tfabris: (Default)
tfabris ([personal profile] tfabris) wrote2006-10-18 02:30 pm

When it rains, it pours, even in Seattle.


With my flight to OVFF just hours away, I have news to report. I just hung up the phone, having just accepted a position with Microsoft. I'd actually accepted a position with Boeing last week, but when the call came from Volt (the people who do the contract hiring for MS), I couldn't turn down the opportunity. The people at Boeing were very gracious about it.

I'll be working for WSE, Windows Sustained Engineering. (Edit: Now that I'm actually here, my group is more correctly referred to as WinSE, or Windows Serviceability.) This is the group that's responsible for the patches and updates. It's my understanding that it will be pretty hectic, as you might imagine, but it's a great place to start within the company because it opens a lot of other doors for me.

I know there's a certain amount of irony in the fact that my Filk parodies are often disparaging of Microsoft, and in one sense I'd be biting the hand that feeds me to work there and still sing those songs. But according the guy at Volt, that attitude would put me in league with about half the people that work there. The truth is that I only joke about their products because I use their products, and I use their products because... well, they're still the best available, warts and all. In other words: We only tease the ones we love. And if you think about it, there's also some distinct non-irony about the fact that I'd be working for that particular group within Microsoft. I may tease Microsoft about the bugs in their products, but now I can be part of the solution rather than just whining about it.

Yes, the above paragraph was for the benefit of the people at MS who will be performing background checks on me and might stumble across my web site in the process. Hello fellow Microsofties! *wave*

Tonight, I rehearse more for my Interfilk guest concert, pack, and sleep the sleep of the righteous. See you all in Ohio!

patoadam: Photo of me playing guitar in the woods (Default)

[personal profile] patoadam 2006-10-18 09:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Congratulations! See you soon!

[identity profile] tomoyo-chan.livejournal.com 2006-10-18 09:39 pm (UTC)(link)
congrats! you'll be at the campus near me, then?

[identity profile] tfabris.livejournal.com 2006-10-18 09:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Building 28, which is at the South end of the main Microsoft campus. You're in/near Redmond Town Center, right? I confess I can't remember if the two areas are all that close or not.

[identity profile] tomoyo-chan.livejournal.com 2006-10-18 09:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Near RTC, yes. You'll be about 10-15 minutes away from me depending on traffic. We'll have to wave in each other's general directions now and then. :)

[identity profile] tfabris.livejournal.com 2006-10-18 09:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Deal. :-)

[identity profile] trogula.livejournal.com 2006-10-18 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Congrats!

I've got a number of friends who work in the Microsoft Games division in Redmond - all of them say it's an excellent place to work.

[identity profile] tuto.livejournal.com 2006-10-18 10:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Congo Rats friend!

[identity profile] beaq.livejournal.com 2006-10-18 10:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Dooooood. On all counts.

[identity profile] hsifyppah.livejournal.com 2006-10-18 11:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Congratulations! I hope you enjoy your stay in ms-land. Some of my very favourite nerds are microsoftificated.

Turning down Boeing to work at Microsoft. I think the only way to make it more Seattle would be if the job offer happened in a starbucks on a monorail.

[identity profile] tfabris.livejournal.com 2006-10-19 12:26 am (UTC)(link)
Hehehehe. :-)

[identity profile] littlemystories.livejournal.com 2006-10-18 11:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Wooo!! Congratulations!

[identity profile] tfabris.livejournal.com 2006-10-19 12:28 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks for all the well-wishes, everyone! I'm pretty excited.

[identity profile] sdorn.livejournal.com 2006-10-19 12:39 am (UTC)(link)
Congrats! Condolences! And here's the banter you need to arrange if you need to tune during your concert: "Okay, that's good enough for Microsoft." Wait two beats. "Oh, wait, I can't say that anymore!"
mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)

[personal profile] mdlbear 2006-10-19 04:51 am (UTC)(link)
Congrats! (Reminds me of the time I turned down an offer at Taligent, still an Apple/IBM joint venture at that point, to take my current gig at Ricoh. No regrets.)

I'll stick with Linux, though.
jenrose: (Default)

[personal profile] jenrose 2006-10-19 06:59 am (UTC)(link)
Out-freakin'-standing.

Congrats!

[identity profile] unclechristo.livejournal.com 2006-10-19 09:38 am (UTC)(link)
Congradulations
You have been assimilated....
haha

well done mate

have a great time in OVFF - thing a thong for me :-)

CC

[identity profile] pondside.livejournal.com 2006-10-19 10:53 am (UTC)(link)
be happy!!

[identity profile] dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com 2006-10-19 09:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Sending dancing rodents.