Most people know that Microsoft product development has trickled outside the walls of our main campus in Redmond, and I regularly get questions about our other development sites. 

Microsoft has Development Centers and offices worldwide, but since Zoë and I recruit for core technical positions in the US, we’ll start by touching on the domestic Dev Centers.  If interest continues to grow, we’d be happy to cover information on other domestic and international locations.  If you are a Microsoft employee working outside of Redmond and would like to write an article about your campus or location, please let us know!

Dennis Cheung, Program Manager extraordinaire at our Silicon Valley Campus, graciously agreed to write our first installment in this series.  To learn more, please check out the current opportunities at our Silicon Valley Campus in Mountain View.

Dennis … take it away!

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What is 13.2 miles from Oracle, 6 miles from Apple, 1.8 miles from Google, 6.7 miles from Sun, 3.3 miles from Palm, and 2.5 miles from Yahoo? Oh, and is considered a competitor to all of those companies.

Welcome to the paradoxical world of Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus (SVC for short).

Occupying 32-acres in Mountain View (visible from Hwy 101!), SVC was vaporware in the summer of 1998 and opened its doors in December 1999. I joined in June 2000.

The principal groups at this campus are: MSNTV, MSTV, Xbox, MS Research, MSN, Hotmail, Microsoft Office (Meetings and Presentations), and, last, but definitely not least, MacBU - the group I work for. Just to make things clear, many of these groups are split such that there are teams in Redmond as well. For example, a little over a third of the MacBU is in SVC.

But Gretchen didn't ask me to write about the SVC campus... she asked me to write about working at the SVC campus. I'll sum it up in one word: sun.

Compared to Redmond's 3 months of sun, SVC gets approximately 9 months of sun. To be honest, I can't really remember the last time it rained - whereas my Redmond colleagues tend to remember the last time it didn't.

But on a more serious note, being at a campus that is 696 Alaska Airline Miles away has its pluses and minuses. For me, the biggest draw about SVC is the technological diversity that being in Silicon Valley provides - I have friends at all of Microsoft's competitors listed above and firms that are partners as well. I am exposed to much more, shall we say "negative feelings towards Microsoft", than my Redmond-based colleagues who sometimes get discounts for showing their badge (whereas I hide mine when I leave campus). This is good for two reasons:

1. I am free from the echo chamber that Redmond can be sometimes. Life is very different when you live in a community where a great proportion deems your company to be the epitome of evil (though far less these days!).

As a result, I am constantly reminded that my customers are not the Why-would-you-buy-anything-that's-not-made-by-Microsoft kind of people. I have to deliver more and ensure that my product is compelling to the general (and very skeptical) public. It's like being held to a higher standard.

2. I can try and convince people that there -is- some good to Microsoft, one person at a time. I put a human face to Microsoft, much like all of these blogs do.

Along the same lines, being at a satellite campus means that sometimes the rules are a bit different - because you're a bit more independent. For example, you can have pets in your office at SVC!

However, being far away from the mothership does have its minuses as well. There is a non-stop flow of events, lectures, parties, demonstrations, technology fairs, classes at the Redmond campus. While my team has a great travel budget, let's just say the joy of going up to SeaTac and back for a single event grows old fast. As a result, you sometimes feel like you're missing out, a little disconnected, on some of the exciting things happening at HQ. Then there's also the fact of different career options - it's a simple fact that there are more teams, and thus, more opportunities in the Redmond campus. Tired of working on word processors? You can switch to a job in Longhorn. While SVC offers a number of opportunities as well, it certainly cannot compare to Redmond.

Given these trade offs, am I happy at the MacBU in SVC? You bet. What clinches SVC for me? Without a doubt it is Cosmic Café: our cafeteria is far better than any Redmond cafeteria. Be sure to drop by if you're ever in town!

Dennis T Cheung

Program Manager  

Microsoft PowerPoint 2004 for Mac

Microsoft Entourage 2004 for Mac