I think this video debuted almost a year ago now, but I only saw it recently, and I had some thoughts, so I figured, why let a thing like being a year behind the times stop me?
Anyway, the video is called Epic, and it discusses the future technology track, with a focus on Google, Microsoft, and the impact of technology on news media in this country. I think it’s a really interesting take on where this country is going in terms of its technology.
In the end, Google wins the technology race with Microsoft. While I have my eye on both companies during my current job search, and I’m optimistic toward both, the result of the video echoes my thoughts on their respective corporate cultures. There was a recent Business Week article discussing the corporate culture at Microsoft and how people are starting to leave.
I’ll let you draw your own interpretation from the article, but what interests me is the responses elicited from some of the higher-ups at Microsoft. It seems that there is a very strong focus on the positive, which is fine… but when the BW authors ask questions about negative qualities, the response largely ignores what (if anything) they are doing to rectify the issue. The end of the article asks (semi-ominously), “[I]s anyone listening?” According to the article, apparently not.
My mom once told me that, in the business world, if you aren’t growing, then you’re failing, and there is no middle ground. It disabused me of the notion that a business could reach a point where it could remain stagnant and continue to succeed. The Microsoft described in the BW article seems to be doing just that, though - acknowledging the good of the present and not pondering ways to improve, either internally or externally.
Nevertheless, the people I talk to who are currently at Microsoft seem happy. And the BW article does quote an 85% statistic of employee satisfaction. I guess I’ll have to check things out for myself! Watch for my conclusions a couple months down the line (once my job search is over, of course :)).
I have a colleague here who is getting a graduate degree after a few years working at Microsoft. He couldn’t say anything really specifically bad about working there, but I got the idea that they didn’t give him a lot of reasons to be motivated in his position. However, he said that he and other Microsoft employees were very jealous of Google employees. Apparently Google has a lot of employee-friendly policies. For instance, one day a week they schedule time that the employees can work on anything you want. A lot of Google’s cool ideas have come out of low-level employees’ pet projects. So, if you are looking into both, I say try to get a job at Google first.
Yeah, Google talks a lot about their 20% time when they come to visit CMU (on that note, if I do get a job at either Microsoft or Google, I need to push them to at least make an appearance at UNO, or ask what we need to do to get there. There’s no point to a big new technology center if we can’t get any people recruiting from outside of Omaha).
Anyway, I am psyched about the prospect of working at Google, but I’m also really interested in Microsoft too. There’s a new article in Fortune magazine today that they are at least taking steps to address the external market issues by playing catch up. It seems like they are starting to acknowledge issues and rectify some problems - so maybe by the time I get there, most of the issues from the Business Week article will be resolved. Nothin to do but wait and see!
Actually, I just heard that Microsoft was going to resume recruiting in Nebraska.