Q&A: How did you come to join MacBU?

I recently was asked how I came to be here. I thought that I'd answered this question before, but I couldn't find it in the archives. Since tomorrow is the third anniversary of this blog (and my third anniversary of working for Microsoft was last Friday), it seems like a good time to address this question.

My recruiter tells this story wrong. He tells it by starting off with him contacting me via IM. That's true, but it's not the whole story, certainly not for Mac users.

I came to my job via the MacRumors forums. I had created an account there a few years ago to ask a question. When filling out my profile, I listed my real location and my then-current job title, as well as my IM screen names. MacBU had a position open and hadn't been able to find someone with the right amount of experience and Mac-ness, and the recruiter was on a mission to find the right person. He somehow stumbled across my profile on MacRumors, and sent me an IM asking if the details in my profile were accurate.

I was skeptical. First, why would a Microsoft recruiter contact me via IM? Second, why would I want to work for Microsoft? But I agreed to chat with him, and then did a phone interview with the hiring manager a few days later. When they extended me an invitation to do an in-person interview in Redmond, I hesitated, but finally decided to take it. I still wasn't convinced at the idea of working for Microsoft, but I figured that the worst thing that would come out of it was that I would use up one of my plethora of vacation days to visit Seattle.

It wasn't until I had been interviewed by the third person that I warmed up to the idea of working for Microsoft. By the end of the day, I was convinced. Part of what convinced me was that I learned that I was dealing with dedicated Mac users, people who understood what made the Mac unique and wanted to have a part in creating software for it. Part of it was wanting to take part in the challenge of making software that's used by people ranging from soccer moms sending out their holiday letters to writers during in book drafts with hundreds of pages.

What's next? My main focus for the next version of Office is working on the future of Entourage, with a side of some cross-suite work. There's some cool stuff coming up in the future, which hopefully I'll be able to start talking about in the next few months.

Comments

• Anonymous
  October 10, 2008
  Entourage? Oh you became my new special bestest friend :-P

• Anonymous
  October 10, 2008
  I thought I was already your special bestest friend?  Sigh.

• Anonymous
  October 14, 2008
  Is the future of Entourage "Outlook for the Mac"?

• Anonymous
  October 15, 2008
  The future of Entourage is to continue to improve it to better meet your needs.  Other than that, I can't yet comment on what we've got planned.  Stay tuned.  :)

• Anonymous
  October 18, 2008
  Great.  I need Outlook for my Mac users.