1/2 the pay, 2/3 the workday, and with soul intact. And I could
        chase after 18 year old coeds. thanks.
        \_ rank the following: pay, job satisfaction (which would give you
           more job satisfaction), work-life balance, job security
        \_ I returned to a campus job and found it tough to adjust because
           everything is so slow and everybody seems so lazy.
        \_ a couple days ago, watching a movie on Bravo, they said:
           "You're watching 'The Godfather', presented by Microsoft"
        \_ MSR has some stellar people on board, and is one of the best
           places in industry to pursue independent research (i.e. they
           like their employees to publish, you have little pressure to
           do research that contributes to the bottom line, reasonable hours
           by Microsoft standards) ... it's also a prestigious place to be.
                \_ yeah it's the BEST research company cuz all the Lucent
                   IBM Xerox laid off researcher needed a job so they went to
           \_ (1) $40 BILLION CASH (2) MONOPOLY.
                   MS. In another word MS acquired the research team, just
                   like the way they acquired 80% of the game companies.
                   \_ I heard that M$ stole a bunch of Sun and Adobe employees
           It's fairly silly to blame Microsoft for "stealing" or "acquiring"_/
           employees. What, you think these brilliant people you admire
           for their research accomplishments are merely robotic sheep who
           placidly accept Microsoft's offer when their old companies go
           tits-up? The people I know there, and there are many, went there
           having lots of other offers but thought MSR had the best
           intellectual environment.
        \_ What makes you think MS will still be around in their current form
           in the long term?
           \_ (1) $40 BILLION CASH RESERVES (2) MONOPOLY.
              \_ 1) cant live forever on even that much cash once 2) their
                 monopoly goes tits up.  I give it 5 years, tops.
                 \_ So you are saying youre shorting their stock?
                    They could lose $1 BILLION every quarter and still
                    be around 10 years. In 10 years though, their bank
                    interest, license-fees and upgrade-fees will make
                    their cash position even stronger. And after awhile
                    they wont have to increase their "microsoft research"
                    spending anymore because they will own all the
                    industry researchers.
           \_ what makes you think the US will still be around in its current
              form in the long term?
              \_ President Bill Gates would have made the US a wholely-owned
                 subsidiary of Micro$oft by then.
                 \_ I know you're joking but I sometimes see people who say and
                    mean things like this who don't understand the *vast*
                    size difference between the federal government or even any
                    state governmeny and the largest corporations on the
                    planet.  Taxation yields greater income than profit with
                    less effort.
        \_ Okay, serious answer now.  My impression is that MSR has a lot of
           good people in certain areas, but are not absolutely top notch in
           every field.  Also, rumor is MSR is becoming more product oriented.
           They don't make life absolutely difficult for pure theoreticians,
           but some sort of involvement with product groups is highly
           encouraged.  With that being said, it's still one of the best
           industry research labs around.  Indeed with all the other big names
           crumbling one after the other, they seem to be the only ones still
           breathing.  Yeah sure, you'll be joining the "darkside," but hey,
           the same can be said about being American.  It's not so bad once
           the scar from the chip implant heals.  -- alice
        \_ M$ just does this to try to legitimize themselves. It's
           not worth as much as it should be.