Job searching ethics

Wow, I got some headhunter calls today I simply had to reject out of hand. I don’t recall people being that aggressive in my last few job searches.

No, I won’t work for Microsoft. Really. I could not be less interested. I don’t like to get into OS wars, but I do have very strong preferences. I don’t use Windows, and I’ve successfully avoided doing so for the last 8 years of my career. But that’s not really it. My objection is basically that I believe they are a huge negative influence on the computing environment and economy, and I can’t put life energy into helping a negative. Add to that the fact that they are a huge company, and I prefer working for smaller companies. Finally, add the fact that I will not relocate from Portland, Oregon. No + No + No = NONONO.

That was the first call, it wasn’t that unusual I suppose. Lots of people work for Microsoft. The second was far more strange and troublesome.

No, I really really won’t help Microsoft’s lawyers enforce patent infringement suits against small businesses. Seriously, how could I live with myself being a technical consultant for one of the most ridiculous abuses in the modern US legal world? Software should not be patentable, period. I won’t contribute to the quashing of creativity and logical/obvious uses of open standards. I was happy to do an expert witness gig in an IP law dispute, that was different. It was a matter of fact “did the company steal this code or not?” I won’t be involved with that level of evil, even for the sweet $30-40K increase in salary that it would net. No + Evil = NOEVIL.

Darn ethics.

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