Working Remotely at Microsoft
In my last post, I talked about how I’m a semi-happy employee. The reason I’m only semi-happy is that I work remotely, from my house. Many folks think that working remotely is the bees’ knees. For some people, it may be. For me, not so much. I really miss the interaction with my team members, who are all really smart. It’s very difficult to do a pair designing session over the phone.
I also live 3000 miles from Redmond, and 3 time zones away. The time difference and the physical separation just serve to make working with my team even more difficult.
There are very few remote R&D (dev, test, program management) folks at Microsoft. Since there are so few, it’s pretty hard to find managers who are willing to take a chance on a remote worker. My team was only willing to do it because I had been on the team for over a year, and demonstrated my competence. I’ve talked to dozens of managers since then, and none of them are interested/willing to deal with having a remote dev/tester.
There are a bunch of technologies that I use, daily, to make the remote thing more bearable. Of course, I use IM, in the form of Office Communicator. I also make heavy use of Office Live Meeting. Both technologies allow me to have video conferences with my coworkers in Redmond. I also use Direct Access every single day. We have a VPN system that has been around a while, but Direct Access is way better. For one thing, it’s always on. It seems to be more performant, as well.
Part of my motivation for searching for a new job is to get a relocation benefit, so we can move back to Redmond. Being in Redmond (or one of the other dev centers) is really a requirement for a successful Microsoft career. We’re not interested in California, or Boston, or North Carolina, so Redmond is the place for us.
