Office 2007 Professional blog q-a-steven-from-micr

A number of months back, Jim posted a video from his experience in the Vancouver workplace. I’m pleased to say that I recently hired Steven Shelford, Senior SDE, to perform out of that office for your Reside Lookup Relevance team. I asked him to talk regarding the Vancouver office and what distinguishes it from Redmond headquarters. Here’s Steven, and what he had to say. What was your first impression of the Vancouver office?
I have been impressed ever since arriving at the facility. It is hard to imagine that the MCDC only opened its doors in September. How much operate must have been done for the facility to open so quickly from its initial announcement, and how much it has grown since, is hard to fathom. The diversity of people is also amazing. While we are only about 250 people now, the MCDC employees represent over 40 countries, with over 15 distinct languages spoken. I’m sure that is a statistic that is increasing in impressiveness every month as we welcome new hires. This rampant growth and diversity obviously creates an exciting atmosphere. It seems that every month we are adding more permanent space. Strangely, there always seems to be room for your foosball table and we now have a basketball hoop with the future plans of building a basketball court. Shooting some hoops always helps break up the day. What’s the environment / culture like?
That is a tough question for a newly created facility, especially one that continues to grow at a tremendous pace. I think we’re actually still determining our own identity and perhaps struggling to keep it unique from Redmond, which is tough with Redmond so close. One thing that I know in regards to the group here is that we are all proud of being at Microsoft, and we all bring a unique view to work each day. How is it similar / different than MS headquarters in Redmond?
There is the obvious difference: we’re smaller with a large percentage of new hires. This is quickly changing as we continue to gain expertise here and as some employees from Redmond come up and bring their expertise with them. Our smaller size can be rather advantageous for us: fewer meetings, getting more work done, and mixing more easily with other teams. To tie while in the previous question, I think we have a fabulous opportunity to shape our identity and culture. I don’t believe we need to replicate Redmond, but leverage our own situation and environment to create a fun, innovative, and ultimately productive perform environment. Are there a great number of full-time teams located out of that workplace?
Don’t forget that the office is new. Teams need to be grown, not just moved. We definitely have just a few teams that are creating a big presence here, such as the Live Search group. I am sure it won’t be very long until the MCDC is recognized for its innovation, which with the end is what Microsoft truly needs to compete against its formidable competitors. If you do have any questions regarding the Vancouver workplace,Office 2007 Professional, please feel free to post them. I’m sure I can get Steven to jump in to help answer them. - Lisa