Google Lawsuit Exposes Microsoft Offshoring Deal

2old2rockNroll writes "In more news from Microsoft's Google lawsuit, it appears that Ballmer's 2003 trip to China may have had as much to do with Microsoft moving jobs as selling software. It seems that the Chinese are not pleased with the number of jobs being moved to China, and one of Lee's duties was to identify jobs for export. Although hiring in Redmond has slowed, a Microsoft spokesperson admits they are "growing their work force" in China. Is it possible that Bill Gates' recent lament over the decline of US CS graduates and research spending was merely crocodile tears?"

Comments

Re:Crocodile tears

[DNS-and-BIND]

It's not a "belief", some species of crocodiles weep when they devour their prey. The tears help lubricate the swallowing.

Re:Hang on

[Belsical]

I'm a developer at Microsoft and I've worked with devs located in India, China, and the UK. You couldn't be more incorrect about, well, anything you said. I just visited the Beijing offices and they were just like ours in the Redmond. These are not contractors. They are full time employees delivering important components of large products. Their interview process is the same, they're paid the same wages (adjusted to cost of living for that region), and given the same benefits. Their review process is the same - based on quality, not quantity of code.

Devs from India come to Redmond to meet with developers here and they're welcomed with open arms. They're treated the same as other devs. They come out to lunch with us, attend morale events, company functions, etc.

We're an international company...and we hire internationally. Get over it. We're going to hire smart people all over the world. We always have, it's just that now there are options other than having them move half-way around the world.