What does a research career in industry look like? While there is no single answer to this question, I will approximate by describing perspective based on personal experiences based on a career spanning work in a research institute, a startup, the core file systems group at Microsoft and at Microsoft Research. In each of the experiences, a background with a graduate degree specifically with an emphasis on logic and program logics, proved useful but in very different ways. The perspective of Microsoft Research is distinguished as it is based on the pursuit of advancing science that both aims much wider than business objectives and at the same time benefits, and is of benefit to, business and product groups. I will describe an example of a platform as a research tool (in this case the SMT solver z3) for driving foundational research and drive user scenarios. Platforms represent a researcher’s aim for long term, general results that establish and test methodologies. I describe experiences with combining platforms with driving scenarios based on business needs.