能够在每够人身人看到成长为 principal.
2. 之前的研究以及实战经验帮助你在技术领域能够到达这样的高度，使得你能带领产品和技术向前突破。
3. 对技术和客户抱有热情：举个例子，你不是在 Vista 这个部门，但是听到身边朋友议论它的不足，你会认真倾听，并且把有价值的意见反馈。

为什么会有候选人偏执于manager 或者 lead的 title?
我觉得是和行业的风气有关的，通常在其它一些软件公司里:
1. 物质上,只有到了 manager 或者 lead这个level才能有比较好的收入;
2. 成就感上,对职位级别的划分，决定了在这个level上面才能得到来自于下属和其他同事的尊敬，同时一些只有manager和以上级别才能参加的公司活动也在无形中保证了这种成就感;
3. 和同学的比较，即便在小公司，做到manager说出去也是一个喊亮的头衔。
4. 对技术的恐惧,觉得程序员是一碗青春饭，吃到了三十岁害怕后面的毕业生把自己赶超，或者是对于coding失去了兴趣。

所以在一些公司里是只有manager及以上职位看起来才有一些前途的道路，这一份工作可以使你整天看起来很忙，有很多的email和会议，保持一份充实感，以及得到一份可观的收入。

反过来想一下，如果一家公司是由人人都想当manager的人组成的，你会对它的产品有信心吗？

在这个角度上来说，SQL Server team 强调 IC (Individual Contributor)　culture, 确保当普通程序员的员工有足够的 career security; 日常工作中有足够的 fun; 收入上不以 level 来划分，而以实力的贡献和评价; career path　上提供技术和管理两条道路给人选择; 实行扁平化，打破IC 和　manager 之间的鸿沟，取消一些行业中默认的经理级别以上的待遇。经理和普通员工一样坐班车，在食堂就餐，开放式办公，只要你愿意可以随时走到任何一名 manager的cubic旁边，看他正在干什么。。。当然有技术问题也可以随时打搅。　

中午在和 SQL Business Intelligence team的 group manager一起吃饭聊天，她也提到了在她们team 里面有一位员工是学管理，做管理出身的MBA,由于对技术的热情，转而成为了一名 SDET.

我想举几个HR team的小例子来说明：
1. 火山喷发:
有的时候招到特别让人兴奋的候选人，HR内部会发个邮件广播一下，我的同事就贴了一张“火山喷发”的图片 reply to all,　HR director　看到了以后私下 ping 他说，great guy, makes me laugh. 沿下来大家就用各种各样的图片来以示庆贺，有"梦工场", "火箭发射","篮球盖帽"的，我自己就收到过一张一个人穿着溜冰鞋背着火箭，手拿点火索的图片。
2. 送别晚会:
有一位manager要回新加坡去工作，临行前在钱柜为他送别，当然也被恶搞了一把，包括化彩妆，模拟跳钢管舞等。
3. 邮件签名:
虽然是在 HR,　公司没有规定邮件签名必须要固定用什么样的格式。所以我的签名也会时不时改变一下，这一次的是 " Whatever you do at Microsoft, express yourself. " 两个同事看到以后就说，很cool,要copy了用用。　

在平常的工作环境里发现作为普通员工的工作的乐趣。

--发现更多 Freedo 的博客，在 Up9rade www.up9rade.com

Quote: How to Save $100 Million

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:11:46 GMT

This quoted article was wrote by Karwin, I found it through mysql web.

Although there's no comments to it, but I like it, because it tells something simple, but pretty important & useful.

For e.g., everyone would have bunches of things to do every morning when you get started, will you sit down and think for a while before devote yourself into?

Checklist, very simple method, yet would be vital to daily success.

And Yes, I found there's something different bewteen SQL Server GM Prakash and other people, including me, on daily working ways.
But it's hard to tell what's the difference, I learning from him, learned a lot yet still in progress. :)

Originally Posted by Bill Karwin at 3:11 PM

http://karwin.blogspot.com/2007/12/how-to-save-100-million.html
http://karwin.blogspot.com/

Monday, December 10, 2007

How to Save $100 Million

Last night I listened to an interesting interview on public radio, relating a story from the New Yorker magazine about Michigan Dr. Peter Pronovost saving millions of dollars and hundreds of lives of patients.

How did he do it? He taught doctors and nurses to use checklists to avoid mistakes in the intensive care units of hospitals. Mistakes that could put patients' health or lives at risk.

What's interesting about this story is that it's an extremely low-technology solution to a type of problem that exists in virtually every field. In this case, it applies to medical care. But it easily applies to manufacturing. In Japan, they call it poka-yoke, or mistake-proofing. Check out this book too: "Mistake Proofing: Designing Errors Out"

Do checklists and similar techniques mean hamstringing the creative process in these fields? Absolutely not! On the contrary, effective use of checklists can free our attention from repetitive details, so that we can devote more of our energy to innovation and creativity. We don't need to keep the details of well-understood procedures in our short-term memory, if we write down the steps so that we can do them without burden, or delegate the work to a teammate.

Why not go the extra step and create technology to automate those procedures? Because a checklist doesn't necessarily remove the requirement for human attention, to exercise good judgment and critical thinking. Some steps may require analysis, or may be performed conditionally based on the result of a previous step. It's usually very expensive to make a machine that does that kind of analysis.

Procedures are inexpensive to modify and prototype when humans perform them. It might turn out that the whole procedure is revealed to be incorrect, and needs to be re-thought. If automation technology had been developed for that procedure, the cost of developing that technology would be wasted. If the procedure were merely a checklist, then we just need to re-train the operation staff and voilà!

Notice that books like David Allen's "Getting Things Done" focus on non-technological methods for organizing and avoiding letting things fall through the cracks.

If checklists and other easy organizational techniques are such a good idea, why don't we employ them more? In the article about Dr. Peter Pronovost, he remarked that it's surprising that it has taken so long to adopt his methods, and if there were a drug that achieved the same positive results he does, it would be mandatory in every hospital. A clue to the explanation is in if there were a drug. Follow the money! The solution that is marketed most aggressively is not the one that is most cost-effective; it's often the one that is least cost-effective, because its vendor stands to make the most money from that one.

Posted by Bill Karwin at 3:11 PM 0 comments

Grouse, again

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:59:11 GMT

在微软这边有许多ABC，他们的广东话说得很流利，然后积极地想学普通话，英语当然是不在话下的。有

的时候为了和他们方便地交流，我在普通话里会夹很多英文单词，脑子需要在两种的语言之间转来转去

。比如说，当孤立地听到他们说： poor guy的时候，不能分辨他们是在说 poor guy 还是广东话里面

的" 扑街 "。当个玩笑。

每天在地铁里象沙丁鱼一样地挤罐头，最近地铁里还在放一部比较搞笑的短剧，不想提它了。

记得上次去参加同事的婚礼，回来的地铁上跟HR Manager一起聊天，她说起关于中国在今后的长远的

竞争力的问题，说白了，就拿微软来说，中国的研发中心不是说拼，而是是不是能够做得跟Redmond一

样好，甚至更好。

往稍微大一点方向来说，今后的竞争力在哪里？
－拿我之前的公司“Flextronics"来说，在中国的布局一是考虑到跟随着客户走，二是考虑到劳动力

价格的因素。但是越来越多的公司开始考虑到越南等劳动力更便宜的地方布局，不比体力，应该是比

智力与情商，团队协作的精神的时候。

在上次的HR council 里，STBC 的GM, Enwei跟总部过来的人说到民族性的问题以及过去的历史对于将来

的影响，甚而至于文化大革命的影响，在说我们是不是趋向于比较自私，在团队之中更追求个人的

performance等等。

对于以上说法的正确与否不去评价，在这里上班，有一个好处就是，每一个人都是所囿于具体而有限的

生活，然而在这里，还有很多人愿意去想，站得高一些，看得范围广一些的，即便凭一己之力，并不

能有所改变。

在微软，这种思考问题的方式好象是从上而下地贯穿地。有很多很杰出的人物领导很大的公司创造了很

多地价值，但是从我个人来说，如果说要佩服谁的话，还是比尔盖茨，不是因为聪明，不是因为富有，

而是因为他的那一篇演讲。我之前贴过了。
有钱不难，聪明也不难，我面试过的人里面有很多非常聪明的，境界有钱也买不到，和聪明两码事。

遇到的候选人里面的一些例子：

第一条，是欺骗。
首先是简历欺骗，明明不是主要由自己完成的工作，写成是由自己来完成的。明明只是有所涉猎皮毛的

领域，写成 solid knowledge，好象很多人很喜欢在简历里用 solid这个词，如果一定要写自己是

solid c++ programming skills，请先掂量一下 solid这个词的份量。
然后是薪水欺骗，明明现在拿10K，说拿15K, 另外的5K是无法证明的公司的各种补贴。
对于第一条，在面试的时候，会让欺骗者无所遁形。对于第二条，很多西方人典型的思维方式就是，首

无条件地相信你，发现之后，永远不再相信你。
我还首次遇到了coding的时候欺骗，我会把一些编程的问题发给候选人让他可以在晚上的时候做，做好

了之后发回来给我。题目并不复杂，只是需要多想一想。然后我猜想他开始google，看有没有网上相似

的问题。我在看他的 code 的时候，题目做得很漂亮，但是对于变量的应用和注释上面露出了马脚。

第二条，是头衔。
有很多人上来就问，是什么职位啊？如果普通工程师不考虑的，至少是个 senior。有很多大学生在毕

业之初的打算就是5年之内到 manager，很aggressive的目标。问题是，这种官本位，大家都当官，

谁来干活呢？SQL Server 中国研发中心的GM Prakash说，SQL的一个culture是 IC (Individual

Contributor) Culture, 可以看一下他的博客中的解释。在微软，职位最高的叫 technical fellow，

象上次 SQL 的 DAve，他的级别和VP是一样的，但是他还是IC。不单是微软，以前我在Flextronics

做 PM 的时候，客户是Nortel，他们有一个工程师，工作了将近20年，还是一个工程师，我们当时

生产的 Tauros系列的商用电话机系统，他在技术上非常地资深，我们这边的工程师跟他开玩笑，为

什么不当 manager, 过了这么多久，他很惊讶地看着我们，为什么要当 manager? 如果我代为回答一

下的话，在国内不当 manager 而且工作很多年会被人看作是没有能力，看不起你。

第三条，是心气。
第三种经常碰到过的情况是，有候选人确实在技术上不错，然后问到他想做一些什么东西的时候，他说

，要做 core的，核心的开发。先不说 SQL Server在中国的开发模式是component ownership的，极大

地有别于国内其它软件公司的受制于总部的情况，有一个问题是: 真的准备好了吗？
有些候选人非常地自豪，他们公司的软件产品是global级别的，他在国内做是的核心的开发工作。我想

打一个问号，以候选人目前的技术实力，目前真正是在做核心的开发吗？甚至连数据库的基本概念都没

有清楚的话，是否又能胜任来到微软之后的核心开发呢？这是第一个问题。第二个问题是，什么叫

core, 怎么样才算是 core 的工作？

第四条，是动机。
为什么要换工作？有一些人是为了钱，很遗憾，但是是事实。他们的目的不是为了能够在技术上能够

再有长足的进步，一想到能够和周围全部是非常聪明的人在一起工作，在技术上相互挑战和帮助而能够

激动不已，而是希望能够有一份新的能够让人激动不已的薪水。追求薪水上的增长本来不是问题，但

是如果这是唯一的主要激励因素的话，需要怀疑在面对挑战的时候能够有多勇敢，以及这种单纯的激励

能够延续多久。

有很多人把这些因素怪罪于外界，怪罪于国内的软件行业的不成熟，以及这个行业里面的有一些偏差的

做法以及想法：比如说，测试工程师或者说QA，在国内似乎是做低级工作的代名词，唯恐避之而不及。

所以问到关于职业计划的时候，经常会有这样的回答：首选开发工程师，测试工程师嘛，也可以考虑吧

。在微软，招测试工程的要求比开发工程师要高，除了编程能力之外，测试工程师需要有在产品层面

把握的能力以及良好的沟通技巧，因为每一个测试工程师承担的是 Develop test infrastructure的责

任。还有一种想法似乎是：过了四十，绝对不要再碰技术了，不做技术，那就只好做 people manager

了。

SQL Server最近招了一位很资深的候选人，来自国内，不说她的年龄，她说到换工作的动机是，更接近

技术，寻求新的技术方面的挑战。对她表示尊敬。

面试过和候选人当中，不论微软是否在最后有荣幸能够录用他们，对于他们是为了在技术上面的不懈追

求而前来应聘的动机，表示尊重。很难想象，如果招的人都是聪明人，但是沾有上面四条中的一条或

者多条习气，整个行业怎么会进步？

开这个博客，发发工作之余的牢骚，作为一个窗口，说得不对，请拍砖。

The Stages for New Employees at Microsoft

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 13:05:33 GMT

This article was quoted from "Dan Fernandez's Blog" :

http://blogs.msdn.com/danielfe/archive/2007/10/26/the-stages-for-new-employees-at-microsoft.aspx

Thanks for Binz's recommendation. :)

Friday, October 26, 2007 10:34 AM by danielfe

The Stages for New Employees at Microsoft

Phil Haack blogged about how, as a new Microsoft employee, he's drinking through the firehose [FYI to Phil: Brian Goldfarb has been using this as the motto on his blog since 2003, before Dare's post] and I'd thought I'd add my two cents to the lifecycle of new employees.

Microsoft absolutely has a "sink-or-swim" mentality for new hires (college or professional hires). That doesn't mean there isn't a vast support network or mentoring options, but it does mean that, in general you are given a goal or metric and you can decide how to reach that goal/metric. Unlike other companies where you're told what to do, a good number of jobs at Microsoft, it's up to you to own the goal or the problem.

Ownership

Ownership can be a double-edged sword, but it seems to be the most effective way to address issues. Ownership, to me, means that you or your team is personally responsible to fix something or meet a goal. This can be a double-edged sword in that other teams that don't "own" something often-times won't put resources towards something you depend on, hence the challenge with cross-group collaboration. In general, I think ownership is the way things get done around Microsoft and the times I've seen shared ownership work is when all teams involved have committed to the goal or fixing the problem.

New Employee Stages

Stage 1: Incompetence - When you first join, you're surrounded by really smart people and you slowly start to realize that you don't even know how much of what you don't know. Whether it's acronyms, confidential projects, tools, or systems/processes, there's a ton that you'll be learning. In some ways, it's like in the Matrix just staring at a series of scrolling green text...
Stage 2: Understanding - ...then you see the pattern. The pieces click together. What was once an undecipherable code becomes clear and you start seeing how things work. Things that seemed impossible before are now trivial. This is just like at the end of the first Matrix movie where Neo is, without much effort at all, able to block and parry Agent Smith's attacks.
Stage 3: Execution - Sometime after your first year, you'll look back at your noobish-ness and realize you'd likely do many things differently in your first year at Microsoft. You'll also realize just how empowered you are to "own" problems and, since you understand the Matrix, you know how you can address the problem or goal. You have great ideas, you know what the problems are and you don't carry the "baggage of broken dreams" that the Jaded PM in Stage 5 has. Because you are competent during this stage, you'll also get the distinct feeling that the "other teams" you work with are "incompetent" (they may not be, they likely just don't own your problem). You strive to "take ownership " of the different parts of a problem so you can actually get your work completed without dependencies on other teams. I've seen some of the best devs/PMs/etc solve a problem that was completely outside of the scope of their job/work (say by finding a bug in someone else's code) so that they wouldn't be blocked by another team.
Stage 4: Connecting - After years of executing, you start to build a large set of connections with other teams (in your division, business group, or across business groups) and those inter-connections become immensely helpful as your problems become more complex. Knowing who the PM/GPM/Dev in charge of xyz means that you'll be able to get questions answered or resolve issues orders of magnitude faster. Microsoft is a really big company and it's only after some time that you start to know who all the players are and a team that previously told you to "get lost" is now willing to work with you as you're relationship with that team means you're not one of those other incompetent people.
Stage 5: Kool-aid or Jaded - After a while, there's a natural tendency to move to either LOVE Microsoft or become jaded. This isn't to say that the jaded employee is wrong or even a bad employee, it's just that there is only so many times that your idea, bug, spec, can be rejected before you become bitter at the whole process. The jaded PM, or the "realist" PM is also self-infecting, attending meetings and shooting down ideas, especially for Stage 2 & 3 employees that finally get the system and are trying to improve what's going on. I cannot tell you the amount of times that someone has shot down ideas because they were "impossible" or the "dumbest idea I've ever heard" only to have a stage 3 kool-aid employee show them that the "impossible" can be done, it didn't require meetings with three teams, and it was done in hours, not weeks as was previously estimated.

The cycle repeats itself as you get promoted (to a new level of incompetence), switch teams, or switch disciplines (ex: PM to marketing).

To those that are new to Microsoft that are reading this

Expect change. It happens constantly.
The really big ideas take years (and maybe a different team) to be built. Patience and faith are key
Make sure you love what you do, don't stop pushing for change that's good for your customers, and try not to become a jaded employee.

随便聊天

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 13:50:59 GMT

晚上在回邮件的时候听到电视里重放了一遍对张亚勤的采访，问到他会不会出来单干的时候，他说：

每天早上起来想到要去开会，看演示，还是回邮件，是快乐的。如果有一段时间有一两个星期想到上班会不开心的话，那就是出问题了。直到现在，在微软，还没有过。

说来也巧，昨天晚上我不快乐。在任何公司里面工作都会有不顺意的时候，有的时候我甚至会非常之生气。在微软文化里面很好的一点是，你可以找你的上司“出气”，SQL 的总经理算是我的上司，昨天晚上我PING他，我说遇到了这样的事情，可不可以现在给他打个电话聊一聊，他说是不是紧急，因为他已经在床上了。下午的时候他跑过来找我，一切很轻松地过去了。在微软7年, Always keep you Microsoft head up, 这是他跟我说的话。

下午我还跟两个内部的程序员聊了聊天，他们在career 上面碰到一些问题，我可以提一些我个人的建议。

我也不胆怯跟他们谈对技术趋势的看法，把自己的网站show 给他们，哈哈

我从来没有在自己的博客里面谈自己的经历，就当瞎聊吧。。。

97年的时候我大学毕业，分到山区当高中政治老师，是服从国家分配。当时的学校所在地是一个镇子，四面环山，在那里我当了一年的老师，但是直接后来转到另一个学校在一年之后，我都没有弄清楚方向，每天早上，在我感觉中，太阳是从西面升起来了，也许是周围是山的缘故。

在学校里面，我跟学生打成一片，有许多有趣的故事，也令学校的领导非常地不快过，经常在周五的例会上点名批评。

By the way, 我现在已经被上班族生活修整地服服贴贴了，在学校里面的那段时间，我留长发，但不批肩，并且是络腮胡子。

我有一次跟同事聊天的时候说，我要找一份工作，每天早上一睁开眼睛想到要去上班，第一感觉就是，真快乐呀。

同事笑，天下哪有这样的活儿啊。

当了四年老师之后，我背着行囊到上海打工，算是为了当时说过的，来找这样的一份工作。然后遍寻工作不着，积蓄花光，只要管饭就干。后面的就不罗索了。现在想想回头看来，工作和生活其实一回事，都是必须去经历，然后没有选择，必须要工作很长很长时间，所以，如果工作的时候不快乐，人生好象就没有多少时间好快乐了。

公司跟公司，上司跟上司之间有些小小的不同，不同的是，在有些公司遇到了不爽的事情，只能一个人闷着，让时间慢慢地来消化，在有些公司，有些上司下面，遇到不爽，你可以排遣。

算是纯粹瞎聊，请勿对号。（另外，我还贴了一篇SQL 总经理Prakash讲文化的文章，可以看一下的）

Destiny

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:28:56 GMT

由于工作的关系，跟人聊天问人家经历成为一种习惯，在对方看来也似乎理所当然。

加上同许多的候选人有过接触，所以不勉有一些感慨。

以下的内容绝无特定指向，本人的见解也未必正确，请勿对号入座。

微软在中国的研发策略中，在人才开发方面，越来越倚重培养本地的管理人才，在面试一些工作资历颇丰的侯选人时(experience >=10 years),有时候也遇到特别令人惋惜的情况：

比如说：

有些90年代初毕业的候选人，也许是从国内一流的名校毕业，毕业之后当时最好的选择之一是进国企。

在国企的环境里，相对地比较养人，于是呆了五六年。

然后接下来是互联网的浪潮，于是投身互联网：也许是同学朋友创业，过去帮个忙；公司的背景可能是拿了很多风投的，也有比较强的海外脉络。然后泡沫破灭了。

于由自己的经历与相对全面的背景，再回头去做程序员似乎比较难了，于是转去一些中等规模的公司去做 architect 或者 CTO。

结果可能发现那样的公司并不如想象中运转地顺，有太多的人为因素。

于是还是想回到外资IT的巨挚，选择项目管理或者企业顾问。

然而遇上公司机构调整，自己被列入了精减人员的名单。

在一定范围内，这种具有类似背景的候选人具有普遍性。

他们在“当下”做出的种种职业选择都是正确的：

系出名校，毕业之初加入国企，那在当时是好的选择。

互联网浪潮涌来的时候，果断投身其中，也没有错。

浪潮过去，担任architect或者CTO也是当时好的选择。

经历过后，重新回到外资大型IT企业也是正确的回归。

当经历了这一切再看周围的时候，跟当年的同学比起来，他们或者已经在外企位居显赫，下海的也是事业有成，心里就不平衡。

本身无意于以职业的标杆来衡量人生的成败与否，可是不可避免的是，人是会比较的。即便你现在不比，也许是因为大家刚开始工作没几年，起点差不多的关系，等到过去了一定的时间，8年，10年之后一定会比较的。

有比较，就有不平衡。

当初的决定为什么是错误的？之所以错误，就是因为你选择了“当时”正确的选择。

换一个角度来说，从个人的 career security 角度：

工作就是一个RPG游戏，你的前半部分，前大半部分是花在升级上面的。当别人在埋头练级攒分的时候，你在忙着交朋友结友，希望做一个帮主，那你的后半段肯定没戏。

所以，除了一些似是而非的法则之外，我想只有一个不二法则就是：苦练经验值，提高战斗力，增加生命值。

要实现它，只有两种途径：

一. 埋头认真编程，直到深刻理解算法，懂得一门语言的精髓，不论你身处的是大公司或者是小作坊。

二. 想办法加入软件行业巨挚，理解大公司软件开发的流程架构，为自己练好内功心法，越早越好。野球拳也很利害，只是要练好不是那么容易。在大公司的一个好处是，至少不缺高手给你陪练。

Diary 30th Aug: 2 factors greatly impact career

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 12:41:48 GMT

I tend to say, yes, it's still a diary, but seems have to postpone it...

During communication with bunches of candidates, 2 feelings are getting stronger & stronger, about IT career:

The number 1 issue is: how much attention do you pay to fundament & fundation.

According to my understanding, 4 aspects: the algorithm, data structure, OS and database.

A lot of people do not won't to treat these 4 aspects seriously, because found without good understandings of these 4, they still could do their jobs and even do good jobs. So why need to learn from A,B,C?

Yes, you are right, even in Microsoft, for e.g. as a test engineer, on developping test tools, it's not necessary to always put algorithm in consideration for everytime.

But I try to say is, let's look after 5 or longer years...

You are still young now, fresh graduated or less than 3,4 years' experience, but after 5 years', you getting married, you will "create human", be a husband, be a father, getting to lose control of weight, lose control of your free time, then I ask: Will you be available to come back and pick up <c++ primer> again? Will that be a suffer experience for you?

If you are fortunately enough, I'd rather to call that is a fortunate, to be a team leader even manager after 2 to 3 years work, I don't think that's a good thing for you...

Simple, to be in management role, means you have to spend more time on team, on people, your knowledge of algorithm doesn't grow itself.

It's proved our current computer science education system is a mess, that mean the knowledge you received from school maybe not sufficient, you need to spend 4, 5 years' at least to probe deeper during work, no good for you to be in lead position too earlier, unless you don't want to touch coding in the rest of your career.

You will ask: how if I insisted to be a lead, to engage senior role at earliest, the answer is simple: either you be a director above quickly or you will be out. This could be guaranteed in Microsoft.

Consider for your long term career, that's why some of good candidates whom are capable for our positions are rejected.

No 2, Self critical & self-aware.

Have seem quite some smart candidates, represented themselves very well, with fast response, good at persuading, but asking about their weakness, they could hardly come up with a clear answer or when point out some mistakes in their answers, they will naturely say... oh, that's because .....

We don't need smart but excuse people...

You can not go further with out self-awareness, that will also harm to the team.

Know you are not know.

There are some guidelines on hiring people for hiring managers from Microsoft,

Until the answers are solid yes, the candidate can be hired:

- Can I learn from him (the candidate)?

- Will I be glad to work for him?

- Will this hire benefit whole Microsoft?

Diary 27th Aug: Sit-in with SQL Dev Team

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:57:30 GMT

I don't know if I put the blog as "diary" then how long as I could stick it out...

Any way, today is an interesting day...

Per great support from management team, I got the "sit-in" opportunity with our SQL Shanghai R&D team members, 1 development engineer & 1 test engineer were assigned as my buddy, the next thing I need to do is to s+ their time, I blocked Monday with dev and tomorrow with test engineer, so here we go...

I woke up earlier today, (I mean than ususal) 6:40AM, arrived at around 8:30, and brought my bag directly to dev's cubic, call him "Su" here. He arranged a cubic for me, but I'd rather sitting together with him, so I could see even every lind of code he wrote on the screen, that's crazy :P

First of all, he introduced what we are doing for now: He's currently working in MDAC team, DP devision. MDAC is a technology which allows connect to SQL Server through ADO, ODBC, OLE DB etc. And this morning he just received an bug report from our vendor (we outsourcing our test to vendors' team), mentioned an error reported on connection procedure. So he's reproduce the procedure and locate the bug...and the following steps are out of my knowledge, so I have to keep the following as blank :D

Shame to say, it's the first time I learned Alt+Tab, seems they are more used with keyboard.

So, this is a debug day, and it's not a tipical day for the dev here, just happened have no chance to see their daily dev work. During the debug, people came and passed, his team mates came to discuss questions, at the begining, they would question: hey, su, you got a new partner? And I would love to kidding that: hey, I'm monitoring his work...

In the noon time, people discuss about some IT news, today's topic is about a company that Microsoft planned to purchase, and how did they feel about that company's product...

In 10:00 AM there's a regular team meeting, to help members to sync up the progress, the meeting was held in the rest room, so you will not curious about the member who attending meeting mean while enjoying the massage.

And I'm glad I could even help in the solving the bug, just kidding, he he, a staff I hired was from Oracle, he also contributed his idea on solving this bug, so , the rock was moved away from the road...

Before end of the day, I also had a 1:1 with Su, talking about his previous work and IT industry, we also sync up on some interview skills, what & how to ask, he explained to me an tipical interview question he was experienced and the soluction for that question....

At the end, update you what we are using here, this just applies to this specific team, may not apply to whole SQL team:

What's the programming language we using for development?

C, C++

What else?

VB or C# will be a plus, sometimes we use them to write some test cases/tools for test/debug...

What else?

ADO, COM. (Please note, this only applies to MDAC this specific team, other teams are different, for e.g. knowledge of XML etc...)

What's the programing environment?

Windows OS, no kidding

What's Su's previous programming environment?

Linux & Unix, see, previous background is not a solid must.

What's the editor using?

Su's love, Emacs. See, up to your favorite.

What's more & more...

See my coming blogs.

Microsoft Summer Interns Party at Bill's

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:34:54 GMT

Got a friend question me about the intern period within Microsoft:

http://www.up9rade.com/vq.php?tid=17&gid=1

due to I am looking industry recruitments only, I'd like to post an article outside to give you a hink about our intern program. Just one word here, the server and tools division mentioned in the article is exactly the division I'm working on. :) And another thing is, excellent interns will be invited to visit Bill's house, not every employee could gain this honor. :)

http://www.careers.eweek.com/article/Microsoft+Summer+Interns+Party+at+Bills/212430_1.aspx

DATE: 27-JUL-2007

By Deborah Perelman

What's it like to have a job where you have regular roundtable discussions with executives and have a barbeque in the backyard of the richest man in the world?

Is it possible to work with a company that is so eager to invest in your ideas you feel that as big as you can dream they will back you up, and where your only grievance is that you are having such a great time, you almost forget that it's real work?

Just ask Nina Sundberg, who interned in the server and tools division of the systems management group at Microsoft.

"Even though I was just there for a short period of time, I felt like I had the opportunity to be as successful as I could be," Sundberg gushed of her summer 2003 experience.

After a half-year stint at Dell and three years at Amazon, Sundberg knew she was ready for something different. While completing her MBA, she interned at Microsoft for one summer before accepting a job with the same team for the fall. She's been there for three years since.

"I ended up with two opportunities to go to MSN [because of my Amazon experience] and one to stay in systems management. The reason I decided to stay in systems management was that it was emerging for Microsoft, but it was at enough of a critical mass that we weren't just a startup. I wanted to gain new experiences," Sundberg said.

Working in a more established startup environment proved ideal for Sundberg, who was brimming with ideas. As a newbie, most workplaces weren't chomping at the bit to hear her out.

"One of my favorite parts about the work I did, and do now, is Microsoft's willingness to invest," said Sundberg. "I feel like I've come up with some crazy ideas, but they always are willing to listen and invest in things, some which have been successful and others that were not. I feel totally empowered to look at something completely different, and even when some of my suggestions fail, it's very much a 'let's go for it!' culture."

At Dell and Amazon, Sundberg felt more of a hesitancy about trying out new ideas. "At Microsoft, I feel like anything I can come up with is something we can go after," she said.

This 'let's go for it!' culture was not the only perk of interning at Microsoft. Every single intern has the opportunity to attend a barbeque at Bill Gates house over the summer, divided over three or four evenings to ensure that it will not be too crowded for face-to-face interaction. Furthermore, executives would often take small groups of interns out for lunch to discuss ideas for future projects.

"We'd have lunch with various executives in groups of 20 or 30 and they would talk to us about how they were strategizing and thinking about their worlds," Sundberg said. "It really gave us a 'this is a single company and we're all working together' feeling, as what we are doing makes more sense in the context of each other. It's easy to get the sense that the vertical where you work is the whole world."

If there is any single thing that interns at Microsoft are not doing, it's making photocopies.

"They get to know the projects that will impact the users. They're not making photocopies or fetching coffee," Caroline Bulmer, coordinator of Microsoft's intern program, told eWEEK. "We give them work we'd really give an entry-level employee out of college. There's a whole lot of technology that they can work on."

The projects that interns work on over their 12 weeks at the company are not pushed aside at the end of the summer, as if they were just practice rounds for the real thing.

"We had an intern that was here for a first internship who got together with two other interns and suggested that they create a game for our online gaming community. All three were invited back to work on it, and the game, Aegis Wing, launched in early May," Bulmer said.

In fact, when pressed, the only grievance a former intern could come up with about the program was that it was almost too good. Real work, in comparison, was almost a drag.

"We were almost too sheltered. The program is phenomenal, and I feel like my project team did a really good job of sheltering me from the mundane, day-to-day stuff. It was a little detached from reality. We got to eat dinner at Bill Gates house and hang out with executives all summer," said Sundberg.

"In hindsight, I think it's good to balance that with what the grind is, because every job has a grind."

Career advice - from executive speech (the end)

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:03:21 GMT

Learn from past experience

Don’t’ be afraid to make mistakes , for many people, we tend to get, what if we fail, what if we are making a mistake and not doing the right thing, and that’s actually not good, because sometimes the best way to know whether something is going to work is to actually try and go back and say why it didn’t work, maybe just one little part of that will go wrong thing and changing that.

Don’t worry about fail, if you making the same mistake 3 times then worried (laugh).

Making a mistake once is really nothing to worry about.

I wouldn’t allow somebody to if I’m a manager ,hey you know, I just feel like we writing messenger core platform, just because I think I can make that nicer and find out that 3 weeks messenger doesn’t work and hundreds of millions of users. I probably wouldn’t allow that somebody to make that kinds of mistakes.

But most the time, when we do something, if we don’t try, we wont ever know.

Innovation

When talk about innovation, I actually for my team, I have set up a commitment, and one of the commitment is about innovation, it’s not just about product innovation, I’d like to have people think about some new innovation on the products, on the features, some great idea, somebody helps the team to win.

But also it can be in the area of process, what about test driven development, what about a different process, the way I test the code, the way I do the usability study, whatever I did, just always be thinking about new ways of trying things. Or even if you learn some great concepts in the school, you went to a class, try to see how it works in your work as well.

Own your own career

At Microsoft, it’s on of those, the company is really flexible, that’s one thing I really like Microsoft. You know my boss isn’t going to tell me that, for the next year, you are going to test on messenger, when you done a year of that, you are going to do this and that and eventually you will be here. You know it’s really up to me, up to the individual where I want to drive.

That really has a lot of benefits in many different ways, you know I have seem that over and over again, let’s say some developers, after been developer for 5 years, I really interested in been a program manager, I really like the design part of that, of the process, I really want to have a big impact on that, well, that ‘s possible.

What I want to do, I can talk to my manager , well, I really like to go, to work in program management. My boss can say, if you wanna be a program manager, you really need to improve the communication skill, here are some of the classes you should take, in the next few months I will work with you to help you get there, then you can go interview somewhere to become a program manager, or even my boss has the program manager position available.

My boss isn’t going to tell me that I should go become a program manager, it’s really up to me as an individual, to decide what discipline I want my career to take, where I want to go, what product I want to work on, it really it’s up to you, as an individual to drive that.

You know, again, it’s not something that happens over night, obviously in next 2,3 years, I sure you are not going to make many too big changes because it’s going to take you times to get familiar with the processes at Microsoft, culture at Microsoft, just for your long term career, just be thinking about it’s really up to you to own and drive your own career.

Communication

Communication is really important as well, I call it up and down, so if I’m a leader, I really need to be able to communicate to my team, and to my manager. As an individual contributor, I really need to communicate to my manager, about my achievements, my challenges, any problems, even the bad news, like if I’m going to not able to meet my commitment.

So really communication is very key, don’t ever assume that your boss knows what you are doing.

You know I can’t go and learn everything about what every month my team is doing.

If I assume my boss knows everything that I was doing, my team was doing, I probably will be very supervised because he won’t know that.

So really make sure that you communicate properly.

Constant Change

Change will always happen, the only thing that constant is change.

Whether it’s organizationally , whether it’s process, whether you like change or not, it’s going to happen.

Here is not at least, from office move perspective, I know the years that I was in Redmond, I think one year that I had 3 different offices within 1 year, so, I think over that 11 years that I was in Redmond, it was at least 15 times or more, I took my boxes , to my new offices, I just took my 1 box with the most critical things that I put on my desk, but the next time when I more offices, if some of the boxes I haven’t used yet, I just threw them away (laugh). Actually I have about 12 boxes, then moved down to 3. (laugh) That’s maybe more flexible to move to the next office. (laugh)

Microsoft is a big organization, when I started at Microsoft, there were about 4,500 people now it’s about 75,000 people so changes will happen, and we are not going to stop them, so what we can do is to be ready for it.

Mentor

Hopefully all of you will just be assigned a mentor, that’s actually really key that’s one of the thing, in some areas, actually , almost more important, than do the training, if you have a mentor you can just quickly go and say, oh, can you help me with this, I wrote this code, that I can’t figure out why it doesn’t wok, my mentor can say, well have you thought about the threading model you are using, that mentor can really teach me a lot, you know I talked to my boss, my boss says something that doesn’t make sense to me, then you might go to your mentor as well and he says oh well that’s because he or she means xyz, because they have been along longer so they understand the culture.

Make sure that if you are not getting a mentor assigned to you, that talk to your boss and ask for somebody can really help you in your job because that really is important.

So, I have spoken a lot. Here at Microsoft, it’s an incredible company, it really takes care of the employees, there are so many opportunities here for all of us, and you really you can have the right attitude, the right passion, and make sure your working on the things your really interested then you will have a long and fruitful career, thank you.

Career advice - from executive speech (2)

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 14:56:28 GMT

Look a big picture

Always look at the big picture.
If the product you are working on, think about every scenario, situation that when I call the work with IE 4 or IE 7, whatever it was, just think about what are the customer respective , what are the customers going to say.

Think too much about title & pay

And this one is, a little interesting to talk about in China.
I totally realized that especially titles mean a lot in China. This is really from my own experience, when I don’t worry what my title is, they are a lead or a manager or whatever, the right things just happen. Because what really happens is that, “how I going to get a senior dev lead “ instead of focusing that, I actually focus on how can I get my work done.

So, really it’s a focus issue.

The more you just focus on doing the right job, having the right passion, that’s what in the case weather you going to make ready for the next title, promotion. To me, the very key thing to be successful, when I first came to Microsoft, I’ve gone through so many different titles, jobs, I’ve gone from been a manager to a lead, to have 100, 5, 150 people reporting to me, to me actually it doesn’t matter, to me, what matters is what is the impact that I can have on the company on the customer, on the products.

Training

Training is very important to people and I totally get that, I know that a lot times, when I speak to the people in university, one of the most frequently asked question is , what’s the training like in Microsoft, and I have been in Motorola worked for another company and, to me that : there are 2 different approaches:

One of the approaches I guess it’s like IBM approaches, You started at IBM, you going to take training of a month or about. Probably what your retain from training is 10 percent.
Your brain can’t take so much at once.
And here in Microsoft , it is really incredible, the amount of training available and it’s very impressive. Other than these trainings here, you are not going to go through like a month of training, it really makes a lot of standards to let’s say:

I don’t know how to program in C#, tomorrow my boss comes and says, hey, I need you to use C# to write this feature. Ok, now you can take the training in C#.

Taking the training just in time, I’m using it now and I’m actually going to be very efficient on that.

And so, make sure that you do take time to do training, it’s very easy to get to the point when you very busy, always enough work to keep you busy, but make sure take time to keep up with outside technology trend.

To make you are able to make the decisions, maybe your manger might come and say you should go like this, to write this function in C#, well, maybe it should be done in C++, maybe should be done in something else. You know, if you don’t know about what else are out there, you can’t really make those decisions.

Career advice - from executive speech (1)

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:16:59 GMT

I just finished the NEO training and yesterday, general manager of WLC (Windows Live China) gave the speech which is interesting and meaningful, meanwhile.
Some brief info:
Loves cars (got collections of ford 1935) & water skiing (it’s real, showed us the pictures).
Previously from Motorola, and joined Microsoft with a plan to stay maybe five years, then found himself can not leave Microsoft. He’s been with Microsoft for 16 years when we got only about 4,000 employees and still in era of windows 3.0.

Before moving on, just want to update, this article is not originally sent by him, I just do a fast recording and after that recalled from my memory, so, not ensure the accuracy of 100%.

Usually I’m not a fast thinker, I’m used to think while talking, that means I’m not a fast talker either. What I’m used to do is, on speech or training, I don’t ask frequently, instead, I try to recall & think over again about the contents, not long time after, maybe one or two days, and I found which is very helpful to learn more.
The article will be separated in several, just try to attract you for browsing & visiting a lot :-P

Career advice (practical things)

Working hard

(Laughing) When I think about working hard, I actually really don’t mean you should work 20 hours a day.
When you at work, make sure you work hard, and also think about work really efficiently. You are finding everyday you spending one hour doing some task, and think about why you doing that task everyday and could you automate that task and that will spend 5 minutes a day, and could spend the other 55 minutes doing something else.
Work hard when you are here but don’t work 20 hours a day, because after a while you feel so tired, that’s not sustainable and it’s not going to help you in the long round.

So it’s really about working efficiently.

Playing hard

(Laughing) At Microsoft, that we actually do a pretty good job, doing a lot morale activities.
Here in China, go play soccer, ping pang, badminton, do whatever, and really take time to take vacation. You know for the first seven years at Microsoft, I really don’t take any vacation, I just work & work really hard, and then I realized that I feel so tired, you know, even can not be efficient.

So work hard and play hard as well.

Passion for technology/customer
Make an example, you go to a party, somebody comes after you said oh I really don’t like windows, you know I can’t do whatever, you know(Laughing).
I honestly hope, even you don’t really working on windows, even you working on SQL or small server or whatever, that really bothers you, I wonder how can I help this person, if I can take that issue and send this to SQL team that they could help that person, to try make that person experience with Microsoft and make Microsoft product better.

It’s not about saying oh, yeah, I really hate windows either you know. Oh yeah, even Microsoft people don’t like Microsoft product. (Laughing) so…

When new technology comes out and Make sure you looking at and interested in.
How that technology might be helpful in your job
Maybe something you should think about, in cooperating in your work.
People start talking about test development, process development, I hope that, wow , I need to know more about that, whether you are developer/tester or program manager, I wonder if that will help me in be more efficient in what I do.

Always be learning.

Be proactive

If you are a developer, somebody find a bug in your code, then okay, when I do A and B and C and then this happens, so you look at your code and said oh, I know exactly what you said, ok boom, I gonna fixed that, great now and that won’t happen any more.

That was just doing that?
Think about If I do A B ad C and this happens, I wonder if I just do A C and B, oh, wow, that might be a problem also, so, don’t only think about one scenario, but also look around and see if there are any other issues.
That’s really I can see a big difference in the people that they are no not successful than others.

Be willing to go beyond that, and I think that maybe goes a long way, that also shows your manager that you are always willing to take another thing always looking after big picture. And which will help you in your career.

Making hard decision

To a manager, individual contributor, to everybody is the same thing.
If you product is shipping next week, and you realize that one feature that you been working on is not going to work, immediate right decision is to say, well I think that feature is not just going to ship, sometimes it’s a very very tough, so really just be willing to look at , making some hard decisions that will do the best to the company.

Similarly, you have a deadline coming on, make it next Friday. You working hard, try to meet deadline, and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday comes along.

And I’m not gonna make it, that’ bad.
Will be much better to say, you know, today is Friday, I don’t think I can make it, to my manager, because then my manager will say, well, what’s the problem, can help or even have somebody else could take a look, whatever, then it’s possible to do something to meet your deadline.

[forwared]what does a program manager at Microsoft really do?

Sun, 01 Jul 2007 15:29:45 GMT

First of all, needs to clarify, this post is not orginally from me, it's from my colleagues over the other side of the ocean, because, what mentioned helps a lot to understand about Microsoft, and I'm going to bring more of this kinds of staffs.

What Does a Program Manager at Microsoft Really Do?

Posted Monday, June 25, 2007 3:11 PM by JobsBlog

If you've been wondering what it means to be a Program Manager at Microsoft, let me introduce you to Eric Richardson.

Eric is a Group Program Manager who works in the Product Activation space within Operations, running the day-to-day business of protecting MS customers against counterfeit and non-genuine software.

Many people are confused when they hear the title Program Manager. Program Management is a great career for all types of people, whether you are a die-hard coder, love making things work better, enjoy communication, or just think that putting all the pieces together is very rewarding.

Eric has been gracious enough to answer a few questions to let the readers know what is really behind this great position.

Eric, please tell me a little bit about yourself.

Before coming to Microsoft, I was working in Manhattan at a few “dot coms”. Prior to that, I spent several years at Nabisco, running a large number of websites that used shockwave gaming as a great way to help with brand awareness. Before that, I worked at a few software companies and spent a few years as a self-employed author and magazine article writer.

For my education, I went to Penn State University right out of high school and then the University of Phoenix. My plan was to be an engineer, I have 5 consecutive generations of EE in the family; We have a family circuit, not a family tree, so being an EE is what we do. Oddly, I ended up getting an undergrad degree in Information Systems and went on to get an MBA in Technology Management.

What Brought You to Microsoft?

As you can tell, technology runs in my family. I was drawn to Microsoft since I would get to use technology about a year or so before anyone else in the world would see it. I love being at a company that looks to the future. I also always heard about how stunning the Northwest is, and I wanted to see it for myself. I have not been disappointed for a second. It was a dramatic change, but a welcome one, from the frenetic life of Manhattan!

How much coding do you do?

While I’m a technical guy, I don’t code anymore as that’s not my job function. Do I play with code in my spare time? SURE! But in the 7 + years I’ve been at Microsoft, I went from a technical Program Manager (PM) using my undergrad degree to a Group Program Manager (GPM), “run the business” guy, using my MBA.

How much interaction do you have with Developers and Testers?

My team relies on applications to perform our role, so I still have the pleasure of working with some very, very smart Devs and Testers!

What does a PM actually do at Microsoft?

Our PMs really are there to set the direction of the application, or feature their own. They have to work with the business team to identify what features are needed and drive the schedule and communication. PMs need to know what the various functional areas (i.e. Dev and test) are working on, but also need to integrate that work into a larger whole. That could be rolling out a huge billing system into an existing infrastructure or perhaps integrating a few small features in Office, etc. As a PM, you own the schedule, scope, and resources for the features or app you are assigned.

What skills are required for PMs?

Communication is #1, it’s also #2! You have to be able to communicate in team meetings, status meetings, lucid issues logs, follow-up on actions and mapping out and identifying dependencies on your work. As a PM, you are the heart of the team.

What career path is available for PMs?

Usually, you start out as a fairly junior PM and then move to a larger and wider impacting project. If you and your manager agree that the next step is to be a manager, you’ll be Senior Program Manager and then eventually a Group Program Manager.

The next step is to become a Director (or Product Unit Manager depending on the group) and you can keep moving up from there. PMs are very frequently where Directors come from due to the scope of work that they do; They understand all technical aspects, but also are strategic enough to see and manage the big picture.

What has been your most rewarding moment as a PM?

When I was working with Dev and Test teams day-to-day, I was building an application to help us manage our Volume Licensing customers. It was called “Subscription Management Component” and was launched years ago with little fanfare. This application today ensures that customers who are responsible for 75% of our revenue get what they need on time. For the most part, this was a true “Dream Team” that I worked with, and I truly enjoyed that project.

Any last thoughts?

Never will you find yourself more challenged and having to use every bit of your skills and abilities, as you do working here! It’s really an awesome place to work!

Thanks, Eric!

-Janelle