Another day goes by

-> Woke up at 11
-> Checked email
-> Went to work
-> Ate Lunch
-> Did a little here, a little there
-> Browsed the web
-> Spoke to my manager - Shawn
-> Researched digital cameras
-> Played squash
-> Ate dinner
-> Drank coffee
-> Now blogging...

Number 1 on the Ladder

Based on the current points tally for this week, here is where the top 3 players on the Pro Club Squash Ladder stand:

1 997.9    Mike Morgan
2 998.0    Steve Jamieson
3 999.2    Manoj Mehta

Which means, I might not be #2, I might be #1 :)

Of note today

BBC NEWS | Americas | 'Miserable failure' links to Bush - :)
First Test Between India and Australia heading to a draw

And finally, Manoj Mehta is now #2 on the Pro Club squash ladder :)

So yeah, the Windows Core Team's Christmas Party was held last night at the Union Station in Seattle. We reached around 10pm and the festivities lasted for another couple of hours before Geni, Arun, Jeff and I headed to the Fenix Underground for some more partying. We had decided to get a little bombed at the Windows party before we went clubbing because the BOOZE was FREE! :) A kamikazi, B52, Vodka sprite and shot of tequila later, I was pretty buzzed. Since I had to drive back home though, I had to lose the buzz in quick time - don't want a DUI on my record - no no! Going to Fenix afforded the perfect opportunity to enjoy and lose the buzz at the same time, since we were definitely going to spend a good 2 hours at the club.

So the said two hours were spent dancing, drinking water and dancing some more - the buzz was all but gone, or so I thought. Arun was totally bombed, the Liquid Cocaine hit him like a rocket, much to the viewing delight of all voyeurs ;) He was so bombed that he had to be woken up when we reached his place - he had totally passed out in the backseat (sounds familiar). The buzz really got to me once I got home and sat in front of the computer - not only was I buzzed, I was also totally awake! The mix of driving to Tacoma and back, playing 7 games of intense squash on a short supply of food, drinking and dancing was wreaking havoc and I was loving it! I called Ayesha and spoke to her for nearly 90 minutes after which I took a hot shower and passed out. I can't reveal what I said to A but it sure was HOT...

My future at Microsoft

NGSCB is what I have chosen to work on for the next coupla years at Microsoft. I'm going to work on the kernel team for the product, it's called the Nexus and I can't wait to get my hands dirty! Making a choice wasn't easy; as I highlighted earlier, I had 4 very good offers from great teams. It was tough, trust me; on the one side I was tempted to stay in my current team and work on Driver Quality for the simple fact that I wouldn't have to prove my credentials. Network Security was another serious contender because of my experience in Networking and the fact that Network Security is always going to be a problem in our world - us being enforcers of security and all.

What made me then go the NGSCB route was that the project interested me more than any other I had interviewed for. Working on the NGSCB kernel will be like a class in low-level operating systems with a special onus on security. What more can a geek ask for? :)

All I'd like to say is that I am extremely fortunate to have been made 4 great offers. There are also some people I'd really like to thank for all their help during this past month, in no particular order:

Karan - He came back to work at 2:45 on the morning of my Palladium interview to explain how MM worked to me - and that is just one instance of him helping me out. He's awesome!

Shawn - I couldn't have asked for a better manager in the current situation. Shawn has been completely supportive of me interviewing and has given me the freedom to make an educated decision of where to take my career.

Landy Wang - For the best introduction to the Memory Manager I could've heard before my interviews. He's my idol!

All the managers who offered me positions in their team. I hate turning 3 offers down but...

So here you have it, the summary of my life these past 2 months. Studying, interviewing, studying some more - it's been educational, stressful and exhilarating at the same time. For me though, there is no better feeling than being technically rewarded - and this experience is fair compensation for the lack of accolades received last year!

Interviewing at Microsoft - continued...

This is an update to an earlier entry. I've spent this past month finding out if the work of disparate teams at Microsoft was of interest to me. Determining this wasn't an easy task and now that I have, lemme enlighten those who want to do this in the future:

Step 1: Informational Interview
You tell the interviewer a little bit about your past work (after doing this 3 times, it does get a tad irritating), he (I ain't being sexist here, 6 out of 6 HEs) tells you a bit about his team, he asks you a coding question, then the team's HR representative (5 out of 6 SHEs) sends you an email about the interview details.

Step 2: The Actual interview loop
On an average 5.5 people interviewed me for the teams I choose to interview with. I interviewed with:
Wireless Networking
NGSCB, formerly known as Palladium

Step 3: Wait to receive offers.
I received 4 :)
1. Wireless Networking
2. Network Security - the manager of the team was an interviewer on the Wireless loop - enuff said!
3. NGSCB
4. Driver Quality - this didn't require an interview since this project is being executed by an arm of my current team

Step 4: Determine which offer to select...
If you got none or want more, revert to Step 1

Interesting isn't it. This is the 1,000 ft view of the entire process. To find out what to expect from an interview, google "Microsoft Interview Questions" to get a plethora of questions, puzzles and interview details...

BBC NEWS | Health | Suntan could come 'in an implant'

For all ya fair-skinned "brown-skin wannabe" peeps, a suntan is now a pharmacy-store trip away! The news link is part of the title and can also be found HERE

Interviewing at MS

I've got an interesting statistic for you. Here is a rundown of the 5 teams I've interviewed at Microsoft complete with teams and number of interviewers:

• Summer 2001 - Internship - Networking - 6 interviews


• October 2001 - Full Time - Base OS and SMS - 5 interviews


• October 2003 - Full Time - HTTP and WinInet - 7 interviews


• November 2003 - Full Time - Palladium (NGSCB) - 5 interviews


• November 2003 - Full Time - Wireless Networking - 5 interviews

That's a total of 28 interviews - now how many of these interviewers do you think were women? If you didn't think ZERO, you are wrong. What can you conclude from this... Mind you, all the teams are in some way related to the Core Windows Team! And people wonder why I'm single :)