Microsoft needs Wizards: A 1984 Microsoft job posting

Mike Maples talks more about Microsoft back then: (<a href="http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/107465/1/oh387mm.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/107465/1/oh387mm.pdf</a> ):<p>"""I can remember going to the first Microsoft Company picnic in 1988. There were only two children. Microsoft had 1,800 employees and there were only a couple of them that were married. You had all these young kids who weren't married and were right out of school. IBM had conventional dress codes; Microsoft - it was very much like a college campus. The only difference in how they lived, the hours they kept and the way they dressed, between a college campus and Microsoft was that Microsoft bought the equipment. They all wore their shorts and half of them wore sandals or no shoes. Microsoft bought a lot of T-shirts and things for them. There weren't set hours - the management system was to let people pick or sign up for what they were going to do, and it was up to them to do it. So there was very little management attention over directing people or telling them what to do - it was a very empowered work force. And my suspicion was that that was the way IBM was in the 1930s and 1940s. They were much more formal, because the time was much more formal in terms of dress. But in terms of the ages and the attitudes and the mission the people were on - I think it would be a lot the same."""

I am by no means an old-school software guy, but I have distinct memories of when my dad worked in emerging software companies. And more importantly, back when Microsoft was 'cool'. It was like having free soda in the break rooms and awesome company picnics was -the- status symbol of a fun career.<p>Now, people much more junior expect all of that, plus crazy workplaces, free meals, free babysitting, free carwash, free haircuts, etc. I wonder what the current entry level software engineer ad at Microsoft looks like. Which is weird, at my school UW, they weren't even there at the CS career fair. Meanwhile FB was there with free t-shirts, Google had a giant android costumed guy waddling around, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. They all made it seem like you weren't even applying for jobs, and you weren't even expected to actually have to work.<p>Microsoft definitely helped define the techie dream workplace, even after they got 'huge'. Why did that have to change?

It sounds like a fun place to be, and just reinforces that this industry seems to endlessly spin around in circles.<p>I mean, when you read this and compare it to what you hear of MSFT today (via Mini, for example), it's not far off to compare it with Google who seems to be shifting from this to something more disciplined with Larry as the CEO. Extrapolating to what might happen to Facebook isn't far off either.

Back in the 1980s, research showed individual offices for developers resulted in significantly higher productivity. [Peopleware has a good chapter on this, if I recall correctly.] This was a core part of MS culture until the mid-2000s, when overcrowding led to office sharing.<p>I intereviewed at MS as I was graduating college in 1983. My interview loop included Charles Simonyi and Steve Ballmer, who had just gotten a prerelease of the Tandy Model 100 mentioned in the OP and demoed it to me in the interview. It was definitely a programmer-centric world, in the best way; but people I talked to also had a very strong business focus as well. I turned down the job offer to go to grad school ... by the time I wound up there in 1999 after selling them my startup, it was a very different place.

If I see a job posting with the exact same wording Today, I will apply for the job. So much better than the standard "looking for a (ruby|python|c|javascript) (rockstar|ninja)" than it makes me cry!

What struck me most is that the following was clearly a pride point of the culture at MSFT:<p>"The company is owned (a key issue) and operated by software wizards: Bill Gates and Paul Allen."<p>Not anymore. Company is now run by a professional bean counter brought into that position by the former software whiz.

"we never do anything stupid because some manager/MBA/suit-type has power without knowledge". Sounds like Steve Ballmer, right ?

"Your work won't be canceled due to some political/financial upheaval"<p>Don't think that is true anymore.<p>Wasn't there a post by a former project manager of Silverlight a while ago? While that may not be representative of Microsoft to that degree, I've worked with enough former Softies to know politics play a big role. Especially in the war between Office and Windows.

<p><pre><code> James Gordon Letwin (born July 2, 1952)is an American software developer and one of the original twelve Microsoft employees. </code></pre> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Letwin" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Letwin</a>

They had me at "private offices (as many with windows as topology permits)" (assuming topology permits at least 1)

I thought I was reasonably savvy of old-school tech, but what is this type of address? decvax!Microsoft!joannr

Yeah the good old days when everyone still wanted to work there (me included).<p>Lets see how many of the "good" companies of today will turn in future dark side companies as Microsoft is usually associated nowadays.

<a href="http://peteandcarol.com/msft.htm" rel="nofollow">http://peteandcarol.com/msft.htm</a>

Is rockstars the new wizards?

I email my resumee to decvax!Microsoft!joannr. No response so far.

Being too young to remember a world without the Internet, I'm surprised to see that the terms "venture capital" and "startup" were in vogue in 1984.

Those who don't learn from history are destined to repeat it, given all the startups that exist today i'm very glad people are reading this job posting.<p>Your cool company today can change significantly, and maybe thats ok...but it is a little sad, i think you'd struggle to get a similar recommendation for MS these days.

Back in that day they offered private offices, now you can barely have a place to call your own.

I wonder if it's this person: <a href="http://www.classmates.com/directory/public/memberprofile/list.htm?regId=34648741" rel="nofollow">http://www.classmates.com/directory/public/memberprofile/lis...</a>

How many of you heard Dire Straits in their head when you read that they had Microwave ovens? I would even go so far as to assume that some rooms had colour TVs.

I think this Microsoft company is going to really take off.