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Start-up position at Microsoft?

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Last week I was reminded that amidst all my ramblings about peanut butter and carbohydrates, I'm generally expected to slip in some stuff about marketing jobs at Microsoft (I think that is how Gretchen put it). She likes that this blog isn't "all business". I like to think of it as the mullet of the blogosphere; part business, part party.

Anyway, I don't want to just come on here and post a bunch of jobs because that would be incredibly boring. But there are some positions that I hear about that I think sound really cool...what we like to call "hot jobs" (which has nothing to do with that peanut butter I've been eating). I hear all the reasons why all kinds of people would or would not want to come to work here. Some of those reasons I can't do much about, like the weather (though I have to tell you, if you haven't visited you'd probably be surprised and you do get addicted to the clean air and green everywhere). I can share my experience (how a Chicago city girl adapted to Seattle life on the East Side..cue the Moby Song), but at the end of the day, you all make your decisions about where you want to work for a variety of reasons; your reasons.  So all I want to do is make people aware of what we offer and share my own personal perspective.

Anyway, people often ask about the corporate culture and what it's like to work at a "big company" (dum-dum-duhhhhmmm). The thing is, I can tell you about our culture overall but when it comes to the individual employee's experience, it really depends. People get a picture in their heads of software developers with messy hair and Grateful Dead shirts living like college student and I can pretty much point you to the buildings where that stereotype lives. But it's not my personal reality and it's not reality for a lot of the groups here (probably most). I retired my tie-dyes in the mid-nineties which was none too soon for my family, by the way. The thing is, a big company like Microsoft can be a lot of things to a lot of people.

So, when I hear people talk about being entrepreneurial, about the flexibility to take risks and start something from scratch, I think "we do that here". I see both incubation (new product space) and emerging markets (new market space) roles in marketing. Risk taking is part of our culture. The ability to start something from scratch really depends on the group and the role you'd be looking at. For example, look at this position. Scrappy like a start-up, but with Microsoft resources behind you.

(As always, if you are interested in this role or other marketing roles, definitely feel free to send me your resume! Heather.Hamilton@microsoft.com)

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2006
    The "mullet of the blogosphere?"  Oh, the imagery!

    gretchen

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2006
    "part business, part party"

    Maybe this could be a new slogan for your blog- "Part business, part party, all [fill in buzzword here]"

    I've wondered about this before: [In your experience] how is MSFT in terms of allowing/encouraging intrapreneurship? I know typically there's a lot of red tape in large organizations.

    After working in a few, I've gotten used to getting around/bending the rules and I tend to live by the <em>"It's better to ask forgiveness than permission"</em> reasoning in many situations. Thankfully, the results were always good, so I haven't had to ask for forgiveness yet! :) Your thoughts?

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2006
    Deb-that's OK, there's plenty of love to go around! I like my iPod.

    Gretchen-you like that one?

    Ian- not a bad idea. I'll have to consider changing my blog header...hmmm.

    Ian-I tend to live by the same rule. I think that anyone anywhere has to know when they can pull that off. The role you are in obviously has a lot to do with it, but our culture is very supportive of risk-taking.  I know I have tried things where I thought afterward "OK, that didn't work, let's not try that one again". I see it as a learning versus a failure (though you don't want too many of those all in a row). So the thing with these kinds of jobs is that they HAVE to take risks. I think many people would be surprised at how autonomously each business here runs in terms of decision making. Of course there's collaboration but there's also independence.

  • Anonymous
    December 11, 2006
    Would like to get in contact with someone who could direct me to finding a job in the marketng department of your company. thankyou!

  • Anonymous
    December 12, 2006
    I believe that would be me. Feel free to send your resume!