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March 15, 2005
My Letter to Microsoft (April 2004)
Since I talk a lot about it, here is my correspondence between Microsoft and myself last year as I was about to graduate. I would have posted it earlier but I lost my copy of it, then today I asked Alex if she had a copy, and she did. So here it is.
The original note:
My name is Alison Gere and I am the Microsoft College Recruiter for New Mexico Tech. I found your name on NMT’s graduating seniors list. I am writing to see if you are interested in considering job opportunities at Microsoft. We are currently looking for people interested in Software Development, and we have both permanent and summer internship opportunities available. If you are interested in considering Microsoft, I would like the opportunity to take a look at your resume and see if you are a fit for the positions we currently have available. I invite you to visit our website at http://www.microsoft.com/college to learn more about our jobs, the company, and our College Recruiting program in general. Please email me your resume if you are interested in being considered.
My response:
Alison,
I am quite pleased by your email, and the fortuitous timing of it. I must tell you that it is only because of the combination of your good timing and the positive wording of your email that brings us to this equitable foundation upon which we might be able to create a professional relationship of mutual benefit.
I confess, there are certain ethical misgivings which I have about pursuing a career as a software developer for your corporation, as it has been demonstrated judicially several times the lack of proper restraint in Microsoft’s business dealings. I am afraid I will not be able to step around my ideological dispute with the organization to enough of a degree to actually output any tangible volume of closed-source software under the Microsoft Corp, or perform any other action which directly assists Microsoft.
However, as I stated, there is a course of action which we may discuss, in which both of us may find common ground. That would be a contractual relationship compensating myself as a developer or software engineer of Microsoft, in exchange for remaining unemployed by your competition. I am currently in negotiations with one of your primary competitors for gainful employment [Edit: it was Sun], and I would be willing discontinue these negotiations to enter into an agreement with Microsoft for salary comparable to that of an employed engineer. In short, you can pay for me to not do your organization indirect harm through benefiting your competition. We can discuss whether or not this contract would also exclude open source development, if you so desire—though I would like to continue studying and contributing to the free software movement, I am willing to curtail such activity if deemed necessary by my benefactor, as I am under the impression open source software is seen as a threat by Microsoft. I am open to much greater discussion of these terms.
I have included my resume with this message, please feel free to look it over and email me with any questions you have. I regret that I am unable to serve as a Microsoft developer, as I am fully aware of the pleasure it is and the excellent compensation it offers through tales from my peers. I furthermore regret that the method outlined in this email, or one similar to it, is the only one in which I would be able to benefit Microsoft, but it is the only course of action which I can ethically permit myself to take for your advantage. I hope to make up for this inflexibility with greater flexibility in terms of what I am willing to not do for Microsoft.
Thank you for your time, Alison, and I hope that you regard this email with the full gravity as is intended.
I hope to hear from you soon,
—
Daniel
I was a little surprised I didn’t hear back from her ever. Maybe in a few more years I should try this again. :)
Posted by FusionGyro at March 15, 2005 09:02 PM
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