Dear JobsBlog: I'm a hardware engineer, and I'm interested in working at Microsoft.  Is this even possible?

- Hardware Geek

Answer:  Hi Hardware Geek, you are not alone; I often receive emails on whether Microsoft has hardware-related opportunities.  The answer is yes, but obviously not as many software opportunities. 

Microsoft recently thanked the hardware employees worldwide who have contributed over the past 25 years to help mark the silver anniversary of Microsoft in the hardware business, delivering innovative PC input peripherals from mouse to Xbox Consoles to consumers worldwide.
 
Excerpts from an email:

The Microsoft Hardware team was created in 1982 to develop a mouse that would make it easier to use the company’s new word processing program.  Since then, they’ve held true to their charter of creating quality hardware that makes it easier to interact with software and services. They’ve also reached some impressive milestones, including:

• Profitability every year for 25 years
• Growing the business to nearly $700 million in annual revenue in FY07
• Launching a new category (webcams and headsets) last year profitably and efficiently, with nearly 3 million units sold in and almost $100 million in revenue
• Selling over 30 million units last year which equates to about one product sold every second
• Delivering over 1,200 SKUs across seven sub-categories to subs and partners
• Selling to over 50 countries worldwide, localized in over 20 languages

For more information on our cool products, check out the hardware website. 

All hardware job postings would also be available on our careers site in the hardware careerpath.

Students can contact their recruiters to check on college hardware opportunities. However for the most part, we would have more opportunities that incorporate both software/hardware disciplines rather than just hardware alone. 

Here’s to the next 25 years of great hardware!

- Ginny Cheng