Microspotting

Frankarr recently wrote on his blog "I cant believe I haven't written about Microspotting before." Well, I can't believe I haven't heard about Microspotting before! The site is a blog maintained by Ariel, a freelance writer and author, who also works at Microsoft. She describes herself as "the person you thought would never work at MSFT." But after getting laid off from a Web 2.0 startup in 2007, she interviewed for a job at Microsoft and was surprised how well the job fit in with her schedule. She writes:

Did it matter that I could only work three days a week because I was busy with my book and other projects? Nope! Would I get the same famous MSFT benefits as a 40-hour/week employee? Pretty much! Did it matter that I have pink hair and am prone to accidentally cussing in team meetings? Nope! What about the fact that I don’t like working before 10am? No problem!

As she began working there, she realized that she had many misconceptions about the company. It wasn't all boring and corporate after all. She started meeting smart and inspiring people, so she decided to start a blog which profiles them. That blog is Microspotting.

Some recent entries include interviews like the following:

• Career advice from Jeff Lin, former Flagpole Sitta and current Program Managa
• An Exchange test manager muses on work/fiddle balance and why enterprise software is sexier than you think
• Sara Ford on what Microsoft can learn from open source
• Dare Obasanjo on the perils of being a Microsoft blogger, and why he actually has to read all that Nigerian 419 spam

Definitely a great read. Subscribed!

[Check out Jeff Sandquist on Microspotting. - Larry]