I survived my first two days, much of which was taken up with the new employee orientation (aka “NEO”). I can’t say I enjoyed the orientation very much. It was run by a guy who was very nice, but too polished. Too much of it felt forced. (“Now find someone in the room you don’t know, and tell each other your ‘Microsoft story’.”) There was also a long talk from the legal department, much of which I felt was somewhat disingenuous.
All in all, though, it’s been a good two days. Many aspects of the bureaucracy actually work the way they should, and many things are set up for online self-service, which expedites the process. I’ve already gotten my parking permit, received a bus pass, been issued my magical cardkey, signed up for a health club (Microsoft-paid), consumed more than my share of free Diet Cokes, moved into a very nice (though somewhat bare) office, configured my desktop PC, gotten my tablet added to the network, had a lovely lunch with other MSR researchers at a teriyaki spot next to my office building, and gotten a chance to bond a bit with Lilia, who did indeed go through orientation with me (and helped keep me sane).
Tomorrow will be my first full day at MSR, which will probably be spent learning my way around the software, configuring things to work the way I want, and trying to get over the fact that I won’t be using my Powerbook at work. (Apparently it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to set Macs up so that they work on the wifi, though I may yet ask them to approve it for use on the wired net if I can’t overcome my withdrawal.) I’m going to check out the cafeteria in the building next door tomorrow, as well. I’m not sure yet to what extent I can take pictures of things (the guidelines on what’s okay and not okay to blog are still not clear to me…), but if I can I will.
I’ll be spending a lot of time over the next few weeks talking to my new colleagues, getting a sense of the current projects, and figuring out how I can fit best into the mix. I can tell already that the informal interactions are going to be wonderful.
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