ZogBlog

I've read the Job's Blog. I've watched two of my coworkers get snapped up by MCS (shoutout to Dave and Mark - you lucky bastards). I've even met a number of Microsoft folks who are dumbfounded why I'm not already working for Microsoft. I've even been accused by some MCS folks as being more knowledgeable about Microsoft (the company) than anyone they know (man - I really should own stock)! You'd think I would have had the opportunity to work for Microsoft long ago - either in MCS or with MSN. But you'd be wrong.

I've been to the campus (C# SummerCamp / July 2002). I've submitted my resume into the "system" (which I hear sometimes takes years to bear fruit). I've had my resume passed into MCS via internal referal's. Nothing.

Then, back in May 2005... a non-Microsoft email caught my eye. It was for an SDE/T (Software Design Engineer / Test) position at the MSN campus. I figured it was some form of spam at first (since I have ZERO tester experience) - but then I followed up with Gretchen Ledgerd from the Job's Blog. Turns out it was legitimate... but the position filled before I could respond (or I assume since I never got an email response). As for having no tester experience - Gretchen said:

By the way, just for the record, we specifically don't look for tester experience when we hire SDETs b/c SDETs are developers with an empathy toward quality. If we look for testers at other companies, we don't find good SDETs. Just wanted to throw that in. :)"

Then last week - I got another knock. I don't think I'm ready to move out to Bellevue (funny that - isn't that a name synonamous with a famous insane asylum? hehe) with my 6 yo son living in Pennsylvania. Certainly flying him out might be too much for him this early on... but then again, it IS Microsoft.

My first Tech Screen unfortunately was also my last. I didn't know anything about SCRUM - and haven't even used MSF Agile (let alone read up on the Agile methodoligies). I've never even done a unit test. (though I do have an empathy towards quality <g>) It's OK. It would have been nice to make it a little bit farther... but even if it had worked out (eg. their requirements matched my skillset) - I'm not sure I would have wanted to move to Washington state just yet. Oh well, I'm happy with my position at MicroTech, LLC. - I just wish I had the time to get my ms-dev cert (now that the MCAD has gone away with .NET 2.0 -> Microsoft Certified Specialist?).

In late January / early February (when I first started at MicroTech, LLC.) I began to learn all about SharePoint 2003 development. I read the SharePoint MVP blogs (Eugene, Brad, etc.) of our sister-company (MicroLink, LLC.) hit Google, and began to learn all about ASP.NET (1.1) ServerControls and SharePoint.WebPart's. Every day I was learning more... and trust me - it was an uphill battle the whole way. One after another of my understanding of the basic's of ASP.NET 1.1 were brought into serious question. For instance, try writing a table with out HTML or a design view! Or how about wiring up an event in a completely different way from standard ASP.NET! Or even try persisting a simple value if the SharePoint webpart factory seems to kill it! And what about using MSDAAB? Nope, sorry. Or try configuring remote debugging over sharepoint! I dare you! I imagine much of this was due to the fact that the "dev" box I was given was actually a "production" box which has had numerous undocumented dirty hands all over its insides.

Ahh!!! And try having all of this happen without VERSION CONTROL!!! I almost lost it.

But then I came across SmartPart (for ASP.NET 1.1) and Son of SmartPart (for ASP.NET 2.0). Within days I was able to create a ASP.NET 1.1 UserControl with database access (using basic ADO.NET) - whereas building the same part as an ASP.NET ServerControl would have taken 1.5-2 weeks!! Rapid prototyping at its best BABY!

And that's just the beginning! Now that we have a WSS2.0 site on ASP.NET 2.0, all dev's have VS2005 installed, and we know have a VSS 2005 box setup - I'm going to play with ADO.NET 2.0 and the new Enterprise Library for ASP.NET 2.0 (January 2006). With the new database reflection builtin to the new EL's DatabaseFactory (for strongly typed DataSets and stored procedure / parameters) and the new connectionStrings section of the 2.0 web.config's - I'm going to be in hog heaven. Oooh, I can't wait!