New Microsoft job site highlights consumer-focused openings

Microsoft has launched a new recruitment site aimed at recent college and MBA grads, called "View My World." The most interesting thing about the site is the types of jobs Microsoft is highlighting there.

Openings on the Xbox, Zune, Silverlight, Windows Live and Windows Mobile teams get top billing on ViewMyWorld. The Flash-based site uses video clips, links to blogs and RSS feeds to show off the up-and-coming opportunities at the company on primarily consumer-focused teams. There are interviews with current (and predominantly young) Microsoft employees -- as well as a couple of now-former employees who are made to seem as if they're still on staff.

(There are also a few "Singing Cowboy" videos interspersed throughout the site. Staffing Manager Heather Hamilton advises those without a sense of humor to forgo those. And no, the cowboy is not a Microsoft employee, in case anyone was wondering.)

The ViewMyWorld site is a lot more like Microsoft's slick "On10" marketing site than it's like the traditional Microsoft Jobs site (to which the ViewMyWorld site links).

But what's most telling to me about the new site is that Microsoft seems to see the jobs in its primarily money-losing sectors -- rather than its lucrative Windows, Office and Servers businesses -- as being plum posts for new Microsoft recruits. I wonder: Would a hotshot just out of a good school really be more interested in joining the Microsoft Zune team than the Windows one?

I wasn't convinced by Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie's contention voiced earlier this year that the most interesting innovations in technology are coming from the consumer market and that tech companies without a consumer presence will face a tough road ahead. I wonder if that argument holds more sway with recent grads ....