A glimpse into the “New World of Work” at the Microsoft Austria Headquarters

On the 25th of May a group of 25 BBA, BSc and MSc students took part in a company visit and workshop on cloud computing at the Microsoft Austria Headquarters. The tour would not have been possible without our soon-to-be MBA graduate, Andreas Rynes, who has been working for Microsoft for over 10 years and is currently Open Source Business Lead, Worldwide Datacenter and Cloud Strategy and Program at Microsoft Corporation at the Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Event organizer Ioana Benea, MODUL Career Officer and MSc student, shared her impressions of the workshop and tour:

‘’Cloud computing gives you the possibility to have all your documents available 24/7 and to be able to work from desktop, on a tablet, or a phone. This way users can make every moment count. Today’s technology has a strong emphasis on independence, connectivity, and clever and intuitive tools. Businesses can make use of it in order to get closer to and better understand their customers. But what actually is the cloud? It is a “virtual” storage place where all your data is stored, which is actually in one of the worldwide datacenters managed by Microsoft or other cloud storage providers. Data centers have also been improved in the past years, so the energy use is concentrated on the IT solutions rather than on the management of the datacenters.

The second part of our company visit was the Microsoft Austria HQ office tour. Microsoft is one of the initiators of the “New World of Work”, and, with its innovative design, encourages collaboration, teamwork and collective work. Every meeting room is designed differently and gives you a comfortable feeling to work in.

The concept of no fixed office hours is a trend embraced at Microsoft as the employees are compensated according to the projects they successfully complete. Therefore, they can work at their own pace, at any time of the day and from anywhere around the world – other Microsoft offices, at home or even on holidays. The online communication possibilities make it possible to attend a meeting even if you are at the other end of the world. Andreas showed us how something like that would work via video calling with a colleague from New York, who was working from home. The 360 camera made is possible, the person at the other end of the line was able to see everyone in the meeting room at the same time. The highlight of the tour was the slide which employees can use to go from the 2nd floor to the 1st, which we of course also tried!’’

BBA student Anna Scherfler:

“A huge thank you to Andreas Rynes for having provided us with the unique opportunity to learn about Microsoft as a company and experience its offices in Austria! It was impressive to get a taste of the daily working life at Microsoft and to learn about the flexible working style the company provides its employees with. Moreover, students showed a great deal of interest in learning about opportunities to grow with Microsoft through its program MACH, which Mr. Rynes introduced to us during the tour. We were able to gather valuable insights into the company structure and the many opportunities it offers as an employer and a great place to work.”

 

MSc student Victoria Felser:

“What I especially liked about the tour was that Mr. Rynes ensured to give an authentic and genuine insight into both daily operations done within the business, as well as broader topics concerning the future of Microsoft. All in all, I was positively surprised by the information and experience gained throughout the tour and would definitely recommend to other students to take part in such an excursion!”