Microsoft
Microsoft is obviously known world over for many products and services. The division I was contracted to worked exclusively on Sidewalk.com, the city-based search site which sold in 1999 to CitySearch (which still exists today). I worked at the Microsoft Red West campus.
My time was spent essentially as Quality Control. I reviewed pages assigned to me from someone in the previous stage of workflow, edited anything out-of-place (if applicable), then passed my approved pages to the person in the next stage via the same tool. We met once a week to discuss overall progress but mostly work was done in isolated offices with communication happening via IM/Email.
What I LearnedThis was my introduction to workflow applications and I found process agrees with me. Microsoft was big, really big. My tenure there seemed disjointed and impersonal. I learned that I liked tighter groups where everyone feels like part of the team.
What Tools Did I Use
A proprietary internal tool which added workflow to their HTML FrontPage product
Why Aren't I Still Working There?
My contract was controlled by the Temp agency and after several months, my services were no longer required for Sidewalk.com. Another opportunity awaited at Cole & Weber.
When
September - November 1998
Who
Microsoft
What Skills Did I Employ
HTML knowledge, Quality Control, Work-Flow.