Why I hate interviewing Microsofties

File this post under "why not to use your real name when blogging." This has very little to do with agile development transformation, but a lot to do with who I want to hire on to my team. So many of the resumes I see are from people at or just coming out of Microsoft. I have to say that (globally generalizing) they are some of the WORST software engineers I come in touch with. While being at MS doesn't necessarily breed stupidity, it definitely breeds laziness (not the good kind) and tunnel vision. I've had at least three candidates tell me that the way to navigate from one web page to another is create a linkbutton and use its server onclick event.

Jesus F**#@#$#$#ING CHRIST! Would you people pull your heads out of your asses. Please.

The problem with Microsoft people is they fall under the Microsoft Spell. What I mean is that they start to believe that everything in the realm of software, software engineering, and software tools begins and ends at Microsoft. The mothership is the Alpha and the Omega. What a crock. Three years ago when I was (cringe) working out there I casually asked about using something like NUnit, which I felt was fairly ubiquitous at the time. Nothing but blank stares. And this attitude is across the board.

Now don't get me wrong. They do some amazing things out there across the lake. Some of the internal tools would blow your mind. But often they're just re-inventing the wheel (at great expense) because they are so unaware of the world outside the MS walls that they don't know there are already five very serviceable solutions on the market or as open-source.


Another thing is the arrogance. Thankfully it's not like the old days, and there's less of it from those coming out than from those still there. God help you if you go interview out there, tho. Arrogance in full swing. And actually very difficult interviews. They'll dazzle you with all the latest tech you'll be working with. Here's a news flash: odds are at least 50/50 you'll be doing spreadsheets for marketing. And it will be very important, requiring lots of overtime. No shit-almost half their head count of engineers is just writing and linking up spreadsheets. Of course, they've got a lot of money to count, and that takes a lot of spreadsheets.

OK. Breathe. I feel better. Had to get that rant off my chest. But if I have to interview another ex-Microsoft person (spent any of the last 2 years over there), I may have to shoot myself.