First week as a ‘softie

September 20, 2009

Well, first week down.  Off to a reasonably simple start with NEO which was basically going over the corporate culture (relaxed but focused), benefits (wow), and other basic things like websites to get started on things like parking, commuting, email lists, etc, etc.  Even though I’ve know Microsoft for some time through friends there, it’s still eye-opening the scale and facilities the company has at it’s disposal.

Met some of the people I would be working with on Tuesday, but as I have no direct reports (as of yet – I’m an IC, Individual Contributior, initially but that may change), my manager introduced me to a bunch of people while walking offices, corridors and being placed in various meetings.  I was pleased that the very first one I was placed in I had quite a lot to contribute so off to a good start I hope.  The number one item for me is to figure out where I need to be plugged in as it’s really apparent that I could easily spend too much time on “interesting stuff” but which would really be using me most effectively.

I think I’ve done all the mundane, but necessary, Start@Microsoft things like elect benefits, HR forms, Legal, order laptop, etc.  I have a nice desktop already, and it’s very different going into an office every day than working from my home office.  Not sure I totally like having to get up earlier and the 20min commute rather than the 20ft I had previously (and being able to work in my undies if I want to – I don’t think my new colleagues would like that!), but there’s no question that I’m getting exposed to more learning and involvement/leadership opportunities already.

Starting to understand the main architecture of Bing and I really get now why they are calling it a “decision engine” rather than a search engine.  I’ve liked the general results I’ve got from using it since launch, but there’s so much more than just indexing pages – things like “answer pages” to give you back the info you need when there is a definitive answer out there the system knows about.  I think that people are very much stuck with how search has always been (throw keywords in and return matching results), that a new approach might be a little “jarring” to some.  In many ways I kept thinking about a graph (and thesis) I had when doing my PhD.

There’s certainly some way to go (perhaps I’m joining at the equivalent of “windows 3.1 for workgroups” for Bing with “Win7” somewhere on the horizon) and lots of interesting things I’ve seen even in my first week.  It’s a real hive of work there with no-one treating this as a “solved” problem and one person or company has it “right”.  I certainly see where I can contribute and drive security (already have some responsibilities and “commits” set – my manager doesn’t hang around )

All-in-all, a really good first week and settling in nicely.  Thanks to all the people that commented/blogged/twittered offering congrats and best wishes when I announced the move – means a lot to me

Posted in Microsoft