The end of the year is a blur of traditions, predictions, champagne, diet resolutions, family time and, of course, annual “best of” lists for everything and anything you can imagine.

As we don’t want to be left out in the cold, we’ve compiled a list of the Top Ten Microspotting profiles featured on JobsBlog in 2011. With one twist; our list goes to eleven.

This year, we interviewed lone employees who pioneered roles as female developers and employees overcoming challenges. We also got to know groups like Microsoft’s a cappella choir and couples who found love at the company. We met those who are exploring the frontiers of technology and others who are educating the next generation of tech innovators. And, of course, we sniffed out the unexpected from the former NFL prospect who went pro at Microsoft to the employee who moonlights as the mascot for the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks (and uses the position to raise money to fight multiple sclerosis).

Without further fanfare, here is the list of our favorite Microspotting stories from 2011. The stories are not ranked in any particular order, but all are sure to inspire.

1. Ben Martens, North America’s most ambitious ski bum

2. Our Valentine’s Day tribute to love found at Microsoft

3. Janet Galore, explaining the future of technology

4. Ryan Asdourian, Microsoft’s #1 Seahawks fan and superhero fundraiser

5. Ed Donahue & Ashley Myers, two-time Imagine Cup finalists and Microsoft co-workers

6. Sue Loh, inspiring future coders through retro gaming

7. Betsy Speare, blazing trails and building community for female developers

8. Jenny Lay Flurrie, embracing disability, finding success and helping others do the same

9. Boris Erickson, Xbox LIVE’s Enforcement Unicorn Ninja (yes, you read that correctly)

10. Albert Rocker, former NFL prospect goes pro at Microsoft

11. The BaudBoys, Microsoft’s Kings of Geek-A-Cappella

Ever wonder what it's like to work for Xbox? C'mon, everybody has… haven't they?
 
Just before Kinect launched late last year, Tina from Channel9 teamed up with Xbox's Larry Hryb (AKA Major Nelson) to get the inside scoop on the day-to-day behind the global phenomenon that is Xbox.

Check out our video tour of where Xbox employees work, eat, play Kinect (and bocce ball), create the future of gaming, and, of course, mingle with life-sized elephant sculptures.

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‘Softie in question: Raphael Mun

Job title: Software Development Engineer for Xbox Platform

First off, congratulations on the launch of Kinect. Was working in gaming a life-long dream for you?
As a little kid in Korea, I was originally into reading. But everything changed when my dad came back from a work trip to Japan with an Atari system and a vector graphics cowboy game. Next thing I knew, I was playing games until my nose was bleeding-

Nose was bleeding?
You know what I mean: a lot. I was hooked. Then came Super Mario World. After that, I didn’t read so much any more.

Tell me about the jump from playing games to creating games.
My family moved to Virginia and I did the Center for Talented Youth summer program at Johns Hopkins before I started in the 6th grade. It was there that I learned Java and made my first tic-tac-toe game.

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I’m a games guy. I LOVE games. I speak gamer. I say “w00t” and talk about “pwning noobs”. I frequently use acronyms like FPS, RTS, and MMORPG. My gamerscore is pushing 30,000. Not too shabby for a married dad who works full time.  

This is only one of the reasons why I am SO excited about the official announcement of Kinect for Xbox 360. The other reason? This is a project several years in the making. I - and the amazing team I work with - have been recruiting like crazy, seeking out and hiring some truly remarkable studs to make Kinect a reality.

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‘Softie in question: John Sutherland

Job title: Writer - Microsoft Game Studios

Could you explain the role of the writer in game development?
The writer develops the story and collaborates with the designer, who is often the game’s director. Sometimes we work with an outside developer who may have as many as four staff writers on a game. In that case, I work as the story doctor and oversee the writers: I help with story structure, pacing, and trimming their dialogue down to a manageable level. Other times, we work with developers who don’t have any staff writers and I’m the sole scriptwriter.

How did your career start off at Microsoft Game Studios?
I was working as a technical writer for Microsoft on error messages for Office 95 and telephony projects and that sort of thing. But, like a lot of technical writers, I had a secret life. When I wasn’t at work, I was busy as a screenwriter.

I started working in games in 1996 when a former copy editor of mine from Office asked me to create an online help system for Mind Aerobics, a new puzzle game by Alexey Pajitnov - who invented Tetris. In many ways, my first game writing job was still technical writing.

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The geek in question: John Mulhausen

The job title: SDET, Microsoft Game Studios

How long have you been with the company?
I started as a contractor in 2004, and then got hired on in 2005. I've been in my dream job with XBOX since July 2008.

Tell me about how you got this dream job.
I heard about a job with this central group, Microsoft Game Studios Test Org, that works with xbox developers, supporting every studio that Microsoft publishes. I studied my butt off and I had a lot of anxiety going into the interview. The day before I went to bed at like 9pm. I was like "I'm going to get 15 hours of sleep!" Getting this job was an obsession. Nothing but xbox games, and a new one all the time!

And you got the job!
I got the offer in May of this year. Working this job is seriously the realization of a life-long dream. My parents tell stories of me being in the high chair, and being all fussy. But they could get me to eat if they cut a triangle out of a slice of baloney and told me it was Pac-Man baloney.

I started copying code to make games when I was 5 or 6, copying BASIC code from Analog Magazine doing things like changing the code so that if you got a high score it would say “Johnny Rules.”

So wait, tell me about the tshirt.
In 1990 Nintendo announced that they were having a world championship, and I'd just turned 11 and decided to go to the nearest competition, which was in Dallas.

The whole thing was totally like that Fred Savage movie, The Wizard. There was an MC announcing what you were doing: "John has taken the tunnel in World One, and he's getting that coin." I remember hitting Jump for the first time to start the game, and hearing the whole place reverberate with the Mario DOIIIIIIING!

So you had 7 minutes to play Super Mario Brothers and get 50 coins, then you played Rad Racer and had to finish the first track, and then Tetris. It was like the triathlon of Nintendo gaming. I made the semi-finals and interviewed by the Dallas Morning News -- oh my god, I felt so cool. And the tshirt was one of the things they gave to people who made it to the semi-finals.

It was a wild experience. I finished third in my age group -- but I'll take it, man. I got to shake hands with the president of Nintendo. It was a defining childhood experience.

Do you feel like those gamer triathlon skills are now being put into use in your xbox dream job?
There's no way around just playing through a game and testing and seeing if something works. You can write automation to do so much, but automation can put the game in an awkward state that natural input wouldn't put it in. Using hooks is always prone to objects not getting shut down and memory leaks. So, my job requires someone who is able to use their skills in a variety of different games to actually cut that path through the game. I think those years of practice actually helped me.

So, you've got your dream job in the game industry -- but you've got this other dream job of being a working musician, right? Yep. I'm in a band called Terrene. We worked with a local producer Phil Ek (The Shins, Built to Spill, Band of Horses) to put out a record last year, did national distribution and videos. Our video for “Unwelcome” won “Best Indie Music Video 2007” at Yahoo! Video Awards, and was shown on MTV2’s Subterranean and HBO’s Feedback. And then it came time to tour. I toured for five weeks across North America.

My two jobs sometimes collide -- you can feel inauthentic in a situation that's geared toward one world or the other. But for the most part they've complimented each other well. Microsoft was amenable to me taking time off -- the five week tour was all paid vacation. And, I don't know how to put this delicately, but having the money from a full time job really helps. It's expensive to tour! It's expensive to buy equipment.

I don't do music in order to be rich and famous -- I do it because I can't help doing it. It's a total money drain. But Microsoft works with me to accommodate my tour and scheduling. The flexibility with hours has been really good.

Some people think that the starving artist ethos is somehow necessary to be creative. But making music and destructive impulses don't necessarily go hand in hand.

Right?! There's the whole romanticized tortured, broke artist icon -- and then if you go the other way you're somehow a sell-out poseur. People who subscribe to the idea of needing a level of irresponsibility to create are usually making excuses for themselves. Depending on something like poverty or instability to give you material to work with, or waiting for inspiration ... If you depend on your own suffering to create, then I'm just not completely sure you know what you're doing. Inspiration is for amateurs. Creativity demands a work ethic. Creativity is just the vision, and the work it takes to attain it.

DOIIIIING! Links, please

• John's band Terrene
• Video for "Unwelcome," by Terrene. (Directed by The Brothers Nee)
• Video for “Fifty-One,” by Terrene. (Directed by John)
• Terrene’s “The Indifferent Universe,” produced by John and Phil Ek
• AP article featuring interview with 11-year-old Nintendo Wiz John
• John on Facebook

Lloyd Scott, veteran of network TV programming, brings his video and TV savvy to Microsoft. He’s the newest addition to the Media & Entertainment Group.

By Steve Birge

May 30, 2008

Quick quiz: Who has the largest library of on-demand high definition (HD) programming available online? (It’s not the networks, not Hollywood studios, and not a cable company giant.)

The answer: Microsoft, with 1,600 hours of HD content among a library of 5,000 total hours of content. Microsoft is still a software company, have no fear. But it also is on its way to “defining the future of entertainment delivery,” behind such products as Xbox and Zune, and is building itself to further expand Redmond’s collection of world-class content.

The latest move in the Media & Entertainment Group (MEG) toward this end is the hiring of Lloyd Scott, an 18-year veteran of guiding networks, studios, and cable distributors through programming and acquisition of content. Scott serves as a business analyst in a MEG team assembled by Corporate Vice President Blair Westlake that already boasts phenomenal networks of contacts and experience in Hollywood and content centers around the world.

“I’m keenly aware of how content works in this space,” said Scott, who has guided programming for Apple iTunes, NBC, Fox Net, MGM, and others. “Microsoft is still in the early stages of digital [entertainment] downloading, and my objective here is to analyze early stage data and research based on performance of the content and see patterns of how and when things are downloaded and why. Then we can not only improve performance, but make better decisions on content to be offered for download.”

Westlake’s MEG team has three main arms. General Manager Kathy Styponias heads the business development team, which manages the relationships with television and movie moguls. Senior Director Ross Honey leads the content acquisition and licensing team, which executes the deals for the growing video library in the Entertainment and Devices Division. These groups operate based on analysis from the business analytics team, headed by Business Manager Bob O’Brien, where Scott sits.

Through industry connections and experience, this team has brought in big HD deals—for example, Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE was the first online platform to get HD content from Warner Bros. MEG was the second group, after Apple, to win a content deal with ABC, and the first ever to obtain ABC’s HD content.

Scott’s role is to help determine what content will best populate the Microsoft video entertainment library, which is provided through Xbox LIVE Marketplace and the Zune Marketplace for rental or download to own. His research and savvy about the programming that might appeal to particular audiences using a particular device is critical in pursuing deals. Analytics numbers are “hard to negotiate against,” Honey said.

“Lloyd’s programming expertise is helpful in identifying content we wish to secure,” Honey said. “The major content providers like networks or studios are the obvious list. Where it gets more complex is when you get to the second tier or third tier of providers, where content may be less obvious but very interesting to the Xbox demographic, for example. Lloyd’s programming expertise is very helpful there.”

Scott said his ultimate goal is to act as a resource to help Microsoft platforms create “better channels,” meaning packaging a disparate set of content from multiple sources within an overarching theme, allowing users to consider and consume content according to particular interests or tastes. Scott has a deep understanding of the audience that uses Xbox, as well as broader audiences interested in downloadable content, and is excited to be in on the evolution of new entertainment delivery.

“The entertainment model itself is going through unbelievable changes. TV is changing, and the movie business is very different as well,” Scott said. “Obviously, you want blockbusters to appeal to the male 18–35 demo, but a lot of them don’t feel compelled to go to movie theaters anymore. The way we see the digital space existing today, with $2-per-show content, is really an early stage. The way it exists today is not the way it will exist in three to five years.”