One of the questions that I get asked a lot -- whether it's from people at user groups or coming to visit our booth at Macworld Expo, or via my blog -- is, "what's it like to work in MacBU?"

Let me first start off by saying that I'm a user experience researcher, and that I'm only one person of the more than 200 people in MacBU. As they say on the intertubes, YMMV — and I'm quite sure that the mileage definitely varies. Don't take my answer here as canonical. It's only my answer to that question, and it's quite possible that I'd give you a completely different answer in six months.

When Craig posted his ten reasons to join MacBU, I smiled and agreed with all of them, but I didn't think that the list captured what it's really like to work here. It's more than just a Letterman-esque top-ten list. Okay, the margarita machine really is quite cool, but it's not what makes me want to come into work in the mornings.

I have to admit that I'm a Mac geek. The Mac geek in me loves that I get to work on software that millions of Mac users use daily. It's my job to have a deep understanding of Mac users and what they're trying to accomplish with my software, whether it's managing their day or making a birthday gift. Being able to marry a personal interest in Macs to a professional job working on them is definitely one of the things that gets me out of bed in the morning. Plus I've got awesome co-workers who share my Mac geek-ness, so our hallway and lunch conversations often include a shared geekery at the latest Mac geekery.

The thing that I like the most about working for MacBU is that, as an individual contributor on the team, my management chain leaves a lot up to my discretion. I have the opportunity — nay, the expectation — that I'm going to chart my own course. My manager relies on my experience and expertise to do what's needed for what I work on. This isn't to say that my manager doesn't help: I rely on my manager to act as a sounding board to ensure that I'm not going off-course, or when I'm unsure of how to proceed. I also rely on my manager to help me identify areas where I can grow in my skills and my career, as well as help to find the opportunities that I need to accomplish that growth. But on a day-to-day basis, the work that I do is largely self-directed. It's my job to identify what needs my attention, to prioritise everything, and to deliver what's needed to my teams. It's a huge responsibility, but it's also very freeing to have that kind of self-determination in what I do.

There are literally dozens of features that I can point to across all of our apps that came about because someone had a vision. They identified a need, and they made it happen. That's just awesome — it's not Craig and the senior managers handing things down from on high. We have that opportunity to make our products what we think they need to be. That's why I'm here. I don't feel like I'm just a cog in a big machine. I get to make a difference.

(After telling you why I'm here in MacBU, I'd be remiss if I didn't provide links to all of the jobs that we've currently got open, and I'll give special attention to two openings on my UX team: technical writer and user experience designer. Resumes for all of our open jobs can go to macjobs@microsoft.com!)