This talk uses a week from my calendar to give some perspective on what it is like to work at Microsoft Research. MSR is a unique lab that empowers me to solve hard problems all while being grounded by their applications to the needs of people that use its software. I’ll discuss how I pick problems to work on, show how solutions to those problems transition from “blue sky” research into useable technology, and how academic collaborations with both students and professors help in that process. I believe working at an industrial research lab is rewarding and I hope by the end of the talk you have a better idea of what it entails.