Zeke's aha moment Geek in question: Zeke Odins-Lucas

Job title: Principal software developer on Internet Explorer

How long have you been with Microsoft?
I started contracting in 1994, and was hired in 1996.

How'd you get here?
Well, that goes back to 1993. I was working at the gas station that's on 148th and 51st, here in Redmond. I was managing that little hole, and I was miserable and commuted an hour and a half each way by bus from Seattle. At least I had a job, but yeesh.

Then one day at a friend's piercing studio in Seattle, I met this guy — he was like 7 feet tall and 300 pounds and shaved head, had a big tusk piercing through his nose and was getting his nipples pierced that day. We started chatting and realized we both worked on the East Side. This guy was like me (23 at the time, and no college), and he says, "Yeah, I work out in Redmond, too. I work at Microsoft." And I was like, "Oh, that's just like a few blocks away from me. What's it like to work there? " He said, "Just come on by and see..." So, I went by after work the following week. This dude is showing me around and at one point he says, "I'm going to go run to the bathroom — should I grab you a soda on the way back?" And right there, I swear to God, it crystallized for me. I realized, you can go to the bathroom whenever you want at Microsoft.

...Yes. Yes, you can.
Every job I'd ever had, you had to ask permission to go to the bathroom. I'd worked at McDonalds, I'd worked at coffee shops, a hotdog stand … and holding your pee was actually a primary skill. I was like, "I never want to have to do that again, I never want to have to have a job where I have to ask to go pee." I mean, it's just so dehumanizing. After that, I switched to reading computer textbooks during my bus commute. I went through one about every two weeks.

So, you're an autodidact.
I didn't do well in school, because my ability to acquire information is so much faster when I'm reading on my own, so school just felt like a waste of time. Out of every class there's like 10 minutes of information and 40 minutes of wasting time. So, I was in the habit of just feeding myself. I did a ton of reading, and did one network training class, and tried my hand at getting an interview for a contract at Microsoft.

How'd it go?
My first interview I completely flubbed, because I'd never been in an interview where they asked you questions, right? My gas station interview was, "Do you have a car? When can you start?" I was spastic and frantic at my first Microsoft interview, and I just jabbered. I totally blew it.

Eventually, I managed to get another Microsoft interview, this one for a tech support contract, and I thought "That's beneath me! Just answering phones and helping people figure things out with their software." But I totally destroyed the interview — I mean, I just nailed it! And the job was 10 bucks an hour, which was way better than I was going to make at the gas station. Bathroom policies may have originally brought him to Microsoft, but it's the people and passion that keep Zeke here.

Once I started my Microsoft contract, the first month was training. The training materials were so much better than anything I'd seen outside of Microsoft in terms of getting core concepts of how computers work … I was flabbergasted, because I'd been reading all these tech books, and I hadn't seen anything that had the kind of condensed, useful material in the Microsoft training books. I liked the training materials so much that I just started reading everything I could get my hands on at work. The company gives you access to all of Microsoft's software — there are so many resources are available to you!

So, I was answering the tech support calls and at the same time I was learning as much as I could about everything Microsoft. From there I went on to contract as a tester on IE 1 and then a lab manager for IE 2, and then six months after that, I was hired full time as an SDET in IE 3. I've had jobs on several different teams, but here I am, 14 years later working on IE 8.

So, if being able to use the bathroom got you into Microsoft, what keeps you here?
The people. I like the "No fire, no hire" energy that's in the company. If someone who's interviewing for a job doesn't have that fire, that passion — you shouldn't hire them. It means you can end up with a lot of butting heads, but that suits me personality-wise. Navigating passionate people is awesome. When I'm hiring people, I gravitate towards the passion. When people are excited about what they're talking about, then I get excited about talking it too, and that's who I want to work with. I want to work with other people who get excited.

LINKS! • The IE team blog • Zeke's personal blog