Microsoft in Europe

If there was one visit that totally exceeded any and all expectations I had going into the visit, it was Microsoft Europe, and there are several reasons for that. Firstly, I have never been a huge fan of Microsoft and their ardently proprietary stance on their software. Many a time I have been irked by problems with Windows, Office, or other Microsoft software. Secondly, I have thought that their SAAS (software as a service) products, except for MSN messenger, are substandard and inferior. Even so, I don’t use MSN messenger, because everyone I know has Gmail and uses Google Talk. Thirdly, I carry a huge anti-monopoly bias against Microsoft. Although Apple is very successful, the Microsoft Windows OS is still the dominant operating system on the market and will be for the foreseeable future. I don’t necessarily like that the tools I am forced to use in school come from Microsoft. I perceived Microsoft as a bureaucratic, impersonal, monopolistic money-grabber content on taking your money, providing an inferior product (which of course can be fixed at a later date by applying service packs and security updates), and imposing intense licensing restrictions on that product. I expected the work environment to be dark and worker satisfaction to be low.

That was not how it was. The biggest thing I learned about Microsoft is that they are focused on providing software solutions to their clients on more of an ad hoc basis. Microsoft works with those companies to analyze the problems and challenges confronting the business and works to provide a technical solution to those problems using the tools they have developed through their research and development team. I was impressed by the strength of their research and development and the publicity which they gave to the products they had developed after completion. Often, the products Microsoft develops don’t have a market. So, Microsoft publishes everything about the product and challenges people to find a use for it. That’s brilliant.

I was also super impressed with the hospitality of the Microsoft staff. Although we had obviously booked our visit well in advance, Microsoft had forgotten that we would be coming that day and had not planned for us. So, we came back the next day. I was expecting a slip-shod, thrown together, super quick presentation about the purpose and direction of the company and that would be it. Instead, all of us were treated to explanations about recent Microsoft developments and tools as well as a test run of Kinect, the latest XBOX gaming tool and new rival to the Wii. I really enjoyed the Kinect. It was terrific.

I learned that people who work at Microsoft enjoy their work. Most of those we spoke with had been working for Microsoft for more than 10 years. We spoke with people from several different departments who had taken time out of their day to come speak to us on a moment’s notice. I thought that was super impressive. I also was once again surprised to learn that those with journalism and communication degrees can hold a very valuable skill to be used at many different corporations. One of our presenters was a public relations staff member and had worked in a variety of capacities in several different countries. I was very impressed.

And finally, the Kinect was cool. I was super impressed. I enjoyed Microsoft.