Intro

Hello. My name is Tom Mathews, and I've just begun as a Software Development Engineer (SDE) at Microsoft. I have a background in development (spent five years at places like Best Western and Universal Studios), but I've spent the last five years working in Microsoft as a Programmer/Writer.

I thought it would be interesting to track my experiences entering the SDE world, and make them public for others to view. Hopefully it will provide insights into what goes on in this monolithic corporation.

Monday, 12/5/5, was my first day. MS Move transported my belongings, my personal refrigerator, and a lamp... but not my PC. Each employee gets a PC to take with them. <side excursion>At one time in my writing job, I had four PCs and six monitors running off one keyboard & mouse (using something similar to Synergy). Mine was an unusual desktop, as most writers have two machines and two monitors.</side excursion> At any rate, I had moved everything I needed to take with me to my one machine, and MS Move had left it behind (I had failed to attach the proper sticker to its face). I went over, said hello to a few old coworkers, and retrieved my machine. I had been hoping to bring over my one LCD monitor, but my manager had a change of heart and said I got only the machine.

It wasn't completely necessary, though. The new job is providing me with a dual-LCD-monitor, Opteron 64bit 242 dual behemoth. My best machine as a writer was a tri-monitor (two CRT, one LCD) Pentium 3Ghz.

Once I returned with my old PC, I found that the network port had been disabled. A quick call to the help desk fixed it later that day. The previous occupant had been running an unpatched version of Windows, and the port it was connected to was turned off by security.

I finished setting up the PCs, and started unpacking. While I unpacked, I also deleted any old mail that I had stored for my writing job. Microsoft has a firm document retention policy, but it is flexible when you need older mail for your job duties. I sent my old writing documents off to be stored (they provide the boxes, and will toss the papers for you when their time is up).

I went to lunch with a couple of people. I had heard that this cafeteria was better than building 34's, and it is true. Very nice stuff available to consume. The two people I went with have been with Microsoft for many years, and they had a number of entertaining yacht-club stories. I started right when our stock fell flat, so I haven't been so lucky. :)

Later I met a few other folks on the team. One was walking a donation sheet for a charity he was working with around the offices (he tutors children in a reading program). Another is holding out for the 360's production issues to "straighten out." I personally don't think there are a dangerous amount of problems with the XBox 360; with the rate of problems at a respectible 3% or less, with a million units, you're looking at 30,000 units with problems... Even though people are taken care of in less than a week, you're going to get publicity. I was able to get a 360, and am quite happy with it. The guy across the hall (Lance) welcomed me, and we both mentioned that "If our music is too loud, let me know." He asked me what kind of music I liked. After I responded "Everything from Enya to Nine Inch Nails," he grinned and said we'd get along just fine.

Everyone I met was quite personable. I think I'll really enjoy working here.

Oh, and what am I working on? Well: I'm on the Windows SDK team. This is a team of about 30 people that work on pulling in all of the documentation, samples, headers, and other files that go on the Windows Software Development Kit. There are quite a number of Windows teams that provide this material, and they need a way to start automating the submission process. I've come in to implement a loosly specced-out program that will accepted a set of information, and automatically copy the bits over to the right locations and update the correct databases.