I wish Microsoft Academy existed
Mini-MSFT has a post up about an idea he had - starting a 3 month bootcamp for people when they’re hired at Microsoft he calls “Microsoft Academy”. I think that’s a great idea, and one that many other industries/companies have had for a long time. If they implemented this and they accepted high school students, that would be awesome.
Wait a second, did I say high school students? Yup. For me, spending 3 years at University of Michigan to get a B.S.E. in Computer Engineering was mostly a waste of time. I learned a lot about low level computer architecture, but as far as software is concerned, I already knew half of it and the other half I would’ve been able to pick up in a few weeks anyways. (And of course, it turns out I haven’t worked in the hardware industry yet)
Now, if there was a Microsoft Academy and I could’ve enrolled in that out of high school, I would’ve been all set - technically that is. Socially… well, I’m still probably not quite there 
November 3rd, 2006 at 12:15 pm
you’re the only person who thinks college was for learning…haha
November 17th, 2006 at 11:19 am
Mark, I think your post says it all: “b.s.e in Computer Engineering.”
I wouldn’t expect an Engineering degree to teach a lot of computer science or software engineering.
November 17th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
Hi Jose, I actually took all the classes that would’ve been required for a Computer Science degree as part of my Computer Engineering degree
(including a software engineering capstone course)
Developing software in the real world though is much different than anything taught in school. At least at Michigan, there weren’t any courses that actually taught how to do good software design, how to write shippable code, how a real testing process works, and how software is stabilized. These are things that I think a Microsoft Academy would be excellent at orienting the new ’softies to