Happy New (Fiscal) Year!
Posted Friday, June 27 2008 by The JobsBloggers
I realize it’s only June, but it's the end of the fiscal year for Microsoft. This is one of my favorite times of the year (calendar, that is). Summer is starting to really begin, the deer and bunnies reappear in my backyard and Rainier cherries are finally in season! It’s a time to look back at our last fiscal year (July through June) and see how much success we had in bringing the top talented individuals into Microsoft. It’s astounding to me to see the growth in this company and know that the innovation and future success is due in part to our hard work and recruiting efforts.
Now is also the time that we start planning for the next fiscal year: determining the budget, looking at headcount, figuring out recruiting strategies, etc. I look at it as a time to start fresh and try something new. A time to expand your skills and work out of your comfort zone. A time to try a recruiting strategy that hasn’t been done before.
With that said, what recruiting techniques or ideas have you thought about that you would like to see Microsoft implement? I’ll take off-the-wall crazy ones and all!
- Lisa
4 commentsTagged as: job-hunting, working-at-msft, lisa
Comments
I'll take a stab at some techniques.
Here are some suggestions for recruiting:
1. Use Linkedin recommendations and personal contacts through linkedin to meet folks.
2. Present a ficticious business scenario and get feedback on how to handle it (mark as appropriate for PM's, SDE, etc.) - make it a challenge - the best solution each week/month gets the opportunity to interview for a position at MS.
3. Ask for contact numbers from those folks who swear to be passionate about Microsoft and about a particular opportunity and cold call them without the benefit of preparing for an interview (cruel I know!)
4. Contact the top 1% of gamerscorers via XBOX Live (that are old enough) and give them an opportunity to interview for testing roles in the games/XBOX groups.
5. Develop a hidden treasure puzzle contest that makes hopefuls figure out challenging puzzles that send them from one Microsoft site/blog to another until they reach the final secret site and are given an on the spot timed test to see how they would fit into the Microsoft culture.
6. When in social functions, realize what personalities exhibit leadership qualities - give them a specal Microsoft contact card and tell them to call that number. The recruiters who answer that special number will know that Microsoft HR folks have chosen this person as a natural leader.
7. Marketing contest - give a test product and specifics and ask the hopefuls to design a product name, marketing slogan, and marketing approach for this product. Winner gets to interview for an open marketing req!
8. Have Microsoft candidates generate their perfect job description of a job they would love to do - use that to find an accurate match.
9. Have resume response enabled - whereas I can go in and correlate the job requirements or duties with my past experiences so that the recruiter can have a side by side comparison with examples for reference.
10. Rank candidates based on certain levels of competencies (i.e. Phil scores Passion 10, Motivation 8, Project Management 8, Technical Skills 5, Communication 6, Quality 7) - that can be used to match people to the right kinds of opportunities (yes I do see how this can be subjective)
11. Have a word of the day (a la PeeWee's playhouse) where everytime a candidate says that word, everyone screams real loud - see how the interviewee reacts (may I suggest the word "experience" for starters!)
12. Contact the folks who respond to JobsBlog posts and help those folks find full time blue badge roles! :)
I'll take a stab at some techniques.
Here are some suggestions for recruiting:
1. Use Linkedin recommendations and personal contacts through linkedin to meet folks.
2. Present a ficticious business scenario and get feedback on how to handle it (mark as appropriate for PM's, SDE, etc.) - make it a challenge - the best solution each week/month gets the opportunity to interview for a position at MS.
3. Ask for contact numbers from those folks who swear to be passionate about Microsoft and about a particular opportunity and cold call them without the benefit of preparing for an interview (cruel I know!)
4. Contact the top 1% of gamerscorers via XBOX Live (that are old enough) and give them an opportunity to interview for testing roles in the games/XBOX groups.
5. Develop a hidden treasure puzzle contest that makes hopefuls figure out challenging puzzles that send them from one Microsoft site/blog to another until they reach the final secret site and are given an on the spot timed test to see how they would fit into the Microsoft culture.
6. When in social functions, realize what personalities exhibit leadership qualities - give them a specal Microsoft contact card and tell them to call that number. The recruiters who answer that special number will know that Microsoft HR folks have chosen this person as a natural leader.
7. Marketing contest - give a test product and specifics and ask the hopefuls to design a product name, marketing slogan, and marketing approach for this product. Winner gets to interview for an open marketing req!
8. Have Microsoft candidates generate their perfect job description of a job they would love to do - use that to find an accurate match.
9. Have resume response enabled - whereas I can go in and correlate the job requirements or duties with my past experiences so that the recruiter can have a side by side comparison with examples for reference.
10. Rank candidates based on certain levels of competencies (i.e. Phil scores Passion 10, Motivation 8, Project Management 8, Technical Skills 5, Communication 6, Quality 7) - that can be used to match people to the right kinds of opportunities (yes I do see how this can be subjective)
11. Have a word of the day (a la PeeWee's playhouse) where everytime a candidate says that word, everyone screams real loud - see how the interviewee reacts (may I suggest the word "experience" for starters!)
12. Contact the folks who respond to JobsBlog posts and help those folks find full time blue badge roles! :)
How about letting applicants attach a video response to job postings? Perhaps the resume could include 2-3 questions for the applicant to respond to in order to show expertise and personality.
Also, I struggle with trying to compile a static, text-based resume when my daily work, experiences and expertise is always growing/shifting. What if, tied to our LIVE log in, Microsoft built a resume-hosting site? Microsoft could tailor it so that the language they use for positions could match up with applicant's experience and such.
I'm envisioning something where the applicant could say, "yes, I'm a marketer" and when they select that skill, lists would pop-up where the applicant could check off "yes i have done social marketing, no i have not done print ads, yes I can program flash ads, etc" so that a better view of the applicant could be given in light of what MS perceives as important and in your own language. This could also serve as motivation for the applicants to see what skills MS would like them to have, but they don't yet... it could become a grand to-do list.
Maybe OT... but very interesting!
"Some Developers Leaving Google For Microsoft"
http://developers.slashdot.org/developers/08/06/30/2240206.shtml