What is Toluu?
Toluu is a free service for sharing the feeds you read and discovering new ones.		 Get Invite

Mini-Microsoft


Achieving Senior Level 63 at MicrosoftNovember 15

I want to share some of my thoughts about succeeding at Microsoft and reaching Level 63, the Senior contributor level at Microsoft. Given that quite a few Microsofties are going to find themselves locked into their current group for a while, the ability to succeed by swinging on the vines to a new group is going to be rare. Within the comments, I hope to elicit advice that follows up on what I start here, and maybe even contradicts it. I'm interested in hearing your stories of success, mentorship, and turning a career that was off-path back on-track. For the folks on the path to L63, I want you to first understand your boss's opinion of you, your opinion of yourself, what it takes to succeed in your team, and then ways you can step up and be on the right path.

Let's Hear it for the Boy! Let's Hear it for the Girl! If you reach L63 during your time at Microsoft, especially if you started at L60 or below, you should celebrate. Here's to you! What an achievement! You have the right stuff to succeed and Microsoft is very happy with you.

L63 is very much an important milestone, and in tough-hiring times like these the following question has never been more important: "Will <<fill in the blank>> reach Level 63 during their career?"

If you're not there yet and your boss was asked that question by your skip-level-boss, what is your boss's answer?

Unless you know for sure that your boss's answer is an immediate "Absolut

But Mini, I Want To Talk About...November 15

Don't want to talk about reaching L63 at Microsoft and bummed that I've locked down the comment stream on that post to be my way or the cutting-room-floor?

Tell you what I'll do: I'll put this post up to have a post to riff within, but still stay within my commenting guidelines.

What's on your mind?

  • Who's still hiring at Microsoft? How teams are locking down and freaked out about the risk of losing positions if people try to leave? Ideas to move groups?
  • Wondering if the mobile team can be possibly slapped enough to compete against the iPhone and Android momentum?
  • What's up with Arik Hesseldahl calling Microsoft big and bloated? Is that passé now?
  • I still love my Media Center PC, even though lately it's started hating all of us... is this how SkyNet starts?
  • Azure. (shakes head) It makes me want to sing to the Talking Heads about how this is not my beautiful house. It's a solution. It will solve problems. Are they really the right problems, and therefore, is it really the right solution?
  • Kudos for a great PDC / Win7 debut. I'm drawing hearts around my sketch of SteveSi... and littles x's and o's... ahem.
  • On that theme: since the Company Meeting 2008, I've felt that we've turned a corner. A good corner. Do you agree, and if not, what do you believe has to happen for Microsoft to have turned the corner onto the freeway of success?
Microsoft FY09Q1 ResultsOctober 23

FY09Q1: wow, I wonder what's going to be on everyone's mind during this quarter's webcast with the analysts?

  • "How has the global economic crisis affected Microsoft?"
  • "What product groups are the most affected? The least?"
  • "How has your forward looking assessment changed for FY09?"
  • "What kind of efficiency measures are you putting into place?"
  • "According to reliable sources (ahem) the Microsoft hiring freeze through major parts of the corporation is real. How does this hamper Microsoft's ability to hire the best talent and to retain the best talent?"
  • "Are you going to buy Yahoo! since it's so much cheaper?" (Please keep Mr. Ballmer away from any recording device during this question.)

etc. etc. Any big questions you're looking to be answered?

Pre-announcement portion: my suggested post-analysis sites for quarterly results:

Is Microsoft Recession Proof?October 19

Is Microsoft recession proof? No, of course not. While it can be buffeted back in forth in a mild recession and get through without group parties here and there, it's pretty unclear what kind of Microsoft will emerge at the other end of a deep global recession. Just a quick post about the immediate staffing impact as we head towards quarterly results.

First: thank whatever deity you hold dear that we didn't go forward with that Yahoo! acquisition. How crazy would that look now?

At this point, organizations are being told to eliminate inefficiencies. For different organizations this means some pretty radically different action items. For some parts of Microsoft, this means hiring freezes. While hiring freezes aren't any fun (more below) you probably prefer them to full-blown Reduction in workForce (RIFs... though I guess that would be called RIWs or RIWFs).

What we need, though, is one big RIF.

There is an unfortunate consequence to hiring freezes for Microsofties: those ready to move on to a new position are stuck because there is no where to go and, even worse, those who have already gone through an interview loop are having their offers frozen out. Also, any attrition is not going to be backfilled and the org loses that headcount. Let's talk about this.

Now first of all, I'm all for reducing Microsoft's headcount. I was for that, what, 40,000 hires ago? Microsoft's key asset and key overhead are the Microsoft emp

Compensatory Arrangements of Certain (Microsoft) OfficersSeptember 25

I saw today that Microsoft filed a Form 8-K. The initial financial news blurb really didn't get my attention and it put in my mental queue to read later.

Then Brier Dudley went and read it and blogged this post: Brier Dudley's blog Microsoft's new bonus plan for Steve Ballmer, et al Up to $20 mil apiece. Snippet: Instead of the current mix of cash bonuses and stock awards, executive bonuses will come from a pool - for fiscal 2009, that pool is the equivalent to 0.35 percent of the company's annual operating income during the year. [...] Payouts are capped at $20 million per individual. Oh well, I guess everyone's got to face the new economic reality.

Suddenly I was very motivated to read the 8-K, in a pissed-off sort of way.

From the filing:

Item 5.02 Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers

The Compensation Committee of the Microsoft Corporation (“Company”) Board of Directors has approved a new executive officer incentive plan (“Plan”) for the Company’s executive officers. The Plan replaces the existing annual cash bonus and equity award programs for the Company’s executive officers beginning with fiscal year 2009.

The Plan allows the Compensation Committee to establish award programs for s