Mark Jen

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Mark Jen is known for being terminated with cause by Google, Inc. for distributing corporate secrets in his personal blog, 99zeros. His original writings are still available for viewing in the archives at his current blog. Jen worked for Google between January 17, 2005 and January 28, 2005, a total of 10 business days. As of March 2005, he is now employed by Plaxo.

Other companies have fired employees for similar activities including Microsoft, who fired a contractor for posting pictures of Apple Macintosh computers at a company office, and Friendster, who fired an employee for posting technical details about changes to the company website.

Some consider Google's action in terminating Jen to contradict the company's image of openness and free-thinking. Ironically, Google owns Blogger, the service Jen used to write his original 99zeros blog. However, others have questioned the wisdom of blogging about work so soon after being hired, particularly if it is to complain about employment conditions. Additionally, he posted commercially sensitive information about unreleased products and company finances, which he was required to remove from his blog. Although he was initially told that his blogging activities were acceptable, provided he did not blog about company secrets, he was fired two days later.

Before joining Google, Mark Jen was a Program Manager at Microsoft, and a Software Engineer at IBM. He graduated in 2003 from the University of Michigan with a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering. Jen was also a member of the Eta Kappa Nu honor society at the University of Michigan, a society of which Larry Page was a former president.