elizabeth grigg - the other fourth meal

Like most bloggers, I occasionally troll the logs for some referring URL of interest. There hasn't been tons, mostly because if you're reading this you're reading through a newsreader and therefore anonymous. Due to my old blog's longevity on radio's servers, as well as a crusty old link from Scoble pointing to it, the radio blog seems to enjoy more fame than this one, despite far less relevance and being far less interesting in the first place. Other ways of expanding my network have seemed too formalized, Technorati, LinkedIn, it's all I can do to write, actually. And I'm grateful for that.

One of the most popular themes I had going in the last blog I had, was how to interview at Microsoft. I'm assuming it's popular because it was a common search string from which my old blog drew a hit. Finding this out put me in a slightly charlatan position, because although I know lots on the subject, I can't say to be very successful at it. For example, one time I flunked out because I forgot about the mod operator. This was after claiming that I was very technical. You should have seen the look on my face. "Plus, minus, add, subtract, and... ummm... " Then I went through the booleans. Oh well, better luck next time.

I'm posting this because I'm fighting the urge to do a massive brain dump on all my interviews right here in this blog. Fighting valiantly and winning so far. First of all, I think I might have signed something saying I shouldn't talk about it. Second, it's not what I'm all about. If I miss with an interview I usually have a nice overpriced steak with friends, ending in some sort of "never again" and "screw them" type of exclamation over drinks, and then I get back going the next day wanting more. (Not more interviews, by the way, but more of Microsoft. Is that strange?) And a last reason not to post a brain dump is it would guaranteed boost my readership and I just don't want to be about that. I want to boost readership from people who enter search strings such as "sack lunch +microsoft." Okay, nobody has ever done this, but with my help maybe they might.

Speaking of sack lunches, I finally came off my cooking boycott and bought groceries at trader joes. Lunch was a pepper turkey and bacon sandwich, with lettuce and tomato on white. I cooked the bacon this morning so it was fresh and crisp. Side dishes were creamline maple yogurt, grapes, and a little bag of carrots. It was like the first day of school.

The reason why I'm weeping in my beer this week is that I thought I had a great lead on a UI program manager job at MS. The hiring manager wanted me to move forward with the recruiter. Then I got a note from the recruiter saying that I was not qualified, and that it was inappropriate for me to have contacted the hiring manager in the first place. This is because I'm a contractor. Completely new information to me. But what do I do with it?

Now, I love Microsoft and I respect rules, and I also respect how hiring managers must feel when they post a job and people like me stand outside their door drawing pictures and code on their tablet and pressing it up against the glass, like little kids asking for money from tourists in a third world country. I also appreciate how these rules protect them, and protect me from getting sued. I also appreciate how there is a historical cultural rift between contractors and FTEs at Microsoft and there is a whole system in place to smooth that over, including this no contact rule I just found out about. However, my current contractor position is ending and the only reason I have a new one is that I contacted a hiring manager directly for a FTE position and we just made up a contract job on the spot. I can't tell you how happy this new position makes me. It's like being on standby and then getting a seat on the plane. Assuming you really want to get wherer you're going, that is. I'm really realllly happy about it. So, what's a good girl to do, follow the rules, or break them?

I'm still heavily conflicted by this new information, as well as the tone in which it was delivered, and I'm glad to put the old (and I mean ooooold) search for a FTE job at Microsoft on the back burner for a while. I'll let existing leads take their course, but no more job agents and job carts at the career site for a while.

I can't say enough good things about the technical careers blog, and hope that I never have to hear bad news from either of the lovely contributors.