Sometimes we get questions that even our expert staff needs a little extra help answering. We are very lucky that we have so many talented recruiters at Microsoft to draw from. Today we have a special guest post from Joe Wallis who agreed to help us out with this question from a reader.

Dear JobsBlog: I will finish my degree in Information Technology in a few months. Technically, I am inexperienced in the job market, but I have 11 years of experience in the Air Force. During those years I've set up SharePoint portal pages, developed databases, managed accounts etc. Basically, I've worked on computer systems and programs with no real focus but to "get the job done". My question is how do I use those skills I picked up in the military to make me appeal more to hiring managers, specifically Microsoft? - Very Eager Technologist

Dear V.E.T. - That is a great question and we appreciate your interest in Microsoft. First of all, thank you for your service and Microsoft wishes you the best of luck in your career search!

As you finish your degree in Information Technology and with your computer systems background in the Air Force, Microsoft is a great place to leverage your skills and a company that values your experience. Microsoft has a specific military/veteran recruiting program called Militay2Microsoft. We use the tagline “We Still Serve”. A great place to start engaging our program is at our website, www.westillserve.com. Our site has several functions that can assist in finding the right opportunities to match your experience. We have a MOS/AFSC/NEC decoder tool that will present you with open positions at Microsoft that best match your military specialty.

Every Friday afternoon between 12 and 3 PM PST, you can chat with veterans at Microsoft through our website and find out how they made their transition to Microsoft. Veterans representing our internal Microsoft Military Community are available to answer your questions concerning a career at Microsoft.

Our website also has a function to join our Talent Network and set up a search agent that will email you open positions that match your experience at whatever frequency you want. This is set up with keyword entries and is a great way see where your skills currently match to Microsoft open positions. I would also recommend you follow our social media sites at LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Our social pages are all named “We Still Serve” and can be found on our website.

As our program presents numerous well qualified veterans to our staffing organization and our internal Military Microsoft community advocates within their businesses for veterans, hiring managers are becoming well aware of the great skills and experience our veterans bring to Microsoft. Again, good luck in your career search and we look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Joe