5 years back exactly on this very day I walked into Cyber Towers office of Microsoft India for the first time. If someone asked me at that time how long I plan to work for Microsoft, my answer would’ve been couple of years max. I was still a bit suspicious of the evil empire and it took some time for me to realize that “I am the empire”. The 5 years has been a mind blowing journey.
Even though in our industry working for any company for a 5 year stretch is a huge thing, it doesn’t seem so in Microsoft. Our team has 4 people over 20 years and at least 8 people over 10 years.
Some random thoughts on the last 5 years
- Made my family relocate 3 cities before settling down in Hyderabad (my wife’s threat that the next relocation would be without her helped).
- Bought an apartment
- I have a daughter now who was born around 3 months after I joined MS.
- Started working in a shared office with Ankur and then worked in various cubicles. Finally I have an office.
- 3 job designations. SDE to SDEII to Senior SDE. I am fiercely protecting the SDE suffix.
- It’s fantastic to walk into a book store and see books on your work and see screenshots of UI you’ve designed or description of algorithms you’ve come up with.
- 327 blog posts on blogs.msdn.com
- I still do not use Visual Studio to edit code
- Finally gave up on Linux even at home. Bye bye Ubuntu, welcome Windows 7
- I have 3 Xboxes in my office and none at home
- I use Nokia phones
- Made fantastic friends at work and sadly few of them are left with Microsoft India (either moved to Redmond or have left MS). Hello Amit, Srivatsn, Ankur :)
- Always wanted to attend a BillG project review but he quit
- Got into some email wars
- I am no longer the fire-head I used to be. I actually think before I speak.
- Went top down from n-tier architectures (TFS), desktop applications (VSTT) and now embedded (NETCF)
- I prefer Starbucks coffee now instead of Darjeeling tea
