[edran]

A lot of research done in Microsoft Research is blue skies research that has nothing to do with MSFT's goals. Hell, MSR for the past decade has set the example for open research in industry-controlled labs, so I would have been surprised if MSFT hadn't already started sponsoring theoretical research in STEM subjects.

(This doesn't justify a lot of the crap that MSFT and other tech corps have done to our industry over the years, but we should give credit where it's due)

[socmag]

Ex MSFT Researcher here. It's fun to work at MSR. Not everything done there is valuable, but it is very diverse and you are given pretty much Carte Blanche to fuck around with whatever you want. Just come up with some stuff now and again.

Certainly not a bunch of evil people that's for sure.

[acidbaseextract]

Just out of curiosity, why'd you leave? MSR sounds pretty great.

[socmag]

Yes well that was the sad part :P

I was working on Data Visualization at the time.

Then SQL Server decided they wanted data visualization, so they bought the entire team from MSR.

Turned out it was mostly just a way to get headcount. Pretty much everyone left or went off to other projects within six months of the transfer.

I was one of the last ones to stick around in SQL Server but it was totally depressing so I eventually quit.

In retrospect I should have done is to move to a different project in MSR. Oh well.

But MSR was cool!

[acidbaseextract]

Dang, that is sad. Data viz research sounds fun and useful. Thanks for the reply!