Text 13. Some Fun Microsoft Facts You Might Not Know

Despite ever-increasing Mac sales, Microsoft has an undisputed dominance (неоспоримое превосходство) over the computer industry. Much has already been written about Microsoft: its history, its products, even Bill gates. For those itching to know even more, we’ve dug up some facts that you might not have heard before.

1. “Micro-soft’s” first ever mention. The first ever mention of Microsoft was in a letter from Bill Gates to co-founder Paul Allen in 1975. Gates initially wrote the company name as Micro-soft, considering it’s a “microcomputer” and “software”. Losing the hyphen, Microsoft was officially registered as a company in November 1976 in New Mexico where Gates and Allen were working with their first major customer, MITS. Microsoft did not move to its current campus in Redmond, Washington until 1986. The Microsoft logo has changed several times over the years.

2. Microsoft’s favorite food is pizza. Microsoft has around 35 cafeterias serving ~ 37,000 people each day. Pizza tops the list of the most popular meal.

3. The average “softie”. The average Microsoft employee, or “softie” as they call themselves, is a 38-year-old-male with the average salary for a developer coming in at $ 106,000. Microsoft currently employs 88,180 people who work across 32,404,796 square feet of Microsoft’s premises (помещения), over 50,000 of which are U.S. based. The male to female ratio is very high among Microsoft’s American employees with a staggering (ошеломляющий) 76% male workforce.

4. Microsoft celebrates anniversaries with M&Ms. All companies have their little in-house traditions, and Microsoft is not an exception. It seems it’s customary (обычное дело) for softies to celebrate t heir yearly employment anniversaries with candy, and more specifically, M&Ms. each anniversary, a Microsoft employee is expected to provide one pound of M&Ms for every year they’ve worked. That means that if Bill Gates had followed the tradition, he should have turned up with 33 pounds of M&Ms on June 27, 2008.

5. Microsoft has a huge art collection. No, we are not talking about Clip Art. Microsoft is one of the largest corporate collectors of artworks with over 5,000 contemporary pieces including painting, works on paper, photographs, ceramics, multimedia works. A large proportion of the works are on display at more than 150 Microsoft’s many campuses. The company believes that art in the workplace reduces stress, increases productivity and encourages discussions and expression of opinions.

6. Microsoft asks strange interview questions. Microsoft has a reputation in the industry for asking strange questions during its job interviews. For example, “Why is an amanhole (канализационный люк) cover round?”. It’s certainly true that Microsoft uses a very unusual and forward-thinking (дальновидный) interview process. Rather than plain “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” question, Microsoft is more likely to ask you to solve a logic puzzle or think over a problem like “Design a coffee maker that will be used by astronauts”. Obviously, Microsoft isn’t planning to go into the coffee-in-space industry, but the process serves to find candidate that can think creatively.