
Why I left Microsoft - gozzoo
http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/41-why-i-left-microsoft/
======
jay_kyburz
I left 2K games for much the same reasons. Working on big budget games like
Bioshock is safe and comfortable, but after nearly 10 years to going into the
office at 9, having meeting after meeting, then going home at 6, I realized
life was passing me by.

So I quit and started my own studio Iron Helmet Games. I'm taking risks again,
I have some creative control, I'm even getting much more done! It feels so
good to work really hard again. I like to work hard, but I need to know its
useful and appreciated.

Our first game Neptune's Pride has only been in development since September
2009 and people are already playing and enjoying it.

~~~
pclark
can i check the game out? loved bioshock and generally obsessed with video
games. email in profile.

~~~
gmurphy
He's talking about <http://np.ironhelmet.com/> \- I'm currently bitter-sweetly
loving it (huge overlap with a personal project that I keep ditching in
deference to work).

------
raganwald
_There are two times when it's easy to chase dreams: when you're too young to
have many responsibilities, and when you're too old to catch them. He jumped
ship in the middle of the hard time. That takes enormous courage, and more
power to him._ \--Lynne Flaherty on my FB

------
smiler
10 years as a PM on Internet Explorer between 1995 and 2005. Not exactly
something great to have on your CV is it :)

~~~
berkun
I'm proud of the team I worked on, but have ambivalence for the company.

I was on IE 1.0 thru 5.0 (roughly '95-'99). It was a great team and in many,
but not all ways, I think we made a great product. What happened on IE 6.0 was
a tragedy. I wasn't there, but neither was most of the team that worked on
IE5.

The only bright spot of that tragedy is it helped open the door for Firefox,
which I love and have used for years.

~~~
justinweiss
That's a common sentiment among the Microsoft alumni I've talked to:

"Ambivalent about the company, loved my team, left at the right time."

I wonder if that's something specific to Microsoft-ish big companies, or
common among people that decide to leave any job?

------
city41
I am on my last week at Microsoft right now. Although after a paltry 2.5
years, not 10, my reasons for leaving are pretty similar.

~~~
potatolicious
I'm about 6 months into my Seattle stint (not at Microsoft), and I'm already
loathing this city. It's sleepy, but not in the charming beach-side small town
kind of way, in the lazy "I'm too arsed to go out, ever" way. There's no
energy anywhere around here, which is a far cry from any other city I've had
the pleasure of living in.

Was the environment - Seattle/Kirkland/Redmond/Bellevue a major factor in
choosing to leave?

~~~
city41
Honestly, yes it was :-/

In fact, I met a lot of people here who came from the midwest and all of them
either hate it or have already left (I'm from the midwest too).

Seattle is a gorgeous city, when I first came here it blew me away how
beautiful it is. But there's just something about this area that really didn't
jive with me. I agree "sleepy but not in a good way" is one good way to
describe this area.

------
johns
[2005]

~~~
dschobel
I think that makes it all the more interesting because you can see that the
move worked out for him:

 _Scott is an independent author and public speaker for hire. His work as a
writer and public speaker has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington
Post, Forbes, Wired magazine, and on National Public Radio. He has taught at
the University of Washington, blogs for Harvard Business, and has appeared as
an innovation expert on CNBC and MSNBC._

------
RyanMcGreal
Judging from his home page, he seems to have made the right decision.

------
amichail
What does a program manager do all day?

~~~
raganwald
Traditionally, program managers say "What" and "Why," project managers say
"When," and development managers say "How" (which encompasses "Who"). I guess
facility managers used to say "Where," but that's stretching things...

~~~
amichail
Wouldn't development managers and developers resent having program managers
around telling them what should be built?

~~~
raganwald
Well, no. If you're a developer or development manager working 70-90 hours a
week developing and/or managing other developers, when do you have time to
evaluate the market, keep track of every single competitor and potential
competitor?

Do you run a spreadsheet loaded up with market data and demographics
evaluating the potential revenue impact for all of the features you're
thinking of including in the next release?

And so on and so forth. Product management is a full-time job on a substantial
product. It may be that in small start-ups people wear many hats and you don't
need it as a separate function. But if your team ever gets to the point that
you can justify a full-time development manager, your team probably needs
someone else with nearly full-time product management responsibility.

In addition to that, there are sometimes some benefits to separating product
management from development management. Sometimes. Being a little divorced
from the product's inner workings can provide a certain useful perspective.
Hopefully, the product manager isn't wedded to the feature that a developer
just spent three weeks building and can jettison it to ship on time :-)

~~~
amichail
You are thinking of what's best for the company, not the developers. For some
people, development is only rewarding if they determine what to build.

~~~
mahmud
Yes, and those people are called hobbyists.

Even if you work for yourself, you decide which market to be in, and the
market decides what you must build and when.

------
andy1960
He makes Elmer Gantry look like a shrinking violet.

------
bootload
_"... After a year at Microsoft, around 1995, I became a program manager on
the Internet Explorer web browser project. I was paid well to lead smart
people in the making of software used by millions of people. ..."_

The history and lineage of IE goes something like this:

\- Andreessen/Bina created Mosaic in '92 at NCSA, released it with liberal
licensing but publicly funded under act Al Gore introduced ~
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Performance_Computing_and_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Performance_Computing_and_Communication_Act_of_1991)

\- Andreessen left to create Mozilla with jzw ~ <http://www.jwz.org/hacks/> at
Netscape.

\- Eric Sink worked on the UI/NCSA commercially released source code ~
<http://www.ericsink.com/Browser_Wars.html> patched the code for Spyglass.

\- Scott Berkun responsible for MS purchased Spyglass browser.

Glad Scott now makes up for the crap IE browser, MS forced it's users to
dogfood for so many years.

~~~
gcb
why is this being down voted w/out any counter argument?

also, why i'm not surprised that IE was managed by a rejected
undergrad/frustrated closet writer? jk :)

~~~
bootload
_"... why is this being down voted w/out any counter argument? ..."_

The point of the timeline was to try and highlight developers who worked on
browser projects during this time and highlight the differences in both
company and individual responses. IE might have been an OK browser, MS made
large sums of money but compare the difference Andreessen and jzw from
Netscape have made to users by releasing the source code for Mozilla in the
long run.

I suspect because I'm perceived in attacking the author by proxy criticising
MS and IE. The thing I don't understand is why Scott needs affirmation? Just
getting into MS at this time and working on the core product marks him as an
above average developer. But lets not mince words. MS and the IE team did harm
the Web and their customers needlessly during the periods of '95 to 2000. And
being on this team with influence doesn't negate some responsibility. It would
be good to get some sort of view of this from the author.

 _"... i'm not surprised that IE was managed by a rejected
undergrad/frustrated closet writer? jk :) ..."_

As for being a _"rejected undergrad"_ , credentials matter less in tech
companies than ability ~ <http://paulgraham.com/credentials.html> that's why
Scott was hired. The description of _"frustrated closet writer"_ doesn't do
Scott's contributions at justice.

If only HN was filled with writers of his calibre ~
<http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/how-to-be-a-free-thinker/>

~~~
gcb
the joke at end is because his post tries very hard to pass this impression.
Doesnt it

