professional outsider

I feel like I'm a professional outsider sometimes. Currently, I'm sitting in the lobby of a building on main campus waiting to go to my next meeting. This building isn't the MacBU building, which means that I stand out. I sit here in the lobby with my shiny silver PowerBook on my lap, with its lit Apple logo on the back of the screen. Everyone who walks past does a double-take.

When I sat down and took out my laptop, the receptionist in this building asked me if I had an appointment and she could call someone for me. I flashed her my badge, which has clearly confused her in some way. She watched me carefully when I went to get a soda from the kitchen. I'm sitting directly across from her now, and she keeps on glancing over at me.

Having a Mac in a different building isn't the only way in which I'm a professional outsider. As a user experience researcher, I don't fit neatly into most of the other categories of professional at Microsoft. I'm not a developer, or a program manager, or a planner, or a tester. I don't know anything about marketing. My position is unique in that it spans multiple pieces of our Mac suite, but is still very hands-on with the individual products that I work on. I'm a part of many teams, but at the same time separate from them. I have a common background with many of them (after all, I have degrees in computer science and in mathematics), but my job is fundamentally different than theirs.

I suppose I should point out that I don't mind being a professional outsider. I like my job. The people that I work with are really quite fantastic (and I'm not just saying that because they could read my blog at any time), and they've welcomed me with wide open arms. I get a different perspective on the business, and one that I like. This isn't a complaint, simply an observation, and (for that matter) it's an observation that might change as I grow more comfortable with being at Microsoft. I'm still new here, so everything is still different than what I'm used to.

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 25, 2006
  ....anyway, that's my fave PowerBook app at the moment, (quicksilver.blacktree.com/), like the interface, and function...
• Anonymous
  January 27, 2006
  Your job seems very interesting... what does it take to get a job like that? :P
• Anonymous
  January 27, 2006
  Get a degree in human-computer interaction, maybe get an internship in the field while you're working on the degree, and try to rock the socks off of whoever interviews you. :)
• Anonymous
  January 28, 2006
  What's funny...is that I know a few planners who'd argue the same thing...feeling like an outsider. And I'd argue you know a thing or two about marketing. :- )
• Anonymous
  January 28, 2006
  You're just trying to recruit me to work for you instead of Don. :)
• Anonymous
  January 31, 2006
  Job sounds cool to do :) I wonder if the CLR Dev team would hire someone that perfers to work under the mac.