Month: December 2023

On my sophomore year at the University of Miami, I moved to an apartment on campus.  My college career started the year before, as I settled into Pearson Hall, one of the dorms on the edge of campus.  Over the course of the past year, I formed friendships with a number of classmates and neighbors.  As we finished our freshman year, we got an opportunity to sign up for an on-campus apartment.  Initially, one of us signed up for the apartment and penciled the remainder of our names.  The rest of us learned through word of mouth and subsequently rushed to the housing office to verify our names.

During my years of study, life became a series of obstacles to navigate.  My attention shifted from working for money to logistics about school (like where I’d be living) to learning my field and passing my classes.  Having addressed the ‘where I’d be living next year’ problem, I could focus on the other issues.  Though honestly, as the summer approached, my main focus was to work in order to save and sustain myself through college.

Having spent an extra year in college getting a second major, I arrived at Microsoft in July of 1991.  Washinton lies clear across the country of my home state of Florida.  I landed that first real job after graduating, and in most measurable ways, I became an adult.  I paid my own bills, had my own place, and contributed to society in a meaningful way.  My job involved learning, understanding, and doing a class of thing that few people do.  I took pride in it.

That said, Microsoft during the 1990’s was both an incredible place to learn and thrive and somewhat of a corporate dorm party.  Many places brag about flex time, which is little more than basically saying that you don’t have a time clock.  Microsoft took it to another level.  If you could accomplish all your work between midnight and 8am and never see another human, it was fine.  We were siloed, vertical stacks of technical information, and that was fine.  Most new employees got their own offices upon arrival or shortly after; this only exacerbated the problem.