Charlie found me on Twitter, where he sent me a message saying "Speaking of diversity at MS- How many native Cherokee speakers do you know of? At least 1-me :-)" A native Cherokee-speaking dev? Must! Know! More! So here's the interview...

The geek in question: Charlie Smith

The job title: Lead software development engineer, Last Mile Innovation (a subgroup of Consumer and Online)

So what is that last mile?
We're almost like a startup group within Microsoft. The LMI group sees the last mile as that final gap between the incredible platforms we build, and the Microsoft OEMs, and product teams across the world that need to customize and deploy applications on them. We're using Messenger services, search services, social networking services as well as a host of other applications and tools across all divisions of Microsoft to help teams present our products in a way that can hopefully make money.

I primarily build software development kits, assist in creating technical documentation, create prototype software and advise teams on how to use existing Microsoft services. In fact our work will likely be presented by at least 2 groups at MIX09 this year.

You mentioned being a start-up group. Do you feel like it's actually possible to have a startup environment in an enormous 90,000-person company?
Absolutely. With the web you have a lot more ability to be innovative. We're trying to forge new ground here. With a huge company you would think you would just become a cog, and I have never felt that way here, not even for a moment.

Did I hear that you grew up speaking Cherokee?
My dad is full blood Cherokee. My Native American family are all in Oklahoma, and although I haven't really spoken Cherokee much since I was a kid, when I listen to people speak, I can almost always tell if they're a native speaker whether it's Cherokee or not, because of the way they speak English.

Are there ways you apply your Cherokee background to your coding?
Absolutely, it's a cultural thing. It's all about family, and it's about getting along and getting together and accomplishing things. Teamwork has always been important in my life. Learning how to get along with people and how to achieve a common goal, and how to listen to other people, has been really important to me, and I think it's been really helpful for me in my role at LMI.

So you're not into that stereotype about devs where you're just heads down and doing your own thing.
There's a time for that and a place for that, but it doesn't really work all that well in modern programming. In the last five or six years, development has become highly, collaborative. For example, I use other people's APIs. I have to work with other developers a lot. The heads down stuff, I still do that once in a while, and I get kind of grumpy when I do that.

How long have you been at Microsoft?
I've been a permanent employee for two years, but I had my first contract here 12 years ago.

How do you feel like the company has changed since that first contract?
I knew a lot of people then that were having problems because of the work-life balance. It was really tough then. Contractors weren't very well regarded in most groups. It was a huge difference coming back a few years ago to work at first MSN and now at LMI -- I just feel now that you are valued as a person, as a contributor, whether you are a contractor or full-time employee, which is really great. And the work-life balance has been really, really good. The people here completely respect and support what you do for your family. And that seems to be a solid priority in all the groups I've worked with. Not that sometimes you don't work a little bit later, but it's not a common occurrence.

What do you do with your work/life balance? I paint. The creative side of myself that I express when painting has been a huge help in my career as a developer. In fact, most devs that I know tend to be very creative in nature. I’ve known musicians, writers, painters, poets and actors who also happen to be great devs. Many of them work at Microsoft!

Links, please? • Charlie's blog: charlesesmith.spaces.live.com • Charlie's Twitter: twitter.com/ces614 • Charlie's Paintings: twitpic.com/photos/ces614