Today I interviewed at Microsoft. For five hours. Straight. Six if you count the time they took figuring out that someone had bollixed up the time zones, and they weren’t really expecting me for another hour. (I spent that hour listening to books on tape by the river, so it doesn’t really count, but I’m milking it for storytelling purposes.)

I went into the interview a bit dubious about the prospect of working for Microsoft. As a long-time Apple fan, Microsoft has often played the role of The Archvillain in my daily computing drama. Additionally, one runs the risk of getting lost in a company of that size — not a fate I want for myself.

The division of Microsoft I interviewed with is Digital Anvil, their Austin game studio, which has Freelancer and Brute Force to their credit. They currently employ about 65 people, which would mean the chance of getting lost in the shuffle is minimal. They’re also in downtown Austin, rather than the northwest side where Origin was located, so working there would mean a shorter commute and working in easy walking distance of Fadó and Alamo Drafthouse.

I quite liked the people I met during the interview process. Though the interview process was pretty long and left me tired out afterward, I think I did reasonably well. I wrote code on several whiteboards, marveled at how many ex-Origin people worked there, ate mexican food, developed QA plans for pencils, ogled their hardware, and talked about games a lot. They told me to expect to hear something with regard to a decision in the next two weeks or so.

On another curious note, the University appears to have created a new job requisition which exactly matches the earlier one for which I applied and was turned down. I’m a bit baffled as to what’s going on on that end, but guess I’ll shoot off an email or two and see if I can scare up any more information.