Ginny Cheng
My name is Ginny Cheng and I have recruited college students from some of the most competitive schools in the United States such as Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, Virginia Tech and Duke, to name a few.
If you had asked me in college if I’d picture myself in recruiting, and specifically in college recruiting, I probably would’ve given you a polite chuckle and then informed you that PR/marketing is my passion, not finding talent. After all, I majored in those courses, was a board member of a national PR student organization at the University of Washington, and even interned for coveted marketing positions at Nike and Starbucks.
Upon graduation, I didn’t think tech companies were my cup of tea and wondered if I started off with a tech company, would I get stuck there? But I took that chance and started my first real job out of college with Microsoft in the International PR arena.
As the years went by, lots of other interesting prospects presented themselves -- from consulting for Guess? Fashions, to account relations at Loudeye (a startup), to digital content management for EMI Music. They were all challenging, but each career choice I made built on top of transferrable skills I’ve acquired along the way. After working internationally for a few years, I decided to come back to Microsoft in a different capacity…and yes, the rest is history.
So, why am I talking about this here? When interns complete their 12-24 week internship at Microsoft, many receive full-time offers from us. In many cases, we have students who tell us that they are not sure if they can picture themselves at Microsoft for the rest of their lives (or be a developer forever).
The truth is, we don’t expect you to be with us forever (unless you want to, of course). Even Bill ventured off to devote his time to his other passion: the Gates Foundation. The offers we give could just be another chapter of your career path, not a contract for life. If you do decide to stay with us long-term, you should know that on average, people at Microsoft change either teams or positions within about 18 months. Given that we have so many different products or projects going on at once, you’re going to find something exciting here, even if your interests change over the years.
In case you’re thinking: ”Hey, that sounds great. Where do I sign up?” -- for college students, just locate your school recruiter on our College Careers site and go from there! Don’t forget to check out your career center for our job postings and resume drop timelines. For those who are already in the career world, check out our main Careers site instead.
And, if you're wondering if I'm related another blogger, Anne.... yes, she's my sister!
Note: As of fall 2008, I have moved to an Account Management role within College Recruiting. While I am not directly on school campuses anymore, I work closely with the Microsoft Business Division to match the best talents to their teams.
