With a new term comes a new co-op job, and for me, that’s Microsoft. After receiving offers from a number of companies (as the previous post can attest), I decided that my best course of action was to fly halfway across the continent to live in what is proving to be a very grey and rainy Seattle. On the upside, however, I get to work for the largest software company in the world. But while that status has its advantages, there are a couple of other things that they do that makes the whole experience… well, really interesting.

Joel Spolsky, in a post on his blog Joel on Software (entitled “The Development Abstraction Layer”) talks about how developers should only have to worry about developing applications, and not all the day-to-day minutia that is also involved in making software. He goes on to give a couple examples of what it means, and then singles out Microsoft as one of the companies who gets it right – by telling us that former Microsoft employees are one of the worst people at creating their own companies, as they aren’t used to the time and effort it takes to do all of the non-development activities in a company. Now, that’s certainly something I’m trying to avoid (leaving options open is always a good thing), but even though I’ve only been here a week, I can tell you that Microsoft does an excellent job of doing just that. In fact, working for Microsoft is almost like being royalty.

Sure, I’ve never actually been royalty, so I can’t say it’s exactly like that, but it can, at times, be pretty close to that. The number of times I’ve said “Dude, there’s no way [X] is real” this week is just unbelievable. You call the internet people and they talk about their “Microsoft discount”. You open a bank account and they take all of the fees off of the account, just for working for Microsoft. You want to ride any of the two major transit systems covering the Seattle and surrounding area? Talk to your building receptionist, get a sticker on the back of your card, and it’s free, anywhere, anytime. I’ve already signed up for two (free) intern events that promise to be pretty interesting and have absolutely nothing to do with work. My whole relocation out here was completely arranged for me, from the plane tickets to a rental car at the airport, to the absolutely awesome corporate housing they got me at minimal cost. The list goes on, and on, and on – there are just so many things that I just can’t believe about this place.

And so, while I sincerely hope that I still get enough experience about what building software really entails to start my own business someday (if I want to), working for Microsoft is certainly a rewarding experience. Until I return to school in 4 months, that is!