What's the right Microsoft group for me?
Posted Friday, August 17 2007 by The JobsBloggersBy: Ginny Cheng
So Many Choices! What’s the right MS group for me to start out with?
Often, when I ask a college student what Microsoft products/teams they would be interested in exploring, I get the typical responses like Xbox, Zune, Windows, IE and Search. While I’m sure many students are indeed interested in those groups, I believe the majority realize that they don’t know all the products and technologies Microsoft has to offer. After all, it is a big playground here and there are hundreds of products that we work on every day.
I have a tip -- instead of focusing on a product, which limits you to other possibilities, pay attention to your technology preference. For example, you may be interested in Graphics but if you’re not into Graphics in Games, did you know we also have Graphics in Office? In other words, know what Microsoft technologies interest you most and match your skills and qualifications to them.
Coming soon to your campus, you may be asked to fill out a Candidate Interest Form before you interview that includes most of the technologies used at Microsoft. You’ll be able to check as many boxes as you like but again, select those that also match your current skill sets.
I’m going to give you a heads up on what those areas are so you can begin to think about what technologies would make you want to come to work every day! This advice is also applicable for industry candidates.
- Applications
- Communication Systems
- Compilers
- Databases
- Distributed Systems
- Drivers
- Emerging Technologies
- Graphics
- Hardware
- Media Technologies
- Mobility and Wireless
- Natural Language Processing
- Networking
- Operating Systems
- Performance
- Search and Text Mining
- Security and Cryptography
- Servers
- Storage
- Theory
- User Interface
- Web Applications
- Other (yeah, we included this one in case you have something even more specific)
Happy Exploring!
- Ginny
13 commentsTagged as: career-paths-at-microsoft, college-recruiting, industry-recruiting, international-recruiting, ginny, job-hunting
Comments
So when is "other" hiring? Do they have a cool location down in Redmond? I'll happily work for "other" why not?
Are there any "other" benefits? What about "other" positions? Are they any "other" people working there?
Sorry I had to... ;)
Yeah nice advice. Except that this is not so simple. If you don't like one group the recruiter just shuts you out and you never hear back from Microsoft again. In reality this is how recruiting at Microsoft works. So you can interview with a group you're not super excited about or good luck establishing a connection with some other group. Unless you have inside contacts at Microsoft you're out of luck and your previous successful screens don't count. Back to 0.
You people make candidates jump through too many hoops until we just give up and go someplace that pays better and has better opportunities. And that's the thing. Microsoft is no longer the place with the best pay and best opportunities so get off your pedestals already! After a total of 3 loops and countless other screens and potential open opportunities I'm giving up. Even now I have two groups interested and ready to talk. But it's always talking without getting anywhere. It takes forever and there are too many people involved. You guys just waste time. How many full day loops does it take? My friend who has a masters in cs from a US university with a 3.85 gpa had to go through seven full days of loops until he got an offer! And by the way he interned at Microsoft with great reviews too. Apparently that wasn't enough.
I was told that I'm a "Microsoft hire" and then nothing. I'm just not going to interview for 10 hours per loop again and again in order to get in. It's not worth it. Microsoft's reputation is eroding and you guys just don't get it.
None of my superstar friends are happy working there anyway. Too much pain, not enough gain.
I take it Technical Writing is in that "Other" category...or at least I would hope so.
If we are interested in network admin/IT jobs such as settig up servers, maintaining servers, maintaining availability of servers. What would we apply under?
Thanks for the comments!
Sean/Urluckyday/Alex – I should’ve been more clear that this was focused on the "core-technical" positions we look for in the college space (SDE/SDET/PM). “Other” is referring to other technology areas that students are interested in but did not see in our list. We do hire other positions such as marketing, finance, HR, IT and more (although more limited) so I suggest working with your school recruiter for positions outside of SDE/SDET/PM OR look in your career center for various new postings given they come up throughout the year. An example was when we had a couple MSN Account Manager positions in spring for our NY office. I already had a handful of resumes I collected in the fall that would’ve been a possible fit for the positions and contacted them to ask about their interest. We ended up hiring one Cornell student for one of the positions!
I give up -- You are right that the process is never that simple due to the number of positions and teams we have to fill (both in the college and industry space). This is why we created this blog to clear up some mystery in hopes that some of the information will aid you. I’m not sure on your particular experience but I know in general it is our intention to find the right match between the candidates and the open positions. Last year we hired nearly 1,000 college students and anticipate another year of great hires. Each year, we have many students that are interested in the same teams/technologies but doesn’t mean their experience and background is the best fit at the time. We also have students that interview more than once for internships/full time positions. In fact, I recently learned about a former student of mine that interviewed with our SVC office (3rd time after his two times for Redmond last year) and got hired – he started this week. He too, was frustrated but remained in contact with me and other recruiters until the right opportunity came along.
It’s obvious you are passionate for technology and wanted to remind us that should continue to improve our candidate experience to ensure we don’t miss some top talents. I want to wish you the best in your other endeavors!
Simple question.
How about people who are just simply so passionate about Microsoft and technology in general, have a raw natural ability and can be accurately described as a "Jack of all Trades, Master of Some". A person who haven't managed to breach that barrier of "Small Business" to "Enterprise" but has the raw ability if taken there.
And is sometimes a little too geeky for their own good but CAN stand up with professionals and not stick out as an idiot.
But of course are honest enough to admit when they've goofed and goofed big. (Especially if they were so excited to possibly almost see a Redmond trip, they overdid it with their Tech Interviewer and let the enthusiast right out of the bag)
Any place for people like us? .... :) Pretty please?
Even if we're NOT in college anymore?
With Nachos and Canadian beer thrown in ?
To Andrew:
Thank you for your email asking me to clarify on what "Theory" was.
Theory is a bit similar to research - often these candidates would be best fit in MSR (Microsoft Research) but occasionally we have product team roles that require some theoretical analysis than implementation. We hired an SDET who was almost all theory last year into a group that was working on system performance.
Hi Ginny,
Thanks for the tip! I was always wondering if it is possible for us to choose our fields of interest when we get to work at Microsoft...
But the question is: Will Microsoft change our group to something else in case our interests don't conform with the current group?
-- Ali B
So as a somewhat middle aged, mid-career, career changer, can I get into Microsoft? I had a brilliant 20 year run doing implementation & presales support then I went back for a Masters in Health Policy & Management.
I would like to continue the customer facing role, just in another vertical. How can I find the right people to interview with in the Microsoft health vertical or public sector vertical?
Thanks.
Good blog Ginny.
How do you go about identifying which industry vertical might be a good fit at Microsoft for a potential candidate ? For example, I have deep technical architecture experience in the healthcare space. I believe in addition to a few healthcare acquisitions, Microsoft has a limited line of products and services specifically targetted for healthcare and most of those are to support the vendors and partners directly involved in the healthcare industry.
Nevertheless, this is an ever growing space and I am curious to see how Microsoft is shaping our healthcare industry and how I can contribute to this.
Thanks
-Sam
Sam -- I'll write a posting for health care solutions separately because several people have asked me about this already.
Artificial Intelligence for Others...?
Excellent blog, Ginny.
Sean Kearney makes a good point. It's more difficult for us "jack-of-all-trade" workers to even get a call back because we might not have the concentrated experience in the areas we're applying for. I could see where having a designated recruiter could be very helpful in these cases. Any offers?