The geek in question: Jennifer Shepherd
The job title: User Experience Designer II

Tell me a bit about your job.
I have kind of a hybrid role; I’m a jill of many trades, and do Web design, UI design, graphic design, writing, content management, and project management. So, I wear a lot of different hats. My title keeps changing back and forth between Program Manager and Designer. This year it’s User Experience Designer II.

I’m in Windows International, a team of about 350 people. We’re the ones that enable all the functionality that underlies the different language versions of Windows. Windows is available in 98 different languages, and that involves stuff like sorting & collation, fonts, globalization APIs, stuff like that.

Where’s your team based?
Mostly in Redmond and Dublin, but we also have people in over 30 different countries worldwide. And the people that are here in Redmond largely come from other countries. It’s a diverse group. We have people from more than 44 different countries on my team, and we speak more than 33 different languages.

So, are you excited for Windows 7? Continue reading →

The geek in question: Raymond Chen
The job title: Principal Software Design Engineer, and well-known Microsoft blogger.

What are you working on now?
I’ve been with Microsoft for 17 years, and I’m currently in the Windows Experience Group. We’re the people who do the stuff that end users see and interact with. Basically anything that goes wrong, it looks like we did it.

What have you learned during your time at Microsoft?
There are a couple of “key learnings” — and yes, I have to use air quotes around that phrase. First, you have to understand what you can do, what you can influence, and what you can only observe.
Continue reading →

Perhaps you’re familiar with Mini-Microsoft, the anonymous Deep Throat Microsoft blogger who’s been lovingly griping online about the company online since 2004.

Mini is somewhat infamous (having been interviewed by Business Week and The Seattle Times) and has managed to maintain his anonymity despite all the attention.

I recently had the chance to pester Mini with some of my own questions, and took the opportunity to ask him about his sad experience with facebook, how he felt about Fake Steve Jobs, and his groupies.

Continue reading →

Dare Obasanjo just wrote a great post about his job AND his blog:

Thousands of Microsoft employees share their ideas with their coworkers, competitors and customers via blogs on a daily basis. Lots of companies would clamp down on that sort of behavior and ensure that only sanctioned company positions go out in employee communications but not Microsoft.

Read Dare’s whole post.

Megan Wallent (formerly known as Michael Wallent, General Manager with IE) is back on the job this week.

It’s been absolutely fascinating to read about her transition on her blog … and it sounds like things are going smoothly now that she’s back in the office!

Yay for the lolcat costume!

I’ve always wondered. And now the truth comes out!

Video: Israeli foodI grabbed this from Declan’s awesome blog all about International MSFT tech jobs:

So what do software engineers eat in Israel?

 

So for a bit of Friday fun check out Lisa, one of our SDEs in Israel, telling us a little about free food and in particular”diet” food that they all eat in the Haifa break room… :)

I am on the hunt for this gold helmet-wearing Segway rider. He’s been spotted all over campus (that’s my building in the background of this photo!) and I must speak with him. I want to know more about tooling around Redmond on a Segway — and why the gold helmet?

Looks like Jeff Sandquist (of Channel 9 fame) is working on a new project:

A couple of nights ago Larry Larsen, Max Zuckerman and I got together to film some new content at my home for Channel 10. This will used for a new series where we go to the homes of fellow Microsoft employees and show the technology they use.

Think about it….

Channel 9 brought you inside the halls of Microsoft, now Channel 10 will take you to their homes. Yes, I know you’re probably thinking that this will be some sort of lame MTV Cribs like rip-off series.

Not the tone we’re looking for. Instead we’re honing in on the actual technology people use in their homes. [Read the rest]

I love seeing the way geeks hack their homes, so I’m totally looking forward to this. I can’t wait to see the wifi-enabled blenders and database networked bathroom fans.

From Valleywag: Michael Wallent, a general manager at Microsoft, will return to work in January as Megan Wallent.

While this news is interesting in a “huh, that doesn’t happen every day” sort of way, the blog post touches on broader issues about gender and Microsoft: This is a company that as of late last year counted only 100 women among its top 900 executives — those Wallent’s rank and higher. In becoming Megan, he’ll only improve that ratio by 0.1 percent.

Read the full article.