Incessant Ramblings: Everybody here works on Word

October 01, 2003

Everybody here works on Word

I was having a lunchtime conversation with one of my teammates and we were reminiscing about previous jobs, experiences in school, and the like. I lamented that while pretty much everbody recognizes the name "Microsoft", it's often difficult to describe what it is I do at Microsoft. (Generally, I boil my job down to "writing software to test software for writing software," at which point my questioner's eyes glaze over and we begin to discuss the weather. "Quite nice," we generally agree.)

(I should point out that my parents have a good idea of what it is that I do, even if I often don't. Either that, or they're great at pretending that they understand, since they've fooled me.)

Anyhow, my teammate agreed that he too experienced this same problem (as we are both testers on our team). He mentioned that another friend of his, who works on the Exchange Server team, has simply decided to tell everyone that he works on Microsoft Word.

"Oh, that makes sense," I said, sagely. "Everyone knows what Word is."

Well, it turns out that his reasons were more complicated than that and, in true Freudian style, the deeper reason was related to his mother. Before coming to Microsoft, this friend had worked at Xerox (where, to a first-order approximation, everyone "makes copy machines"). After coming to Microsoft, of course his mother wants to know what her son does, now that he is proudly working for another company she's heard of.

So he begins explaining about email and Outlook, and mail delivery, and scheduling and shared calendars, and contact lists and public folders and all the minutae of groupware Exchange goodness. And her eyes glaze over and she asks about the weather. ("A little rainy, but the summers are nice.") So he resorts to the classic technique known to geeks everywhere -- Explaining Something Technical With A Metaphor.

He goes on to explain to his mother about how email is like sending a letter, and how this is the job of Outlook, and how routing and delivering these electronic messages is like the post office, and this is the job of Exchange. And she understood. And he was happy, because his mother knew what he did for Microsoft.

For more than a year, his mother told people that her son had a job delivering the mail at Microsoft.

So now he tells everyone that he works on Word. Because everyone knows what Word is -- even his mother.

< Personal > Posted at October 1, 2003 09:47 PM

Comments

everybody here works on word
Excerpt: funny story, but true. it's often difficult to explain what your job is, what you actually do the whole day, in the big IT-world.
Trackback from: atog at October 1, 2003 11:55 PM
Everyone at Microsoft Develops Word
Excerpt: Everybody here works on Word It boils down to a software developer for Microsoft explaining to his mother what he...
Trackback from: Dichotomy's Purgatory at October 2, 2003 02:16 PM
Hey, cool, I guess I work on Word Too then! Rather than having to explain the differences in MSN messenger vs. Windows Messenger, and how I dont actually work on either of those but on the dlls (whats a dll)..er under-the-covers portion of windows messenger, and the server its connected to....er....damn, just make it Word! :)
Comment by: J.P. at October 3, 2003 02:44 AM
Everyone there works on Word, I'm a bespoke tailor
Excerpt: Joe Bork explains why he now tells people he works on Word as a way of connecting with something people understand. I foun...
Trackback from: /* Rambling comments... */ at October 3, 2003 02:09 PM
Went through that phase when I started out on VB. had to explain to mom, dad, cousins and uncles and uncle'sdog what VB is and what GUI is and all that. Then decided to say I was just doodling around.
Then shifted into advertising, writing copy and ideation. Now I have to explain to the above emntioned people what Advertising is and how I come up with headlines for ads and all that. Today, I told my mom that I search pictures to be put in the ad. She is happy. I am relieved
Comment by: Ravages at October 10, 2003 12:53 AM
that was one of the cutest stories i've ever read. :)
Comment by: firefly at October 15, 2003 11:46 AM
I live in Lake Tahoe, NV. This is ski country. Fortunately I have nice job working as developer for a financial software company. Try telling this to the ski bunnys. They are usually like, "well, how's the snow this year?" Or they pretend to understand what you are talking about, "a friend of mine works at Oracle."

So now I just say that I'm a laid off ski lift attendant. It is weird but they seem more willing to talk to you if you tell them this. I'll never understand woman. ; )

the sage
Comment by: lift attendant.. at October 17, 2003 12:45 PM
Well, I wish I could claim to work ANYWHERE at the moment.. but I'm in the unemployed and lacking degrees/won't relocate category. ;-)

Seems to be quite a bit of stuff around me but most aren't looking for new(er) people...seems like they want management types only. Sacramento IT areas that is..
Comment by: Chris at October 26, 2003 10:46 AM
If something (God forbid) affects your job "delivering mail" at Microsoft, you always have a future as a very smart, very clear creative writer - the stuff the "STYLE" section of the Washington Post runs. This is very impressive word-smithing. Nice job (and your mother should understand this praise, too).
Comment by: Judy at December 1, 2003 11:49 AM