Dan doesn't think you should have to chose Mac or PC. (Photo by MSFT employee Rob Vreeland of MurphyDogStudios.com)
The geek in question: Dan Wittmer
The job title: Senior Software Development Engineer, Macintosh Business Unit (Silicon Valley Campus)
How long have you been with the company?
My hire date was 2/25/2002, so it’s been almost seven years now entirely with MacBU. Prior to being hired, I interned twice with the Entourage team here in SVC. As a full time employee, I started on the Network library / MSN Client for the Mac, moved to Mac IE for the last patch, and subsequently moved Entourage, the email / PIM application that ships as part of Office for the Mac.
You’re an Apple dev working for Microsoft a few miles from Apple’s corporate headquarters in Cupertino. Why do you work for Microsoft instead of Apple? Continue reading →
"I swear I will only stay at Microsoft for one year..."
The geek in question: Abbott Lowell
The job title: Senior Product Manager with Office, based in Beverley, MA
How did you end up working for Microsoft?
It’s a long story! I used to work at Lotus Development, working on Lotus Notes. I was on a team up there a little north of Boston, working on the support side of the enterprise customers.
We always viewed Microsoft as the Evil Empire, and at company meetings it was always about how we were either gaining or losing market share. Of all the places I wanted to work, Microsoft was definitely not one of them.
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Beatrice & Natalie consider their fates as saviors of clip art
The geeks in question: Beatrice Billard & Natalie K. Parks
The job titles: Site Manager and Content Project Manager for Clip Art & Media Site (CAM), on Office Online
What kind of stuff are you two working on?
Beatrice: My job focuses on working with our engineering and business development teams to plan and implement Microsoft’s Clip Art & Media website features and partnerships with content providers.
Natalie: I manage the programming of the daily site, and acquire content. I’m involved with acquisition, where we purchase content … although we are moving away from that model. Beatrice is involved with attribution, where we obtain content for free, in exchange for attribution with our partners, and I am working more and more in that arena as well.
B: You’re more the designer’s eye, and I’m more the structure and the process.
N: She’s more technical than I am. But you’re an artist too!
B: But the lines are blurry.
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It took a proposal from Steve Ballmer to entice a promising computer science student to consider a career at Microsoft. Now she’d like to see more women and minorities follow her lead.
By Fred Albert
March 3, 2008
Steve Ballmer asked Miya McClain to intern at Microsoft when the two appeared at a technology event five years ago.
Miya McClain was 18 years old when Steve Ballmer made her an offer she couldn’t refuse.The college freshman was at a Seattle hotel demonstrating an internship project for a gathering of high-tech executives when Ballmer stepped up to the dais. After delivering his keynote address, he stood before the crowd and offered McClain an internship at Microsoft.
“I wasn’t going to apply for the Microsoft college internship,” confided McClain, now 24 and a software design engineer in test for Office. “I was just going to intern at other, smaller companies like I had in high school.” But when the CEO of Microsoft offers you a position in front of a room full of industry hotshots, how can you say no? Representatives from other companies swooped in to counter Ballmer’s offer, but it was too late. The die was cast.
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He’s a legend among Microsofties: the dude on the Segway wearing a glittering gold helmet. I’ve been stalking him for months, collecting sighting reports from breathless ‘Softies who’ve seen him at Target, seen him on 40th, seen him in elevators! And finally FINALLY, I tracked him down. Meet Stephan, aka The Golden Helmet.
A top speed of 12.5 mph!
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