Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Interns Still Feel the Love
theodp writes "Despite layoffs and a blip in earnings, the Chicago Trib reports that Microsoft's summer interns still enjoy the VIP treatment. Although there were 20% fewer of them this year than last, still 85% of the interns are offered full-time jobs. In addition to being paid $4,600-$6,000 a month, a housing stipend, and relocation costs for the summer, the 600 or so Microsoft apprentices enjoyed other perks — such as a police escort to speed their way to a private museum party where they screened the most recent Harry Potter movie and were given a free Xbox 360. 'You feel like royalty to be escorted by police,' said Joriz De Guzman, an intern working toward his MBA at Wharton. BTW, before he got mixed up with those MBA-types, De Guzman earned some fame as the Doogie Howser of computer science."
Before I get too angry, I should make sure I'm clear on something. Does this mean Microsoft paid money for people to get preferred treatment on the roads?
'You feel like a royal asshole to be escorted by police,' said Joriz De Guzman
There, fixed that for you.
The escort was so they couldn't escape (possibly to watch a good movie).
Perk or punishment? I have a friend with a few scratched up disks that would argue the latter...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
How on earth do you get these internships?
I'm an Ivy Grad, BA (minor in CS). I never even got past door one with these things. Who are these fictional internships offered to, and who accepts them? No one in my graduating class did any of these internships or was offered them.
Details plz!
Besides meeting with Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, Microsoft interns attend presentations by division presidents. "It's not your average make-coffee-and-copies-for-us internship," said Ederlyn Lacson, a linguistics major from the University of Maryland at College Park. "People are working on products that have or will ship.
OK, the part about meeting Ballmer - that' s just too easy - interns ... chairs ...yep.
Interns working on products that are going to ship. Yeah. Ooooookay, mmmmmmm.....mm..mm..mm..mm. Yeah, this one is too easy too, I'm gonna let that go. I do have my standards.
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
In this tough economic time, with unemployment approaching 10% (in the U.S.), let me be the first to say FUCK YOU! Seriously, guys, what the hell is the matter with you? You honestly want to brag about what you're making as an intern and that you have damn good odds of getting hired? Assholes.
When I interned, I worked for free and I was working on projects myself.
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
In a world where many people have never made a phone call, where children still get polio or die from malaria, where there are some people who make less than $30 USD in a year, let me be the first to say FUCK YOU! Seriously, Libertarian001, what the hell is the matter with you? You honestly think that showing off by using the luxury of an internet connection and personal computer to bitch about other people's fortune is a good idea? Asshole.
Perspective, it's what's for dinner.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
Nah, you just sound like a douchebag.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Look at what they do for professional sports stadiums every weekend. Heck, look downstream from there,at how much public property tax money is used across the nation to brainwash little kids and get them addicted and operate those same pro sports farm teams in the public school system (which is all they are, subsidized farm teams).
If you got the cash and "the juice", what is public can become private *real quick*.
Butthurt much?
Hate Microsoft all you want, but they're giving people high paying jobs during a tough economy. That's more than Comrade Obama's been able to do with his trillion dollar "stimulus" plan.
If you don't like it, feel free to stop buying Microsoft and STFU.
Mod parent up.
Functional programming... for real men!
It is quite distasteful that one of the richest company on earth is using free labor.
$4500-$6000 a month is a LOT of coin for pretty much most of the country not containing coastline.
Truthfully, this is real news to me, I never heard of interns making that kind of money. In this economy - and yes, I'm talking about the US - it just seems... absurd.
What a waste of money, it would clearly be better spent on R&D!
I was one of Microsoft's interns some time ago and I can tell you that it was nothing like they described in the article. I was actually very poorly treated (and my boss was a big jerk). Amongst other things (mostly Denmark related, and not directly Microsoft), my boss was one of the reasons I didn't want to stay there and why I made sure I wouldn't.
But, it was in Denmark (Microsoft Development Center Copenhagen), so it seems to be something localized.
Onda Technology Institute
And bugs get splattered by windshields except at MS where they get sold as features. Bill Gates got to be the richest man in the world by selling poison.
Fuck him, fuck everyone who works for him and fuck everyone who defends him.
...or apply to one of those high paying jobs! Oh, math is too hard? Too bad, wait, this is Microsoft, you can still try. Programming is too hard? Hmm ok, that might be a problem.
First - the half-assed open source initiative Second - why your Open Source application gets dumped for proprietary Third - Interns at Microsoft make more money visiting museums than you do banging your head on the table 20x7 I'm calling it again, Microsoft' press team is playing out a carefully orchestrated agenda to beat open source software. Why would Sam Ramji leave Microsoft just at this moment? and for Cloud Computing the most unsuccessful technology of the year? Something tells me he knew what was at hand. Stay tuned for more Microsoft brainwashing you. Sad part is, this post will probably get modded down like crazy.
I'm sure Microsoft has evidence that the money they're investing in the various internship programs nets them something tangible in the long term - otherwise they wouldn't do it. I've known a couple people who've been MS interns, and they were both pretty happy with the program. I'm not sure why people here are giving MS such grief over this (yes, I'm new here, thank you for asking) - this is pretty standard stuff for most large tech companies.
But I must admit I still smile whenever I walk into the Paul Allen Center - home of the University of Washington's CSE department - and see the disproportionate number of students using Mac laptops there in the main atrium. Looks like the Beatles were right on that score...
#DeleteChrome
This makes me curious. What does it cost to rent out the local cops to provide entertainment for your party? Do they let you play with the siren? Can the motorcade break the speed limit? How about the local ambulance corps, can they juggle plasma bags? Can I get a guarantee that they won't get called away to deal with some boring disturbance on the wrong side of the tracks before the song and dance number is complete? Do they bring their own hookers, or is prostituting themselves enough?
How is this legal? (oh, now I get it)
~.~
I'm a peripheral visionary.
My summer internship at a local Chicago firm paid at least that. And that was 8 years ago!
Granted, I realize the economy is bad. But you'd almost be better off working at Taco Bell. Let's do the math, shall we: 6,000 divided by 12 weeks is $500/week. 500 / 40 hours a week = $12.50 per hour. And if you're the poor sucker who only got 4,500? Well, that puts you in the $9.38/hr range.
Oh, but you get a free Xbox!
After the dotcom bubble burst, I had a humbling experience my senior year, when a friend of mine - who wasn't exactly a stellar student - *rejected* an offer from IBM because it was "only 62k". He took a job somewhere else, I think, for about 67k. I wonder what MS interns will think when they realize that almost everyone else pays more than Microsoft.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
looks like microsoft has a high turnover rate, could be a lot of employees walk off the job later and microsoft has to keep fresh faces coming in to replace them...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
'You feel like royalty to be escorted by police,' said Joriz De Guzman, an intern working toward his MBA at Wharton
I don't know about this; when I got busted for drunk driving I had a police escort all the way to the station, but I didn't feel like royalty at all.
How very libertarian of you. Next are you going to tell us that since they're among the privileged that the should pay a special tax?
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Or if you were, that you really didn't read the article.
Olin said interns make about 80 percent of a starting full-time employee. That comes to about $4,600 to $6,000 a month, based on pay of entry-level software engineers. They also receive a housing stipend and relocation costs for the summer.
or the summary.
paid $4,600-$6,000 a month, a housing stipend, and relocation costs for the summer,
If you did read either one, rather than just pulling junk numbers out of your ass, please tell me you weren't a math major.
Can't buy me love
I'll buy you a diamond ring my friend if it makes you feel alright
I'll get you anything my friend if it makes you feel alright
'Cause I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love
I'll give you all I got to give if you say you love me too
I may not have a lot to give but what I got I'll give to you
I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love
Can't buy me love, everybody tells me so
Can't buy me love, no no no, no
Say you don't need no diamond ring and I'll be satisfied
Tell me that you want the kind of thing that money just can't buy
I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
If this were Google, most of you'd be praising them, for being such a great employer.
How about we judge a software company by their software and business ethics, there's plenty of things to dislike Microsoft for in those departments...
+1 Funny Signature
How very libertarian of you. Next are you going to tell us that since they're among the privileged that the should pay a special tax?
Uhhh, do you know what "libertarian" means?
In a world where many people have never made a phone call, where children still get polio or die from malaria, where there are some people who make less than $30 USD in a year, let me be the first to say FUCK YOU! Seriously, Libertarian001, what the hell is the matter with you? You honestly think that showing off by using the luxury of an internet connection and personal computer to bitch about other people's fortune is a good idea? Asshole.
Greetings from the Developing World. On behalf of a couple of billion of my closest confrères, allow me to say: Shut the fuck up.
Using the luxury of an Internet connection to bitch about other people's fortunes - especially the ones they get by profiting from others' misery - is what we all aspire to. In my part of the world, the knowledge that some Ritchie Rich is being inducted into the entitlement regime that is modern-day corporate capitalism with lavish salaries and police escorts to exclusive events.... Well, let's just say it has a remarkably salutary effect.
You see, we recognise this kind of behaviour instantly - about the only time you ever hear a police siren in my town is when some dignitary is getting whisked to or from the airport. So when the convoy of buses goes by on its way to see 'Aripota' (as the Junior Wizard is known here), we know exactly who's in them.
They're the very same young professionals who will be whisked into town to meet with our ministers of education and telecommunications to negotiate wonderful deals ensuring that, for decades to come, there will always be an adequate supply of malarial people without telephones, for whom 'Aripota' is nothing more than a rumour.
Perspective, it's what's for dinner.
Yeah, it sure is. Let me know when you get some.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
It's usually the bigger companies that offer these perks for their interns. That and the high pay they receive are usually the incentives for students to work kind of hard to get a spot in one of these programs...
Hence, it's no surprise that because these companies are bigger, there would be an increased risk of dealing with crappy managers and boring dead-end work. Overall, the people I know that have worked in such companies were usually happy with their expereinces...
Then when you interned, you were a sucker.
Bill gates would probably never got a job at MS.
The interviews by Macgregor and Ballmer were strict. And one favorite was questions such the High-low number puzzle.
Bill himself failed this test when asked by a reporter one day.
. Ballmer said(of these types of questions), you could assess the "smartness" of someone. Ref: Hard Drive. Wallace & Erickson. 1992
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
*WOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!*
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Or is this whole story a joke of some kind? Why would M$ treat interns this well?
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
To clear a few things up (I was an intern last year who knew some of this years interns)
- this doesn't cost millions. I recall asking a recruiter last year how much it cost. For those going "how dare they lay off a bunch of people", this doesn't cost the equivalent salaries of more than a couple employees. Not that I am happy to say MS had to lay people off, but it's not like they laid off 200 people to do this.
- the xboxes were refurbished, not new.
Recall that over half of the interns will likely come back as full time employees, where their salaries will make this look like nothing...
Bill Gates holds the world record for the largest donation to charity in the history of earth.
Where's my free sex?
Ever see a carnival that takes in several city streets and blocks traffic for the duration? It depends on the city, but most cities will, for the right price, allow companies, or even private citizens to purchase the rights to have exclusive control over specific public facilities or resources for a short period of time. It's usually not cost effective to do so, and you're therefore not likely to see a great deal of it. The only example I know of with real numbers would be the First Saturday sale in Dallas, TX. I don't even know if it's still there, but back in the mid 90's when I was a vendor there for a few months, I asked about it. For a few public parking lots and to block one street in Dallas on a Saturday, they paid $5000 for a 24 hour permit.
And yes, you can rent cops.. in uniforms... with cars, for pretty much anything you want.
The real question isn't how they could do such a thing, but why they would even bother. I never thought of a group of interns going to a Harry Potter movie as being an event worthy of a police escort, let alone requiring one.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
Given this is some PR piece, it is still telling what nuggets are exposed (in the summary, which is more than enough for this reader). Let's see here:
WTF?! Yeah, who doesn't know that "special feeling" you get with a police car on your tail for the last 20 minutes of a post-midnight excursion. Last time that happened to me (in Cupertino of all places, go figure), I didn't really think "yeah, this is just like Microsoft", but maybe next time that's what will be on my mind!
WTF?!**2 [0] Can't feature a tech type, since Google is more attractive to those. Can't feature a visionary, since those tend to require freedom (to have visions and, you know, innovate). Besides, those would also find a better siren song from Google. What's left? Larval parasitic bureaucrat-functionary types (i.e., the MBA crowd), that's what. Possibily to ameliorate this obvious weakness, there's a nice non-WASP name thrown in the mix.
Feh. Must you consort with minors?
Thanks, Microsoft. Now, I need to go wash my keyboard...
-
[0] (props to Backus -- he did have the balls to dis von Neumann, after all)
the turnover rate in IT is insane. it's very hard for companies to hold on to employees.
even with providing a dream job, many will leave simply because 'they feel like it'.
other leave because they get 'bored' even though they're provided with challenges and diversity.
then you've got the expectations of gen-y & millenials
they enter the market expecting very flexible hours and high pay (50k+ start)
no concept of possibly having to 'work hard' to earn those benefits
of course if companies don't meet expectations they'll get no employees
and so business has had to make consessions and 'woo' potentials
that was prior to / around the gfc
with any luck some sense has been knocked into people
Good money, plenty of perks... this is not the Apple way.
A few years ago the company was on the brink of disaster and made huge salary cuts. Now they are making sh*tloads of money, thanks to the iPod and iPhone, but the salaries are still low. Last year, Techcrunch published data pulled from Glassdoor.com, showing that Apple engineers are paid 15-20% less than their counterparts at Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.
Some food for thought: who made more money at Microsoft? Steve Ballmer or Bill Gates? and who made more money at Apple? Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak? Engineers always have been a commodities for Apple.
lucm, indeed.
When I was an intern at a local dev shop, I had 2 main projects on which I was the sole developer.. Cracking and extracting data from a bizarre proprietary compression scheme, and writing a PCL5 emulator/converter... I only got $10/hour doing it, but it was a lot more interesting/educational than anything I've done since I graduated and started making 5x times that much.
Actually, Warren Buffet's $30B donation is nearly 3x that of Bill Gates.
For those who missed the dot-com boom, read this: "In the outer lobby and decadent smoking lounge, the top sales guys from VA Linux flashed their nametags in an effort to secure some immediate female profit taking from one of the most impressive IPOs of recent weeks. Elsewhere the women of Snowball danced with wild abandon and Dexter from Scent.com tried to sell me a unit that would include smell in my daily internet experience. As I quietly exited the scene, I caught view of a woman in a long dress being pulled off of the dancing cage for the second time..."
(SF Girl wasn't making that stuff up. It was real. I went to some of those parties.)
A free trip to the latest Harry Potter movie (which isn't even very good compared to its predecessors) is lame in comparison.
Then again, Microsoft is profitable.
Microsoft Interns Still Feel the Love
These evil soulless spawn's of Satan have learned to love there'll be no stopping them now!
I have never worked for MS. I don't want to work for MS. I have never even seen you on slashdot. I hope you die in a fire.
I interned for Microsoft in 2008 and for Google last summer.
At Microsoft, we got a police escort to the zoo. But, to be honest, while the story casts it as a VIP thing, it's actually set up to minimize traffic disruption.
Microsoft has 800+ interns in the Redmond area, which means about 20 buses if they need to go anywhere at once. Attempting to push 20 buses through already congested streets is a nightmare. Better to shut down the roads for a couple of minutes than risk an accident or clog up the streets.
The housing benefit isn't exactly a steal. You can share an apartment (with another MS intern) for about $600/mo, or they will give you $3000 to find housing on your own. I chose the latter.
Relocation costs are effectively plane fare plus a couple of days of car rental, or mileage if you drive.
I was offered a full-time job, but I turned it down because I was more interested in graduate school. The full time job is contingent on working for the same group that you interned with. I must admit that the package they offer is pretty tempting.
Google paid me considerably more than Microsoft. I worked in my home city (Boulder CO), so I didn't need relocation or housing. I did get to spend a week in Mountain View (paid for by Google) for orientation and training.
Google didn't have any major events in Boulder, but I'm not sure about Mountain View.
Google's interview process was considerably easier than Microsoft's, but that's because at Microsoft interns go through the full interview process (for me, two phone interviews plus 4 interviews onsite at Microsoft). Google does not offer interns full-time jobs unless they go through a conversion process that includes the full interview track.
Both Microsoft and Google had me doing real work that went into actual products. My code was reviewed, just like a normal employee. I went to meetings, had performance evaluations, and worked an 8-9 hour day, just like a normal employee.
By the way, if anyone wants to know about the interview process:
- Neither company asks 'brain-teaser' questions anymore. It's straight-up CS fundamentals, algorithms, and data structures.
- I was interviewed by actual developers from the teams that I ended up working for. These people know their shit and will see through BS.
There's no magic trick or great mystery here. Either you know your shit and can get hired, or you don't and it will be apparent.
OK i get that this post has an incorrect assumption that is clarified by trepity, but how the fuck is this trolling? Its a genuine question, and tbh i would be pretty angry if it were true. or to put it another way, learn to mod fscking noobs!
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
Let me know when the waaaahmbulance arrives...
The standard rule of compensation seems to apply here:
a) everyone else is paid too much for what they do
b) I don't get paid nearly enough for what I do
Your ZiL on the way to the 'party' to watch western movie and get gifts.
The streets cleared for the bright Komsomol kids.
Then back to learning how to embrace extend and extinguish the world.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
*shrug*
If I had those same perks as an intern, I'd be happy about it too. It's silly to claim their situation isn't a good thing, just because other people live differently.
http://www.physorg.com/news170614813.html
As for the Pacific Science Center shindig, he said, "It's actually a fairly low-budget effort because of our relationships with the studios and that kind of thing." He said the police escort "is a nice story for the students. The truth of the matter is we just try to cooperate with the police when we're trying to move a dozen buses across town at rush hour."
(A State Patrol spokesman said police escorts are contracted privately and paid for by the person or company that hires them.)
Apparently, it is perfectly legal.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
If the parent douchebag would have read what the person hes aiming this at was talking to, he would have realized it was sarcasm to point out the others idiocy... talk about woosh...
"It's ok, I'm completely secure as long as my iron is off"
In this tough economic time, with unemployment approaching 10% (in the U.S.), let me be the first to say FUCK YOU!
In a world where many people have never made a phone call [...] let me be the first to say FUCK YOU!
"I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know." -- Mark Twain
You should have interned at Microsoft.
If the rest of the world wasn't so disorganized perhaps they could generate their own wealth. It is not Microsoft's fault, nor Libertarian001's fault... or either of their concerns. "Hey let's all cut back our salaries and send what's saved to idiots halfway across the world". Perfect business model. I see the university system worked very well on you, Mr. Sand Tiger.
There are over 36 million lines of COBOL code in the world, and they are all raping children.
Touch mah fro!
There are over 36 million lines of COBOL code in the world, and they are all raping children.
I can't tell if "Aripota" is a different language or if you're from the south end of london, although, I guess the latter is just a subcategory of the former.
The problem I have with all those love stories (cough) is the lack of OUTPUT. MS as well as Google hire the best of the best, yet Google has been coming up with lots of new ideas and only recently started to exhibits evidence of a slide to the evil side (they're in the grey zone, not quite "evil" yet).
MS has been in the evil corner pretty much from even before Worries for Workgroups, but only recently have I seen a bit of what could be called innovation. Normally they appear to either buy it (Visio) or steal it (Stacker).
So WTF happens to the brains they absorb? Are they just assimilated into the hivemind Gates? Do they carry chairs for Ballmer? It must take some savage mismanagement to have so much brainpower and not produce anything *new*..
You think jealousy and rage that others are better off than you constitutes perspective?
It doesn't.
Amnesty International
If the rest of the world wasn't so disorganized perhaps they could generate their own wealth. It is not Microsoft's fault, nor Libertarian001's fault... or either of their concerns.
Maybe I misunderstood him, but I took his post to be illustrating exactly that point. I think his last line "Perspective, it's what's for dinner" seems to indicate that.
http://marriedmansexlife.com/
The best things in life are free
But you can keep them for the birds and bees
Now give me money
That's what I want
That's what I want, yeah
That's what I want
You're lovin' gives me a thrill
But you're lovin' don't pay my bills
Now give me money
That's what I want
That's what I want, yeah
That's what I want
Money don't get everything it's true
What it don't get, I can't use
Now give me money
That's what I want
That's what I want, yeah
That's what I want, wah
Money don't get everything it's true
What it don't get, I can't use
Now give me money
That's what I want
That's what I want, yeah
That's what I want
Well now give me money
Ow, money
Wow, yeah, I wanna be free
Oh I want money
That's what I want
That's what I want, well
Now give me money
ow, money
Wow, yeah, you need money
now, give me money
That's what I want, yeah
that's what I want, yeah
http://marriedmansexlife.com/
So did Al Capone. And so do all of these Colombian gentlemen in the "import-export" business...
You see, contrary to what some "free market" fetishists would have you believe, "giving people jobs" or "making piles of money" are by themselves insufficient criteria to evaluate worthiness of some individuals' activity.
This "advice" only works if the entity you are advising to "stop buying" from does not hold a de-facto monopoly in some area of the marketplace. Otherwise it is akin to advising some poor shmuck to "stop eating" if he "doesn't like buying stuff from the company store with his company scrip"
You think jealousy and rage that others are better off than you constitutes perspective? It doesn't.
Who said anything about jealousy? I'm talking about being able to see where all those license fees are going. Rage, yes, because that money could be used for other, more useful things.
And 'better off' is a highly subjective metric, by the way. In many countries in the world, it's not merely a synonym for 'rich'. I meet more happy people here in a day that I used to meet in a year in North America.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
RIGHT ON! I want to live in a society where there is absolutely no economic disparity! JUST THINK OF THE OPPORTUNITIES!
I would feel the love too. Free Xbox, I'd sell mine. But with Microsoft, the free Xbox probably comes in a blank cardboard box, even then I'd eBay sell it.
In addition to being paid $4,600-$6,000 a month, a housing stipend, and relocation costs for the summer, the 600 or so Microsoft apprentices enjoyed other perks â" such as a police escort to speed their way to a private museum party where they screened the most recent Harry Potter movie and were given a free Xbox 360. I mean really? being paid $4,600-$6,000 a month I'd be fucking happy too. Pay me that as an intern and basically treat me like a CEO/COO/VP/PRESIDENT, ridiculous shit my friends.
Sure, so they've converted 500 interns into programmers.
In the same timeframe, how many programmers have they hired in their overseas operations?
Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
I'm a Microsoft intern in the UK, and unfortunately we don't get any of this royalty treatment. Free coke though, which again didn't turn out to be anywhere near as exciting as we expected!
Grand Theft Wiki
maybe you weren't good enough to swing a paying internship. for as much as the average slashdotter likes to make themselves out to be gods gift to modern technology the sad truth is that most of you aren't much better than the schmuck living in his mom's basement working the geek squad. you were fortunate enough to position yourself for a better job. that's all. ms sought these people out. that's the real mark of how good someone is.
don't feel bad though. you probably did better than most. just not as good as some others.
$4500-$6000 a month is a LOT of coin for pretty much most of the country not containing coastline.
Truthfully, this is real news to me, I never heard of interns making that kind of money. In this economy - and yes, I'm talking about the US - it just seems... absurd.
The Google query (( CHAKALES WHITFIELD CNN SEP 12 )) gets you to the transcript of a CNN video which at this very moment is about 1/5 from the top of their scrollbar-of-videos. With her 3.0 GPA, along with many others she plans to save tons of money by accepting the full in-state-scholarship AS LONG AS she maintains the 3.0 GPA. Game-theory-wise just a little ways down the road the state would be able to save tons of money just by say reforming to cure the (predicted) grade-inflation-crisis. CNN will probably follow her pretty face into the future, we'll see....
If you don't like it, feel free to stop buying Microsoft and STFU.
Been doing that for years.
As an intern, the pay didn't seem too bad to me. I actually took a pay cut from another internship to go to Microsoft. However, it seemed a little odd that they were doing this even when they were laying people off.
It seems that the company wants to be frugal, but they have such a sense of entitlement there that they don't know how to do it.
Except for the STFU part, clearly.
In a world where many people have never made a phone call, where children still get polio or die from malaria, where there are some people who make less than $30 USD in a year, let me be the first to say FUCK YOU!
In a world where many people are born without arms, legs, a mouth or a stomach, where living in a hospital is a way of life and it takes hours to communicate a single word, where any amount of money is meaningless, let me be the first to say FUCK YOU! Seriously, thesandtiger, what the hell is the matter with you? You honestly think that showing off by typing out your opinion to bitch about people bitching about other people's fortune is a good idea? Asshole.
Perspective
It's turtles all the way down, bitch.
Bill Gates holds the world record for the largest donation to charity in the history of earth.
1) That seems to be false, buffet gave more - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5115920.stm
2) So what? If I robbed a load of people and donated that money to charity it would not make me a good person in the eyes of most people.
more importantly, how many programmers have they *fired* recently, and then recruited these not-so-cheap interns to replace them?
Experience is still valued much more than a degree, though I guess there's still a trade-off with salary. I worked with an intern and I work within a team that expects fast solutions to difficult problems. The intern produced poor results for what our team needed.
Perhaps in other teams quality isn't so much of an issue and costs are. Also, I think it's just like with top business school graduates compared to other schools: those who are the best of the best get treated the best. Meanwhile, others are just so so get treated as such.
Interview questions are probably tailored for what the interviewer expects of the interviewee, including lack of experience and lots of CS book knowledge.
Guys, these are Wharton MBA interns. Of course they get paid a lot.
- Neither company asks 'brain-teaser' questions anymore. It's straight-up CS fundamentals, algorithms, and data structures.
Having worked at MS for a little while now, this isn't strictly true. I was tested with both brain teasers and CS fundamentals (although the emphasis on specific data structures was minimal). I think it depends entirely on what the interviewer wants to know about you.
$6000 a month is peanuts for top 1% of the talent. These people are much much more valuable to have as your employees and unfortunately these kids rarely know how much they are really worth.
Most of the "middle career" guys who are thinking "that's a lot of money to give to an intern", or "more than what I make" should also know they will never be as good as these elite kids are out of school. Some of these guys will go on and make new languages and next gen optimizing compilers and tools, and OSes that "middle career" guys will spend years struggling to learn and program in.
As the island of our knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.
Before I get too angry, I should make sure I'm clear on something. Does this mean Microsoft paid money for people to get preferred treatment on the roads?
It means they paid for the roads, (sic) the escort service, and the local economy/society/American dream. This is what happens when people automatically respect money more than people, society or community. Social status is automatically elevated when cash or celebrity or public ceremony is conspicuously consumed. Then, all participants presume arch-typical role of importance. Those playing cops on the beat turn into motorcades on overtime pay. Browning their noses for the local royalty, and fantasizing their future lottery jackpot. Every one is a slut, deep down inside their shallow, empty wallets. Its so easy in "free" markets, since everything can be bought, including talent, or perhaps one's eternal soul.
So did Al Capone. And so do all of these Colombian gentlemen in the "import-export" business...
You see, contrary to what some "free market" fetishists would have you believe, "giving people jobs" or "making piles of money" are by themselves insufficient criteria to evaluate worthiness of some individuals' activity.
This "advice" only works if the entity you are advising to "stop buying" from does not hold a de-facto monopoly in some area of the marketplace. Otherwise it is akin to advising some poor shmuck to "stop eating" if he "doesn't like buying stuff from the company store with his company scrip"
Do they also teach you to suck blood?
Can't say that I'm surprised about this. My alma mater (University of Toronto) used to have major Microsoft recruiting events that were just out of this world. I'm a chemical engineer with minimal programming experience and I wouldn't have stood a chance at the jobs Microsoft was offering, but I sure as hell went to every recruiting event they had. Free pizza and soda, Xbox 360 giveaways, and demos on the latest upcoming projects like Windows 7? Seems like a great way to spend a Tuesday afternoon.
Sometimes the experienced gained is well worth it. Of course, that's an individual call...
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
That *is* a lot of money to give to an intern, and some of us have had more fun during our careers than some of those interns will ever see.
Writing languages and compiler optimizers isn't that hard. Try writing software to US Government specs. :-)
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
Awww, poor you. Maybe if you weren't a shithead, you'd be employed.