5 ms·
In 93, I was a baby. I'm now at least a Senior Eng in many orgs. It's impressive, at the very least, that Satya stayed in Microsoft that long
by tr33house 3y ago
In 93, I was a baby. I'm now at least a Senior Eng in many orgs. It's impressive, at the very least, that Satya stayed in Microsoft that long
- vsnf 3y agoWhat's even more impressive than his tenure is his trajectory from sales grunt to CEO.
- TillE 3y agoI dunno exactly what a "technical marketing manager" is, but Nadella had a master's in computer science at that point, so I doubt he was just a sales guy.
- quonn 3y agoHaving these kind of roles with a strong technical background is typical for Microsoft. They have a parallel management and technical hierarchy all the way to the top. Everyone should copy this, so much talent is lost by good people going into management where they often aren't even that good.
- TMWNN 3y agoIt sounds like what a police officer described in an AMA; it's possible to move from uniform to plainclothes detective, or stay in uniform on patrol, for one's entire career without penalty to salary. <https://np.reddit.com/r/SouthLAndTV/comments/1di5yq/i_am_copwithoutvest_ama/c9qjxnf/?context=3 https://np.reddit.com/r/SouthLAndTV/comments/1di5yq/i_am_cop...>
- alephnerd 3y ago> I dunno exactly what a "technical marketing manager" is A TMM/TME is a hybrid role support role consisting of functions of a Dev Advocate, PM, and PMM. While PMM would own non-technical GTM and enablement, the TMM/TME would own technical GTM and enablement. It's an older role common in 90s era companies like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, etc though is has been renamed as Technical Product Management now in most orgs (eg. Lacework, Netskope, etc)
- Spooky23 3y agoTechnical chops make the solutioning and customer relationship part easier. Whatever tech expertise Nadella has, his EQ and ability to navigate the toxic and vicious politics of Microsoft is his superpower. They aren’t as in your face hostile as Oracle, but they are cutthroat.
- ryandrake 3y agoThat's what struck me, too. Here's a guy who looks and talks like some rando young really smart technical dude, like the hundreds I've met over my career. He doesn't appear to have those Ivy Leaguer mannerisms, not some tweed blazer-wearing, popped collar, McKinsey BankingConsultant, who you always expect to end up as all your C-level execs. This guy doing the demo could have been you or I. Yet here I still am in my late 40s still an IC worker bee at the bottom of the org chart, and here he is running the most valuable company in the world. How can you not believe in randomness?
- strikelaserclaw 3y agoIn my opinion the most talented don't always succeed in the wildest ways but they do succeed to a pretty large extent. In an alternative timeline bill gates might not be the richest man heading up one of the largest companies but he would definitely have been a very successful multimillionaire banker, lawyer etc...
- Cthulhu_ 3y agoIt feels like few people stay at one company for more than a few years these days, but then conversely, it also feels like companies are set up in a way that makes most people replaceable. Note that my take is biased, I've been a "consultant" for most of my career which is a glorified temp, and you end up in projects and organizations that hires temps. I tried an old fashioned product company once, it wasn't for me (nothing in common with my colleagues who were 20-30 years my senior, and they and the company were happy just plodding along until retirement)
- robertlagrant 3y ago> but then conversely, it also feels like companies are set up in a way that makes most people replaceable How else would you set up a business that's robust to people moving on to new things?
- dustingetz 3y agostartups are not set up like that
- robertlagrant 3y agoThat seems: a) far too broad - if an HR assistant can't be replaced at a startup, why not? and b) a calculated risk - for certain things key people are just necessary to begin with, and if they leave it causes a massive issue. Startups aren't choosing that issue; they are just hoping it doesn't materialise until they have the normal way of doing things in place.
- Zelphyr 3y agoI believe that if a company treats their employees with respect (automatically give them cost-of-living raises without them having to ask for it, for example) and like humans instead of cogs in a machine, keep them intellectually challenged and fulfilled, and give them a sense of meaning and purpose, then they're likely to stay much longer. If you're doing that then they're giving your customers the same attention. So maybe you have a thriving business that employees will stay at for their entire career. Contrasting that with my experience I can name one company in 30 years that did that. As is so often the case in our society, everybody is doing it backwards and wondering why everything is broken.
- osrec 3y agoImpressive in that he was probably quite political and thick-skinned?
- burnerburnson 3y agoPersonally I find it depressing. He could have retired years ago to work on a passion project. Why is he still dealing with the soul-sucking internal politics of a mega-corp? Unless he somehow enjoys walking on egg shells all day, it doesn't make sense to me.
- twodave 3y agoI think, as you alluded to, this may be more of a personality thing, e.g. an empath might see that sort of thing as a great opportunity.
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y agoHave you considered that maybe this is his passion project?
- hulitu 3y agotrully impressive taking into account Microsoft's toxic culture of disposing after yearly review of those who did not performed so well.
- beastman82 3y agoHe seems pretty polished at even 26 and he's CEO now so I doubt they were an issue at any point.
- mytailorisrich 3y agoIt's actually a tried-and-tested way to go up the ladder.
- tambourine_man 3y agoIs it? It really depends on the organization. I've seen leadership being hired from the outside many times and it's devastating for morale.