Well like I have been planning for quite some time, I finally visited Microsoft’s office today. I am in Seattle if some people missed it. I am staying at my uncle’s place here and enjoying the beautiful city. Yesterday, I went with him to the corporate office which is about 2 hour drive away.
A little overview of Microsoft for those of you who don’t know. Microsoft is one of the leaders in the technology industry. Their main products are Windows, XBOX, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and many others. This company was founded by Bill Gates who was also the richest man on the planet for quite some time. Like a very successful company, their corporate headquraters are spread over thousands of acres. According to wikipedia it includes more than 8 million square feet.
When I first joined Microsoft Adcenter and Microsoft Affiliates, I talked to their representatives on the phone for quite some time. Once I was done talking, I thought well I should visit their headquarters as they seem like nice people. I asked them if I could visit the Bellevue office and they said no. Then I asked about the Redmond with the redmond area and they said yes I can on business days.
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When I was visiting yesterday, I didn’t know where exactly to go, so I ended up around this first building. We went in there and I politely asked her for the tour, and this lady was very rude. I don’t want to put her name down, but the first impression of a Microsoft Employee in person wasn’t pleasant. She said only private companies are allowed to do this, and I told her I am a problogger and the reply from her was “And what does that mean to me?” World from world. I guess blogs aren’t a private business for some people. Any who… I didn’t want to waste my time arguing, so we decided to walk around the place and see how the campus is because it is a huge area.
While walking we were thinking this can’t be right. Maybe we are at a wrong place. There was this sign that I saw Main Entrance, and I am like aha maybe these people can guide me better.
Unlike the other lady at the desk, this one was a bit nice. This building was actually the recruiting center, so they had alot of cool things in their lobby. I asked her for the tour and she said there is one self-guided tour area in building 127 and she gave us some lousy directions. I asked for the address of that place so we can just enter it in the GPS, and she said she can’t give the address for security reason. This same place is actually publicly open. HMMM I wonder whats going on there. Well This lobby had XBOX 360 and other parts of it.
Well we drove around in circles because of the poor directions, but finally made it some how. We ended up this place which is a self-guided tour on only one floor. At this floor there are some cool things that I liked. Like the video that I made which is in this post below.
Also I got badges for me. Fake ones ofcourse there was this computer you can make a badge and send it to your email.
These are the 3 styles that you can make the cards. There was another one which I didn’t like alot. At this place there was a supposebly sound proof gaming room where you can play halo, car racing game and one other game. There was also a corner for their zune products and such. On the second floor, there was a shop.
I suppose if a shop is at the same place which is open for self-guided tour it would be for tourist, but not really. More than half of the things in the shop were for the employees only. Man those things had some crazy discount. Microsoft Office 2007 for only $30. Now this is a $499 software for only 30 bucks. Another thing I found funny was that I saw two guys in the line, and I asked one of them hey do you work here, and he said no. But his cart had about 8 or 9 Microsoft’s office copy, and there was a guy standing next to him. This guy said my buddy works here. Apparently his buddy was hooking him up with some decent softwares for a decent price because the guy said his buddy is buying it for him. Ofcourse he wasn’t nice enough to buy me one, and Microsoft wasn’t nice enough to give me one because of all the publicity they get here lol. Anywayz it wasn’t as good as I expected it to be. I will definately not recommend anyone else to visit their headquarters because this multi-billion dollar company does not know how to treat their guests.
I thought since this company is so big and work with so many publishers, they would atleast have tour guides, but I guess not. With a multi acre property they don’t want you to visit at all. They have a nice store but you can’t buy half the things they sell. I wanted to buy Windows Vista Ultimate edition which was only $40 but I couldn’t. I guess not everyone know how to treat their publishers like Market Leverage. These people are the nicest one to talk to when you have problems, and I am planning on visiting their headquarters also hopefully when I have time because they are not very far away. About the same distance, and I am sure they won’t let me down like Microsoft did. Sorry even though Microsoft is a big company, they will not get my support after today. Perhaps I should try visiting Apple’s headquarter. Maybe I will get a Mac Book Air … lol I want that thing and no one loves me enough to buy me that one.
Anyways I hope you guys saw the inside… There is nothing else they will let you see there. So not worth visiting and wasting the gas.
Hey, I am Syed Balkhi, The guy who is behind Balkhis Inc. I entered the industry back in 2002 not knowing a single thing. I barely spoke English at that time. In the past six years, my language barrier has been eliminated. Aside from English, now I also speak html, and php. Along with the languages I have also managed to master a few arts. Art of web-designing started when I first entered. Messing around with photoshop, I learned how to create my first web design. Now I founded a web designing firm Uzzz Productions. After running numerous amount of websites in various niche, I have mastered the art of web-development. Now I am compiling a resource of what I already know, and what I am learning on this blog. This resource is to help me if I ever need a guide to look back to, and it is help my fellow webmasters.
