Hey Genius - Hip College Recruiting

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If you haven't already, check out the new Microsoft College Recruiting site called "Hey Genius." I like the black and white color scheme and the noodely animation. It has a very refreshing and relaxed style for a recruiting site. For example, in the Lounge section, a series of funny animations on "pi" and "circle" to help you take a break on job hunting and enjoy the fun in the process. Besides basic job opportunity information, the site also provide lists of upcoming tech talks and some genius challenges.

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Although the site is quite heavily targeting on technical students, I was very happy to see on the College Career full-time job opportunity page, there is a major section on User Experience jobs. I included two job titles and their qualifications below:

User Experience Designer

Innovate and improve some of the most popular software products in the world. As a User Experience Designer you’ll be responsible for driving cross-team collaboration with the world’s best user experience researchers, program managers, product planners and developers from the early stages of planning through implementation. You’ll need to think strategically, be creative and negotiate design solutions in relation to business goals. Using your abilities to identify new opportunities and generate innovative ideas, you will influence the design direction and make our already popular product even more successful.

Qualifications :

  • Pursuing a BA/BS, MS or Phd degree in Computer Science, HCI, Human Factors or related field
  • 1-2 years of collaborative work or related classroom experience preferred
  • 1-2 years of practical work experience in JavaScript, Lingo, and ActionScript knowledge preferred
  • Excellent communication and presentation skills as well as self confidence
  • Strong problem solving with balanced interaction and visual design skills
User Experience Researcher

Are you interested in turning software products into world class experiences for end users? If so, Microsoft’s UX Research group needs you! Our mission is to think end-to-end about the user experience both broadly and deeply. Giving end users an experience without problems isn't good enough; we want the experience to be an immersive, pleasurable experience that is appropriate for each and every customer. We need to know our users inside out, by understanding their perceptions, desires, needs, frustrations, environments, and problems related to the Windows PC & services experience and beyond.
We are looking for someone to join the team who has passion around holding user experience decision makers accountable to users, prioritized through understanding users and the business strategy. The ideal candidate will be excited at the prospect of finding creative ways to evangelize the rich research data we have to both internal and external audiences and drive the results of those communications into the final experience.

Qualifications:

  • Pursuing a BA/BS, MS or Phd degree in Computer Science, HCI, Human Factors or related field
  • 1-2 years experience in academic or industrial research preferred
  • The ability to find creative ways to evangelize rich research data to both internal and external audiences
  • Strong communication skills, both oral and written

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