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28/9/09 Twelfth Week

Monday morning and I needed to be in 3 places at once; in the all days presentations to Corp (the bosses from the US); the BMO ‘All-hands’ (a 1/2 day meeting for everyone in my company segment) and at my desk helping out Ian with the last minute preparations for the DMC which was the next day. Working together Ian and I made good progress, we ended up leaving the offices at around 4 to get down to London to prep the conference hall and do rehearsals with all the speakers. In the evening I met up with the rest of the team who’d travelled down to London for dinner with Corp. Once again this was not done on the cheap and I had the biggest Dover Sole I’d ever seen at the restaurant where Jamie Oliver first made his name.

The DMC went well with both session tracks running on time. My contribution of digital and social media was a success and it all came as a great relief after weeks of preparation. That evening we had a celebratory meal at a restaurant close to the venue which was a laugh and the next day the team had a late start followed by a team meeting at the hotel before commuting back to the offices.

On Thursday we had a lunch meeting with the director of our segment (BMO). It was interesting to hear the team grilling someone senior about the everyday problems they encounter and to hear his responses. Most interesting for me however were the insights he gave into career progression at Microsoft (and other MNC’s i’m sure). It was his thinking that once you get to a certain management level that you hit a glass ceiling. You cannot pass though this ceiling and onto more senior positions unless you either have international or cross segment experience and if you are not prepared to move segments or move country, pretty soon it is likely you will be made to move companies. Microsoft demands innovation which often means a short shelf life for each person in a role (4 years max) and although I understand this philosophy, there is a danger that you end up with a company of employees who could be classed as ‘jack of all trades master of none’.

Having the opportunity to hear career observations from someone so senior and so successful is why I value my time at Microsoft so highly, its having a monumental impact on the vision of where I see my career progressing.

Thursday afternoon I had 2 University friends that I stayed with in China previous to starting at Microsoft visit me at work. I showed them round the offices and I think by the time they left they were very impressed by what they’d seen at Microsoft. It was great to catch up and hear what was going on with them and to show them what I’d been up to at work.

On Friday I caught up with all the little jobs I’d missed over the previous few days and continued with my projects. At the weekend all the interns had organised to go paintballing, which was a great laugh but being a bit trigger happy meant it turned out to be an expensive weekend.