Stuart Scott's appointment as COO of Ocala, Fla.-based mortgage lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker—16 days after he was fired by Microsoft for violating the software giant's corporate policies—may not be as fortuitous as it seems, according to executive recruiters CIO.com interviewed.

They point to the fact that Scott has moved from top IT jobs at two big, powerful companies—GE and Microsoft—to a leading role at a smaller organization playing in an embattled industry. Ed Highland, an analyst with Standard & Poor's structured finance group, says the privately held Taylor, Bean & Whitaker is "a good-sized company" that services about 300,000 prime loans and has "strong" S&P ranking for the efficiency of its loan servicing operation. The company says it has nearly $5 billion in assets.

"Stuart Scott's career progression from GE to Microsoft to—what was the name of the firm again?—is not exactly meteoric," says Marc Lewis, CEO of Leadership Capital Group, an executive search firm. "It's [a] very logical [move], given his apparent fall from grace at Microsoft, but logical does not make it impressive."

On Nov. 21, Taylor, Bean & Whitaker issued a press release about Scott's appointment as COO, citing his impressive credentials to help the company "deliver innovative technology solutions." Several calls to the company to speak to executives about Scott's appointment have not been returned.

Martha Heller, managing director of executive search firm ZRG's IT leadership practice, says Scott went from being a big fish in a big pond to being a slightly bigger fish in a "much, much" smaller pond.

Moving into a COO role softens the blow of going from Microsoft to a lesser-known company, says Heller, who is also a columnist for CIO. "If you're going to be forced in a way to go to a company that isn't in an enviable space right now, you might as well try on a new corporate hat while you're at it," she says, adding that Scott's making the best of a bad situation. "The guy has to slum it, [but] at least he can challenge himself. He's a bona fide COO now."

A Beneficial Deal for Two Beleaguered Parties

Heller and Lewis note that the beleaguered mortgage industry is not an attractive place for executives to land jobs right now. But the industry's woes—and appetite for risk—may have made it easier for Scott to get a job after being fired from Microsoft, and for a relatively small company like Taylor, Bean & Whitaker to recruit a high-profile, former GE and Microsoft exec. Companies in profitable, controversy-free industries that have the pick of the talent pool don't need to hire an executive who possesses even a whiff of controversy about him, says Heller.