Wes' Puzzling Blog

I work at Microsoft. I would pick the company that'll help your career out the most.

Since I expect that you'll be working for 30 years or so in this field, which company do you think will give you a better view of the industry? Which one is doing the most interesting things (look from your own viewpoint)?

Which one has the best learning resources? Which one will you most likely build relationships with that'll help you in your career after your internship?

Yeah, get the offers first. That often solves the problem for you anyway. Have you read Chris Sells' site on interviewing at Microsoft?

@ the PDC Don Box told the audience a compelling reason for joining Microsoft was because they have the resources for him to realise his vision, he could not do it on his own.

As Robert points out it's important to evaluate what your future employer will offer to nurture you but more importantly who do you want to be and what sort of life do you want?

After answering this and perhaps other questions this raises you could pick the culture most able to make that happen based on past performance as well as their vision of the future and how that ties in with yours.

Most importantly, there is no harm in talking to lots of people about your future, don't get complacent and just let the big boys woo you (so to speak).

That's my 2p fwiw.

Well, you need to decide whether to take the REDmond pill or the Big Blue pill.
Sorry couldn't resist

First of all...congrats on both interviews. Just looking at your bio, I am impressed. In my own experience, it took me many years post college to really see and have the opporunity you have before you. The possibility to go to work for Microsoft or IBM is a great choice. I work for neither company, but as a .NET/MS developer the past 11 years, I really think that the excitement is in the MS camp. My 2 cents.

I have worked for Microsoft over the summer. It is a great experience and you will learn a lot. But I must confess, the IBM Extreme Blue internship is much more prestigious and I think as far as summer internships go, prestige will go a longer way...

Congratulations on everything. In fact I am in the exact same boat. I just got accepted into the Extreme Blue finalist pool and am flying up to Redmond soon. Personally for me, I think IBM is more prestigious and will look better on a resume, but if the project that Microsoft offers seems much better than that of the IBM project I will go with that. Of course neither one is definite yet. Does anyone know what my chances of getting an offer are now that I am in the finalist pool?

Thanks

Wow. Just realized how old this blog post was and I just posted on it. Anyways, how did everything turn out?