Cullen's Blog

Finding a place to live

Just so we’re clear, all of the posts where I mention relo stuff are based on my experience the first time.  I’m not sure if these benefits are standard (though I think they are).  Your experience may vary from mine, so don’t quote me if something Read More...

You’ve accepted an offer, now what?

The hiring process doesn’t end when you accept the offer.  At least, not if you’re remote.  If you work in the same city as your destination team, the process is pretty much done.  Your new and old managers agree on a date, and you show Read More...

The job search is over!

Yesterday I got an email from the XNA Developer Connection team, containing my offer, and I accepted this morning! I’m incredibly excited to be starting a new job, on a new (to me) team, returning to my favorite discipline (dev), and working in the game Read More...

Week 3 of the job hunt

Whew.  I’m tired after this week (well, last week, technically).  I was back in Redmond for my quarterly trip, and scheduled a few interviews. I had informational interviews with two teams, and started with one interview loop scheduled.  Read More...

Week 2

The second week of my job search was full of negative responses, with one positive response to lift the darkness.  The positive response was from a team in Windows Server, building a pretty cool new product.  Since this was an app, rather than Read More...

The game programming catch-22

Game studios want you have to have commercial game experience before you apply.  You can’t get commercial game experience without working at a game studio.  What do you do? First, there are other options.  It’s not as hopeless as it seems.  Read More...

Week 1

During week 1 and 2, I set up a saved search on the internal site, and starting digging through the available jobs.  I’m looking at all software development engineer (SDE or dev) jobs in Redmond.  I’m looking for jobs that are at my level, 1 Read More...

The Hiring Process

First, some information, so we’re all on the same page.  Internal transfers at Microsoft work just like the external hiring process.  We go to an internal version of http://www.microsoft.com/careers/ , which has all the same jobs.  We get Read More...

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, Read More...