Recruitment to Resignation: My Four Months at Microsoft

Recruitment

Unlike most of the other big companies, Microsoft’s career fair booth isn’t just for dispensing propaganda. I handed the recruiter my resume, chatted a bit about technical stuff, and that exchange constituted an application. Quite a welcome surprise after the same exchange with Google ended with being informed that my application must be submitted online, where it would promptly be lost in a system which receives over 2 million applications annually.

Phone Interviews

In my previous experiences a phone interview is one of two types: technical or non-technical. With Microsoft my first interview was with a non-engineer, but it was still a technical interview in some sense; she asked questions attempting to gauge my “intellectual horsepower” as she phrased it. One question I remember was, “how would you test a paper cup?” Which I though was a strange question. That interview ended with the recruiter trying to sell me on applying to an SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) position instead of an SDE (Software Development Engineer) position, which I guess explained the curve-ball QA related question. I assume that Microsoft was pushing for more SDETs but I was adamant that I didn’t want to get into QA, and that SDE was the only position I’d consider. The difference turned out to be inconsequential, as both positions were restructured into “Software Engineer” shortly after I started.

In Person Interview

The in-person interview was probably the best experience I had at Microsoft. I was flown into Seattle, given a car rental, and able to plan my return flight with enough time to visit some family in the area after my interview. I was put up at a hotel in the Redmond town center and was picked up by a stretched limousine on the morning of my interview. The interviewees all gathered in a conference room where breakfast and lunch were provided, and we were given a $75 voucher to get ourselves dinner after the interview.

During my interviews I was able to find out that we were apparently interviewing for the Operating Systems Group (OSG) of Microsoft. I thought it was strange that we hadn’t been informed of that beforehand, and that I only found out myself by asking an interviewer. That minor lack of communication turned out to be an indicator of things to come.

I received an offer the next day, which was another nice change of pace from Google where a decision isn’t reached for 2–3 weeks after the interview.

The First Days

A new employee’s first day at Microsoft is something they call New Employee Orientation or NEO. It’s a weekly event, where all new hires that are starting that week meet and get some generic HR orientation. I was shocked to learn how many people start at Microsoft weekly. There were over 100 people in my NEO cohort, and we were apparently an average sized group.

I was excited for NEO because I would finally learn what the heck was going on. Until that point all I knew is that I’d be an SDE in the Operating Systems Group. I had no idea what product I’d be working on or even how initial training or anything like that worked. I wasn’t even sure if those things had already been selected or if we’d go through some kind of selection process like I’d heard they have a Facebook. In fact I actually wasn’t even sure how I’d get home. Microsoft had made it clear that they take care of transportation for their employees but hadn’t given any specifics. I took a $60 cab from downtown Seattle to get there but I was hoping not to have to take another back home. I assumed I’d learn all of those things at NEO and then everything would finally be clear. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Some Microsoft SWAG, a few cheesy ice-breakers, a lengthy presentation about health insurance and 401ks, a prerecorded message from Satya Nadella, some completely useless information about transportation, and then that was it. The day was ending. I still had no information about what I’d be doing at Microsoft or what happens next. I had been given the name of my manager and his office number, but he mysteriously didn’t show up on //who (a page on Microsoft’s intranet with bios of all Microsoft employees). And for some reason after all the buildup about providing transportation they waited until our first day to let us know that it doesn’t take effect until our second week. By a stroke of luck I was able to find a Microsoft employee with some extra bus tickets.

That night I talked to my girlfriend about how lost I still felt. After my orientation all I had to go on was a name, an office number, and a couple of bus tickets that I was fortunate enough to be gifted. I joked that I’d show up the next day and my manager would be out of the office.

I showed up the next day and my manager was out of the office. The only lead I had to go on led me to a door with a sticky note, “OOF until next Wednesday.” I couldn’t believe the luck.

A friendly receptionist was nice enough to investigate my situation and point me toward other members of my team, who were much more helpful. My teammates understandably didn’t have any tasks for me to work on, so I spent the first week and a half trying to be as proactive as possible. I checked out some books from the Microsoft library, attended a couple of internal webinars, picked my coworker’s brains about the project, and read over the resources they provided me.

My New Manager

After a week and a half of trying to stay busy and get to know my co-workers, my manager got back from vacation. I was excited to meet him. I was excited to ask him about the project, about himself, and about Microsoft in general.

I caught a glimpse of him at our morning stand-up meeting, and at some point he shook my hand. The meeting ended, we went back to our respective offices, and then I waited. I continued to pour over the resources that my coworkers provided and assumed he’d soon call me into his office for a meeting, or maybe message me through e-mail or chat. It got to 5 and then 6pm. I realized it wasn’t going to happen that day, then again the next day. It wasn’t until after working at Microsoft for two full weeks that I was finally called into my first meeting with my new manager.

The first item on the meeting’s agenda was apparently to browbeat me for not communicating with him enough. It was a sentiment I couldn’t believe he could hold unironically considering the context, but somehow he did. The next item on the agenda was to browbeat me for not communicating enough with my teammates. That one didn’t even make sense, I’d been in constant communication with my teammates since I arrived. I started to defend myself against the accusation, but he interrupted me and changed the subject. The veracity of his criticism apparently wasn’t important. He then explained that at Microsoft employees are expected to take initiative, and that it didn’t seem like I understood “Microsoft culture.” I was completely nonplussed. I thought this was going to be a meeting where we’d get to know each other and talk about the project. Instead I found myself on the defensive, the recipient of a barrage of inane accusations. I left the meeting even more confused than I went into it.

I went back to my office and replayed the meeting over in my head, trying to make sense of it. A few minutes later I got a message from my manager to meet him in his office again. I figured we’d left the last meeting on such a negative note that nothing could make it worse, but I was wrong. He apparently had another card to play to make me feel even more awkward and out of place. He sat me down and asked, “do you feel like this team isn’t a good fit for you?” I was really at a loss of words at that point. I had no idea what motivated him to ask that question. I didn’t see how saying “yes” would benefit me in any way, so in my state of confusion I mumbled something about how I think the project sounds really interesting.

The Interim

Our unfortunate first meeting apparently wasn’t a fluke, that was really just how he treated me. One thing I always found bizarre was that whenever we had a meeting he’d always stress that I “should be asking questions.” And it wasn’t an encouraging, “feel free to ask me anything,” it was more of an accusatory, “why haven’t you been asking me more questions?” I’m not sure if he thought I had pressing questions that I was refraining from asking of if he just wanted me to make up random questions to ask him. Neither one made any sense.

At one point I remember I actually did have a serious question to ask him, which I assumed he’d appreciate given how many times he’d pressed me to ask more questions. I wrote out a couple paragraphs detailing the situation, what I needed to do, and what I’d already tried. His response was basically, “read this <link>.” The link he sent me was something I’d already read and it didn’t contain the answer to my question; which he would have inferred had he read my entire email. I interpreted his response to mean that I would be better off continuing to search for the answer myself. When I eventually took initiative and made a decision, I turned out to be wrong. My manager noticed immediately and sent me a long e-mail detailing exactly why I was wrong, what I should have done instead, and of course chastising me for not asking him more questions. Apparently my manager expected me to take initiative but also ask him questions before making any action, all while blowing off my attempts to communicate with him. I explained the situation, the email that I had sent him, his response, my reasoning for making the decision, and he responded by saying that he has the personality of a “driver” and that sometimes he just “drives right over people.” It wasn’t an apology, but I guess it was as close as I was going to get.

At some point we got another new hire on our team. Before he showed up our manager told us all about him and seemed genuinely excited. When he showed up on his first day our manager immediately held a meeting with him, after which he toured him around the office and introduced him to the whole team. That’s when I realized something was really off. I told a couple of my coworkers in private about the way our manager had been treating me and asked they shared similar experiences. They were so surprised that I’m not even sure they believed me.

Resignation

It was clear that my manager didn’t want me on his team and I can only speculate as to why. My best guess is that he got assigned me against his will and was acting off-putting in an attempt to drive me away. I’m not sure how Microsoft assigns roles to their new hires but it didn’t seem to take into account my background or my manager’s desires.

I started looking at other opportunities internally at Microsoft that I could potentially be transferred to. In the process I got curious about roles outside of Microsoft too and ended up finding a better opportunity elsewhere.

The last time I quit a job was to go to grad school, which for some reason seemed easier. I didn’t have anything positive to say to explain why I was leaving, so I kept it simple. I wrote an e-mail stating that I was resigning and gave a date. I sent it to my manager and cc’d the team. I expected to hear back immediately but I got nothing. Two days later I was cc’d on an e-mail from my manager to HR requesting to start processing my resignation, and that was it. I had resigned.

If I Were to Do it Over

I would have requested to be moved to a different team immediately. I should have understood that my manager’s behavior was an indicator, not an anomaly.

I wouldn’t have moved to downtown Seattle. I was moving from NYC, so I figured I’d be most comfortable in the city. Google maps says the drive from downtown to Redmond is under 30 minutes, which seems like a reasonable commute. In reality the commute was a little over an hour in each direction, and downtown Seattle is nothing like NYC. If I were to do it over I’d probably just bite the bullet and move to Redmond.

I’ve received a lot of feedback that I should have approached my manager initially instead of waiting for him to initiate contact. In retrospect that probably would have been the better option, but it wouldn’t have changed much about the situation overall. I arrived with the assumption that my manager had my interests in mind and would make some attempt to make me feel welcomed on to the team. The underlying problem is that assumption was wrong on both counts; initiating contact wouldn’t have changed that.

What Microsoft Should Do Differently

The biggest thing Microsoft can do is start getting feedback from new hires. When I told other employees about my NEO transportation troubles, I learned that many others shared the same experience. Microsoft should have been aware of that long ago. One problem is that they do actually get feedback about NEO, just not the right feedback. Everybody fills out a survey featuring prompts like, “I feel like I understand my health insurance options: Agree/Disagree.” What’s needed is the question, “are there any glaring omissions in our orientation program?” Inadequate feedback had led them to a local maxima, where the health care presentation is hyper-finely-tuned yet there are massive omissions in the orientation process as a whole.

New hires should also have some way express concerns with their team assignments. Managers have a conflict of interest in that regard, so it’s not a responsibility they can bear. A better team selection system that actually includes employee feedback may have kept me as an employee, along with who knows how many others.

Afterword

In some way I’m thankful that I had such an off-putting manager. I don’t think Microsoft was the right place for me overall, and a welcoming manager would have just delayed that inevitable realization.

I left Microsoft and took a stab at an opportunity on the complete opposite end of the spectrum; I started a startup with some associates from grad school. It has turned out to be a much better fit for me.