Back at Microsoft: GeorgeRe -> a-GeorgR

Two weeks ago, I went back to Microsoft. I'm now a contractor in Windows Emerging Markets, working on a research project for an architect. What we're doing is quite interesting and I hope to be able to talk about it someday.

I left MS in February, after seven years on the IIS dev team. I started out as a contractor writing sample ASP components. I progressed to working on Active Server Pages performance and quickly became a fulltime employee. I graduated to working on IIS Performance in general, and became the IIS Performance Lead for a few years. In the fall of 2000, I decided that I wanted to go back to being an individual contributor, and I worked on http.sys for the next two years, learning a lot about life in the kernel. Finally, I spent more than a year as the owner of the ADSI and WMI providers for the IIS metabase.

When I left, I was burnt out and fed up. I spent the next few months doing non-technical things: house renovations, cooking, the Seattle International Film Festival, travelling, photography, woodworking.

I'm no Microsoft millionaire, so I needed to go back to work eventually. But it didn't have to be this year.

After I got back from a month in Europe in late July, I found that I was drifting, without much to show for my day. I'd read a lot of blogs and cook dinner. I did half-heartedly start a study circle with a couple of unemployed friends, but my heart wasn't really in it.

I had long ago said that I wouldn't start looking for work before August. When August came around, I updated my resumé and sent it out to Amazon and Adobe. I never heard back from Adobe, but I interviewed at Amazon. I thought I had done well, but they decided not to make an offer. Too bad. Amazon is interesting and the Pac-Med building is less than two miles from my house.

My friend Muhsin told me of a contract in his new team at Microsoft: the job that I ended up taking. While I was interviewing for that position, one of the interviewers liked me enough to offer me another contract position on the team, if the first one didn't work out. Another old friend, Delf, is on the team too.

It's nice to be in demand. It helps that I have a strong resumé with twenty years' experience and a broad range of skills. I have friends who've been looking for tech jobs for many months, years even, in some cases. Certainly, my track record at Microsoft eased my way back.

It's a little odd to be back at Microsoft, or even back at work. I was somewhat sour on the Microsoft experience when I left, but the time off and the new job are refreshing. A contract suits me for now. I wasn't ready to make a full-time commitment to Microsoft again and this contract pays fairly well. So far, so good.