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ESR Gets Job Offer From Microsoft
epsalon writes "Eric S. Raymond, the well known Open Source Evangelist, recently received a job offer from Microsoft, that he strongly refused. Is this another attempt to lure Open Source figures or just ignorance?" From his post: "I called [the Microsoft HR rep], who told me my name had been passed to him by his research team. I indicated to him that I thought somebody was probably having a little joke at his expense, and promised him an email reply."
That this was a joke someone at Microsoft was playing on the "new guy". I'd hate to think there's actually someone there that could be that clueless.
I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.
It may not be a joke on the part of MS. Think about it, how do you shut down the threat of Open Source? Starve it of resources. Now what are the resources? The people who are like ESR. Put it very bluntly this is war and MS is determined to deny the enemy (Linux) the materials (people) to wage war.
Panic now, beat the rush!
What a pompous ass.
Indeed. He actually used the words "piss on Microsoft's grave". That (and the preceding paragraph) says lots about his professionalism and conduct.
The nearest example I could relate to would be getting a job offer (which isn't what this was either, btw) from the RNC. As much of a die hard liberal and Democrat as I am (and given that politics matters a lot more then software, imho anyway) I would not use this type of language in declining such a job offer.
Pompous ass sounds about right.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
This happened to me recently as well. I am not as well known as ESR in general linux circles, but those of you who mess around with audio software on Linux probably know me as the author of both JACK and Ardour. MS called me 10 days ago about a job, and emailed me again yesterday. The caller indicated that he knew all about my work on linux audio, and my feelings about MS, but assured me that "MS was changing". I was sent a URL for an PR/newswire "article" suggesting that MS was moving "toward open source".
Like ESR, I indicated to them that Microsoft was a company that I could never consider working for, under any circumstances whatsoever.
My wife, upon hearing of this, suggested that if something like this could happen maybe I haven't made enough trouble for Microsoft lately, and I'm slipping off their radar. She might have a point...
Come on, ESR is pretty much off everyone's radar at the moment and has been for some time. The problem is that he doesn't DO anything much - as opposed to RMS and Linus who are of continuing significance. Seriously, aside from posting about gun rights and racial IQ differences on his blog, what does ESR get up to these days that anyone really cares about?
Below is the set of emails of when MS tried to recruit me. Read from bottom up since that's how the emails were actually sent.
----- Original Message -----
From: James Hunt
To: 'Mauricio '
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2000 9:46 AM
Subject: RE: UNIX Opportunities at Microsoft - WebTV
Thank you for the quick reply. I respect an individual that sticks to
their morals. Take care.
James
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mauricio [mailto:mauricio@xxxx.com%5D
> Sent: Saturday, April 22, 2000 1:51 PM
> To: James Hunt
> Subject: Re: UNIX Opportunities at Microsoft - WebTV
>
>
> James
>
> Thank you for taking the time to look at my resume and to send me the
> description for this job. Unfortunately, being an advocate of open source,
> it would be against my morals to work for the Anti-Christ. But I do
> appreciate you having taken the time to email me.
>
> Regards,
> Mauricio
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: James Hunt
> To:
> Sent: Friday, April 21, 2000 12:15 PM
> Subject: UNIX Opportunities at Microsoft - WebTV
>
>
> > Hi Mauricio,
> >
> > I am interested in your background for our full-time UNIX/Solaris sys.
> admin
> > position at Mircosoft.
> >
> > This position is within the Network Operations Center of our WebTV
> division
> > which is a 100% Solaris shop, supporting more than 1 million
subscribers.
> > We are located at the brand new Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus in
> Mountain
> > View, along with several other Microsoft divisions (5 buildings).
> >
> > If you are interested, I would like to set up a time for us to speak via
> > phone. Simply reply to this message or call me at (650) 693 3542.
> >
> > I have also attached the job description. >
> >
> > Kindest Regards,
> >
> > James
> >
> >
> > James Hunt
> > Microsoft - WebTV
> > Technical Recruiter
> > http://www.webtv.com/
> > http://www.microsoft.com/
---
Film at 11!
I'm not surprised to see such a response from ESR. I would at least want to discuss how much M$ is willing to pay. Being paid an astronomical sum to subvert your enemy from the inside would strike me as having significant job satisfaction potential.
Microsoft says Dr. Kai-Fu Lee shouldn't go to work for Google, in part, because the Dr. has knowledge of Microsoft's proprietary recruiting strategies.
Maybe they mean that, after working at Microsoft, he knows what _not_ to do.
Merciful $DEITY. TOu claim a moonbat like RMS as your idol and believe that ESR having fun casts discredit on the open source community?
Render unto me a ****ing break.
Anyone who's read ESR's writings knows that this is definitely not the way he deals with the world in general. He's a professional to the core. This situation was simply too funny to pass up the opportunity.
I would have been much more restrained, myself, but then I can't afford to burn bridges. ESR's bridges with Microsoft were smoldering ash long before this happened.
Disinfect the GNU General Public Virus!
"Microsoft tries to recruit me" title from TFA. Now, agreed that doesn't say "job offer" at all.
But considering that I, also as an open source developer, with a lot of Computing experience was practically guarenteed a position somewhere at Microsoft when they called me to try and recruit me. Somehow, I don't think it would be that far of a stretch to say, that if ESR had expressed any interest in getting hired by Microsoft that they would have picked him up right away.
And just for the record: How do you "buyout" a community that makes Open Source software to ensure that they can't continue working? Hire them into your fold... for ANYTHING, and then tell them that they can't work on FOSS as a matter of company policy.
THAT is how you buyout open source software.
I am unamerican, and proud of it!
Yeah, I know lots of companies that interview employees they never intend to hire. Happens all the time. In fact, they just waste valuable employee time running these interviews for people they never plan to hire because they've nothing better to do.
:)
Well, now that I have talked through it, maybe you're right.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
This year, I've gotten a couple of calls from Microsoft.
The first was from one of the managers who had gotten my resumé from a recruiter. We swapped a few e-mails and he sent me the "e-mail interview." Since most of the questions were about Windows, I didn't bother to fill it out. I checked and discovered that I could find most of the answers on Google, but I felt that wouldn't really be a fair way to test my knowledge of Windows--which is essentially nil--and I figured that when I told them that I used Google to answer all the questions, they'd probably not be interested anyway so it would be a waste of time to even reply.
About six months later, I got a call from one of the recruiters at Microsoft. I chatted with him a bit on the phone and discovered that they had found my resumé on-line and that it had appropriate keywords (Network, Kernel, Security, etc.). Essentially, they're looking for people with kernel experience. The fact that my experience is as a Macintosh developer seemed secondary to having the skills and interest in working on kernel programming.
I was polite and told him that I didn't think I'd be a good match because I'm not all that interested in moving to the Pacific Northwest to work on the Windows kernel. I thanked him for the call and said to keep me in mind if anything opens up in the Mac Business Unit.
But the recruiter was a pretty nice guy. He said that he'd gotten lots of calls from people who told him to fuck off and die. Personally, I think that's rude. Even if you hate Microsoft, a simple "Sorry, not interested" would be much better. Act like a jerk now and all you've done is indelibly etched yourself into his mind. Not to mention that recruiters talk to each other. Send back a rude e-mail and he shows it to some friends and they remember the name, too. In ten years, when Microsoft is bankrupt and destroyed and this recruiter or one of his friends is working for a really cool Linux company, how far do you think your resumé is going to get?
I agree that, in the case of Eric Raymond, somebody must have been having a spot of fun with the recruiter. But, as the saying goes, it never hurts to ask. Maybe Eric would be interested in coming to Microsoft and showing them how to do it right.
Yes, but a polite refusal would have been fine. The email he sent to the guy was clearly immature.
How can you say that his reply represents open source? The projects I've been involved with or have been a user of have never ever replied to any of my inquiries that way. Perhaps in your book, it does.
GOBACK.
I think it is clear that the only one who takes ESR seriously is ESR.
Seriously, "I've in fact been something pretty close to your company's worst nightmare since about 1997"? Who does he think he is, google?
That was just a little probing. After that he'd have to do a couple phone interviews, and after phone interviews (if he passes them) he'd have to go through a six-hour MS interview gauntlet.
Job offer comes if you successfully complete a six-hour interview, and he'd probably be rejected during phone interview without further consideration. I seriously envy the guy. He thinks so much about himself. Humility be damned.
Various software companies try to discredit the open source movement by stating that the movement is made up of juvenile, unprofessional, irresponsible individuals. By responding in the manner that he did, Eric only propogates this incorrect stereotype.
I met ESR in Hawaii. He was on his way back from a conference in Japan. He claimed that Japanese women found him irresistable, which I found kind of amusing. He's quite a character and a lot of fun to bar hop with, but he's an easy target to poke fun at, as is anyone who thinks very highly of themselves. Many old timers think he's all talk and no action, but there's no denying that he did quite a bit to popularize Linux early on.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
... is to tie up as many open source people under non-compete agreements as they (MSFT) can. Not only can they (open source people) not contribute while working for Microsoft, they can't contribute thereafter, either. And that's for contributions to either OSS or Google (kill two birds with one hire).
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars