Jeff Riley, director of Online Operations, has not written a line of code since college, yet he's been responsible for some of Microsoft's biggest and most successful projects. At the top of the list is the Microsoft Order Entry Tool (MOET), a secure electronic commerce order entry tool. "A lot of our customers want to move to the Internet," Jeff says. "My group identifies their needs, and then designs programs and projects that help them move there successfully." How important is this effort? Today more than 4 billion dollars of Microsoft's revenue stream comes from MOET — and Jeff's goal is to increase that amount.

"Actually, if you look around Microsoft, you'll see lots of people who don't write code. You'll find all sorts of different people with different talents in product groups, sales and support, and operations — no one group handles everything end to end. In our group we focus on the business process design and project management, and then we team with other groups — like marketing, information systems, external business partners, and our international subsidiaries — to put it all together and make it happen."

What do all these groups and people have in common? "Passion," Jeff says. "When I first came here I underestimated how open, honest, and passionate the atmosphere would be. There's no fluff. Everywhere I look, 360 degrees around me, everyone is focused on doing the right thing. And that's what's so great about Microsoft — you don't wait for something to happen — you make it happen. Theories are nice, but they're often irrelevant in the real world. Here, people go after real-life experience — they put real ideas to the test. If something doesn't work, we learn from it and try again. That process is exactly what made our secure electronic commerce order entry tool, MOET, so successful."

It's Saturday morning and Jane Dickson has just finished a practice rescue in her mountaineering first aid class. "When someone's hurt, the first thing I have to do is overcome my own initial feeling of panic — do I really know what to do? Do I really have the knowledge to help?" Jane says. "Getting over that insecurity is the tough part, but once I trust myself, I know I can get in there and do what needs to be done. I team with others, and it's a very unifying experience. Plus it has a great outcome."

Then she laughs and says, "So what does that have to do with working at Microsoft? Everything."

A corporate account representative in the Enterprise Customer Unit, Jane doesn't write code — she's the Microsoft point person for Starbucks, Nordstrom, and Costco, and she's also a member of the Boeing account team. "I go into situations every day where I need to be able to make my own decisions and execute them. I have to trust myself — and I get to run my own show. But I'm also part of a team, and that's really great. Because together, we can effectively work toward our shared goal: to delight our customers. It's exciting to have ownership like that — to be given a challenge and have the freedom, as well as the team support, to succeed. That's what it's like to work at Microsoft."

Although Jane's been at Microsoft for only a year, she was instrumental in helping attain the Costco account. "Costco was not a big Microsoft customer — in fact, they'd already chosen someone else to lead their e-commerce effort. But we went in anyway and listened to their challenges, and, with the support of our executives, presented our e-commerce strategy. We told them about our partnership approach — how we could team with Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) and other partners to deliver a long-term solution. Admittedly, they were skeptical. But we persevered, and a very successful Costco site went live — and it's built on a Microsoft solution."