Microsoft seeks non-Microsofty person to promote IE9 to non-Microsofty people.

#1

Post by jdeeden » Fri, Oct 01, 2010, 2:57 AM UTC

I love this. A Microsoft job posting for an Internet Explorer evangelist. This was too good not to re-post. Some of my favorite excerpts include:

"You are someone with a strong background in web application development, and plentiful ideas about what we need to do in the community to change developers’ perceptions of Microsoft. You have boundless energy and enthusiasm, and you’re ready to take on a hostile audience and win them over using well-honed skills of persuasion."

"• Changing perceptions of Microsoft and spreading awareness within the standards-based web community;"

"Solid technical background and development experience with JavaScript, along with experience with UI AJAX frameworks such as jQuery, YUI, and scriptaculous and server frameworks such as Ruby on Rails and PHP;"

"• Unbridled enthusiasm for fostering a successful web developer community;"

Nice try, Microsoft. You may be trying to get right with God, but you'll never be right with me.

Microsoft seeks non-Microsofty person to promote IE9 to non-Microsofty people.
linkd.in

Re: Microsoft seeks non-Microsofty person to promote IE9 to non-Microsofty people.

#2

Post by pseudonym » Fri, Oct 01, 2010, 3:03 AM UTC

> Changing perceptions of Microsoft and spreading awareness within the standards-based web community;

I believe this is the very definition of a lose-lose situation. Unless the IE9 team starts actually developing to web standards, not to mention allowing their browser to run on XP, IE9 is going to end up being IE6 part 2. Whoever takes this job is going to be ragged on by end users just as bad as the MS PR team on Reddit, and eventually fired in ignomy by MS for not doing what MS hired them to do.

Re: Microsoft seeks non-Microsofty person to promote IE9 to non-Microsofty people.

#3

Post by devmonk » Fri, Oct 01, 2010, 3:35 AM UTC

"Solid technical background and development experience with JavaScript, along with experience with UI AJAX frameworks such as jQuery, YUI, and scriptaculous and server frameworks such as Ruby on Rails and PHP;"

Interesting. I understand needing to have a web dev background, but RoR and PHP without mentioning anything else seems to mean that they aren't targeting this evangelist at enterprise business using Java OR .Net? Or do they think this person would be prototyping and those were the fastest/best two to web dev with? They say "such as", but I don't think they just picked those two at random.

Re: Microsoft seeks non-Microsofty person to promote IE9 to non-Microsofty people.

#4

Post by jdeeden » Fri, Oct 01, 2010, 3:46 AM UTC

I nominate Zed Shaw.

"Listen here you Ruby pussies, you're going to use IE and you're going to like it."

Re: Microsoft seeks non-Microsofty person to promote IE9 to non-Microsofty people.

#5

Post by moe » Fri, Oct 01, 2010, 5:01 AM UTC

I doubt they can undo the damage they have done with IE6-8. If someone tried to pitch IE9 to me I'd laugh in their face, no matter how standards-compliant it might be nowadays.

First they make our lives miserable for 10 years straight and now they turn around and expect us to trust them again?

Ain't gonna happen.

Re: Microsoft seeks non-Microsofty person to promote IE9 to non-Microsofty people.

#6

Post by mithaler » Fri, Oct 01, 2010, 2:40 PM UTC

After the Reddit Q&A sessions, is this their attempt to make up for their perceived inability to drop the patronizing PR-speak?

Personally, I think the issue is deeper than the way they're selling it; it's that their values are fundamentally not in line with the communities they're trying to sell IE9 to, and thus, their only recourse is PR--which technically-minded users and developers are quick to pick apart and call bullshit on. RoR, PHP, jQuery, etc. are all open-source free software projects; on the most basic level, selling IE9 to those people is going to be hard, without even mentioning the historical baggage the IE name carries. Hell, most of those people don't even use Windows, and thus literally can't directly benefit from IE; making sure their websites render properly in it can only be seen as a nuisance at best and an outright hindrance at worst.