Jeff Lin, guitarist for Seattle band Harvey Danger, talks about Virtual Earth 3D, work/life balance, and finding your destiny.
Jeff Lin doesn't want a corporate mother
Geek in question: Jeff Lin
Job title: Program Manager, Virtual Earth 3D
What are you working on right now?
Virtual Earth 3D is all about realistic representation of the world. We’ve got a couple hundred cities with photo-realistic imagery and 3D geometry. You can add photos, make movies, do tours. It’s actually super cool. I think it’s one of the coolest things that Microsoft is doing.
Do you have to say that because you work on it?
Naw. I feel pretty lucky that I got this position. I just started in this group five months ago. I’d been over at MSN since 2005, and when I applied for this job, I was like, there’s no way. I think I just lucked out.
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Fiddler in the woods
The geek in question: Alex MacLeod
The job: Senior Test Manager,
Exchange
Do you feel like the Exchange team gets no love? Like people see it as less sexy than, say, Xbox?
Totally. When people apply at Microsoft, they get this boilerplate form where they check their interest in different groups. And the only two check boxes I’ve ever seen marked are Games or Mobile Devices. And occasionally someone who thinks they’re a hardcore computer candidate will check OS, but no one ever chooses the Enterprise applications like Exchange. No one knows what it means and it doesn’t sound cool.
But see, I work on a product that for millions of people and millions of businesses across the globe, isn’t a “nice to have” feature. It’s a complete “must have.” There’s not a company in the world that doesn’t view their ability to communicate effectively with each other through email as total mission critical. And when it doesn’t work whole economies suffer. Continue reading →
Software Design Engineer Jeffrey Kafer parlayed an interest in acting into a part-time career doing voice-overs. His fledgling efforts have already earned him honors.
By Fred Albert
Jeffrey Kafer says that voice-over work gives him a creative outlet without taking him away from his family or his job as an SDET. It’s even earned him an award.
April 14, 2008
Jeffrey Kafer spends a lot of his time in the closet. And if he has his way, he won’t be coming out any time soon.
The closet in question is in Kafer’s Monroe, Washington, home. A scant four feet square, it doubles as a recording studio, where the 35-year-old software design engineer in test pursues his dream of becoming a voice-over artist. Poised at a microphone surrounded by sound-deadening sweaters and blankets, he records lines from commercials, films, software, and books, hoping to become the next James Earl Jones or—at the very least—Don Pardo. “I’ve been known to be in my closet for two or three hours every night,” Kafer laughed.
Kafer’s interest in voice-over work was a natural outgrowth of his involvement in theater. He started acting in his teens and participated in community theater and college improv groups for the next 20 years. But as he got older, other responsibilities took precedence. “I got married and had two kids and just couldn’t devote three or four nights a week to rehearsals,” Kafer explained.
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Jillian Venters
The geek in question: Jillian Venters aka “That Goth Girl.”
The job title: Technical Editor, Dev Div
What is it that you do here?
I edit help documentation for developers on the Dev Div team, and I’ve been an editor here at Microsoft as a contractor and then full time for about seven years now.
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…like you’ve never seen it before. Hint: there are white baby grand pianos involved.
Once again, I love it when MSFT goes for WTF humor!
