Vietnamese people at Microsoft

Since I was a student in the Hanoi-Amsterdam special school, I had dreamed of meeting billionaire Bill Gates once. Unexpectedly when working, fate brought me to be a member of Bill's "empire" Micorosoft (MS) right at "headquarters" Seattle (USA). Dien Trang, a Vietnamese, made MS talk about the life and work of Vietnamese people here.

Admission to MS

In 2002, after the end of the school year, a representative of the MS to our Texas state university talked about job opportunities at MS.

After listening to this talk, I found myself eligible (graduated from Summa Cum Laude, which means getting the best score in all subjects), right in the field MS needs (computer - computer science) I boldly write a job application directly to the MS representative right after the talk.

Two weeks later, a man calling to claim MS's representative wanted to talk to me. In about 30 minutes, he asked me some questions about general knowledge about computers and logic.

As if not to embarrass me, the man made it clear that I was calm, the purpose of the interview was to get acquainted and check my initial thinking. Just know what to say, even if the answer is incorrect, as long as you have a clear mindset.

Two weeks waiting, then another phone call. This time MS announced to invite me to the " headquarters " of the company located in Redmond (Seattle) to attend the final interview.

They also said the entire trip cost - including airline tickets and hotel accommodation - will be covered by the company. Needless to say, during the flight from San Antonio where I stayed in Seattle for 5 hours, deviation of 2 time zones, I was extremely nervous.

The last round of interviews lasted for a full day. In the morning, I went to Redmond and had to answer "double-handed" 5 consecutive sessions with 5 MS officials. They turn "pants" me questions about expertise such as programming, algorithms, matrix, network security. Team work ability.

Although the interview was serious, their attitude was quite friendly. It is obvious that they want to facilitate my best performance. At the end of the working day, another official took me to dinner at a luxurious restaurant. In this dinner, there is no work anymore, only baseball, weather, music .

Two weeks back in San Antonio, I was officially told that I had been accepted by MS. MS will send people to transfer all the furniture and give the ticket to the couple to just fly up to Redmond. They also briefed some other details such as salary, health insurance (for the entire family), the address of the hotel where I temporarily stayed for a month while not finding a home . All listen dream!

The first thing I did was call Vietnam to announce good news to my parents. Honestly, when I applied to work for MS I did not dare to think that I would win the exam. Because it is very difficult for Americans to work for MS right away, and every year around the world there are about 1 million applications for MS. But now the dream has come true.

I sadly recalled the early childhood, and also blessed my parents to accumulate money, sending my beliefs to America to study abroad. Also, I spent four years burying my head in books and lectures, going to work at night to make money.

Living in MS

Author (middle) with two colleagues.

The climate in Seattle is very temperate, the temperature often fluctuates 20 ^o C and there are four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. Of course, Vietnamese people like summer the most. There are many outdoor games here because there are enough rivers, lakes, sea and mountains. Winter can go to the mountains to play skiing. The whole region has about 1 million people.

Among hundreds of MS facilities worldwide, Redmond is home to the largest number of employees - about 30,000 people. The campus of MS in Redmond is quite large, with 30 buildings, two soccer fields, lakes, many woodlands .

Traveling between buildings there is a free bus system. It can be said that in Seattle MS is one of the two most important words (with Boeing). MS's taxes make prosperity for Seattle. Many public works here are funded by Bill Gates and MS.

It's been five years since Bill Gates was a staff member, but I haven't been able to speak directly to "the richest man in the world" ever, just met him at company meetings or during product announcements. MS staff respects him (but not to the extent of worship). In the area there is an artificial lake named Lake Bill, do not know whether to honor Bill Gates?

Remembering the first day when I came to MS, I was quite surprised to see such a big company but everyone was dressed extremely . bohemian. No tie, suit, anyone who likes T-shirts, T-shirts, shorts, shorts . Staff are full of skin colors.

In my group, there are 12 people, totaling 8 nationalities (Vietnam, China, Poland, India . enough). Each person usually has two to five computers with different configurations.

Working hours at MS are quite comfortable. Most employees start working days from 10 am, ending around 8 pm. Employees at home all have networked computers and they can work at home or anywhere with Internet access. Although the time is not tight, the pressure of MS staff is quite high, especially when the product is about to ship.

In general, MS is a company with a stable income in a high category compared to other software companies. People who work for MS, if they know how to cultivate, can buy houses and raise children to learn easily. Only in the second year of working for MS, my husband and I bought a four-bedroom private house, with a garden and garage containing two cars, 300 square meters wide. Of course buying installments.

Vietnamese people in MS

In MS most software groups have three divisions. The first is the program manager (program Manager, PM), who works directly with customers, designing the program to suit customers according to a common purpose of the product group.

The second is programmers (devoloper, DEV), who write code according to PM's design model. Thirdly, the program inspector (SDET) considers it to follow the design model correctly. Vietnamese people in MS participate in all 3 positions and scattered in many groups such as Windows, Office, Visual Studio, XBOX .

I do not know exactly how many Vietnamese people work at MS, but it must be a hundred. The highest position the Vietnamese hold is probably Team Manager, managing between 30 and 60 people. The longest time in the Vietnamese community in MS is 20 years.

Like all other employees, Vietnamese staff had to go through a very difficult interview process to be admitted to MS. Therefore, the qualifications of Vietnamese engineers are not inferior to other colleagues. Besides, with diligent nature, Vietnamese engineers are loved and respected by managers directly.

In the Vietnamese community, some of you are emerging, like Mr. Nguyen Quang Huy - Senior Office Developer. Anh Huy is considered the most adept character of the Vietnam Association at MS. He has joined MS since 1997 and has shipped many versions of Office. He also participated in the process of Vietnameseization of Microsoft Windows and Office. Or Mr. Vu - Applied Reseacher. Having won the first prize in international math, Mr. Vu holds a doctorate in information technology. He recently joined MS 1 year ago, working for AdCenter 7.

Vietnamese brothers often gather to play at each other's weekends. Usually, the women cook a Vietnamese dish together and the whole society has a drink and talks in MS and domestic information known through online newspapers or VTV4.

On the occasion of the Lunar New Year, the whole association often go together to collect fortune at the temple, invite each other to cook traditional dishes of the nation. When children do not have to go to school, families often invite each other to picnic. We also set up a soccer team to compete with MS's internal tournaments, but because of the lack of people, we have to " buy " some " players " from China, Mexico, England .