Throughout the years, Microsoft has been named one of the best companies to work for - and not without good reason. From endless career development opportunities to health benefits that go above and beyond, we know how to reward our employees for their hard work. Some Microsoft programs even reach out to our employees’ family members and encourage Microsofties' personal growth.

One thing many don’t know about the company is that we didn’t clone Bill Gates 90,000 times. Our employees come from a variety of backgrounds and hold many different skill sets. But the best people to tell you what it’s really like to work at Microsoft are those who really work here. Check out some of our favorite posts and videos to hear what real employees say about being a part of the empire. 

How can Microsoft ease my relocation experience?

Microsoft's Company Meeting

Working for Microsoft outside the U.S.

Riding the connector

Check out what a few of our interns thought about their employee benefits ...

Perks: A Microsoft guy tries to use all his benefits in one day

And hear how employees balance work with their busy personal lives ...

Roundtable: Work Life Balance at Microsoft

Who says that college is fun and work is boring?

Work life at Microsoft is anything but the cubicle routine found at many contemporary companies. Among a universe of other perks, benefits and support, Microsoft hosts diverse and dynamic speakers who keep employees in touch with the cutting edge (if not the future) of technology.

Yesterday, I saw a speech by Craig Mundie and – a couple hours later – a presentation by Ben Huh. Mundie is Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy Officer and part of President Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Huh is the CEO and Founder of the Cheezburger Network: over 30 popular humor sites such as I Can Has Cheezburger, GraphJam and FAIL blog. His sites attract over 13 million daily visits.

The two talks ran from the highest levels of tech research down to addictively lowbrow Internet humor… and both speakers blew my mind.

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‘Softie in Question: McKenzie Eakin

Job title: Xbox LIVE Service Delivery Program Manager

That’s quite a title, what exactly does that mean?
Pardon the analogy, but I bartended in college, it’s:

*One part Back-end Community Strategy – setting the vision and direction for how we enable our customers to connect with each other and with us, from a behind-the-scenes systems and programs perspective. 

*Two parts execution – everything from managing the @XboxSupport Elite Tweet Fleet to the Xbox Ambassadors program, which recognizes and promotes good gaming and sportsmanship.

*And the whole cocktail is garnished with a LOT of Beatles Rockband.

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Earlier this week, CNET's Ina Fried published a story on Microsoft Disaster Reponse Manager Gisli Olafsson and his recent recent experiences helping the people and country of Haiti: What a Microsoft rescue worker saw in Haiti.

While many people have jobs at Microsoft that aim to avoid disasters, Gisli Olafsson's job is getting through them.

As a full-time disaster management specialist for the software maker, Olafsson works with the United Nations and other agencies to prepare before devastation hits and also to coordinate efforts once it does. Olafsson has been sent across the globe to deal with the aftermath of earthquakes and hurricanes, offering help in rebuilding the infrastructure that nature has wiped away.

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`Softie in Question: Clint Rutkas

Job Title: Technical Evangelist

You´ve got all of these crazy gadgets sitting around your office. Can you explain what some of these things are?
This´s all .NET hardware that I´ve built, namely a computer-controlled, light-up dance floor, a self-balancing skateboard and an automated bartender called Drinktendr.

So, your job is what?... to come up with cool ideas and figure out how to make them into realities?
I am part developer, part content producer for Channel 9 and I run the Microsoft blog Coding4Fun – which, yes, is all about learning how to make fun stuff with .NET technology.

Through the act of learning, people start to see the technology from a new viewpoint: what they once perceived as a nail may been seen as a screw to be used in a completely different way and create something nobody´s ever thought of before.

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’Softie in question: Cheryl Platz

Job title: User Experience Designer on the Management and Administration eXperience

I heard that you were a protégé of the late Randy Pausch of The Last Lecture fame. Can you tell us about working with Professor Pausch?
I didn't even know about my field of human-computer interaction until I went on my college visit to Carnegie Mellon. There was this guy there, Randy Pausch, who spoke of combining design, programming and psychology - all at the same time. It blew my mind. To top it off, he mentioned that he was an Imagineer. I had always loved Disney, especially theme parks - and I'd never seen an Imagineer in the wild before. I was sold.

After my first few years at CMU, Randy became my professor in undergrad and, then, grad school and my boss when I was a teaching assistant for his "Building Virtual Worlds" class. But, even more than that, Randy helped to realize one of my personal dreams. He walked up to me before class one day and asked, "Do you have any plans for this summer? I think that I have a job for you at Disney World." I almost cried in front of everyone.

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This post is courtesy of Bing Jobs Blog:

I’m a big Top Chef fan and I love to cook, but I don’t really consider myself a “Foodie.” There are too many concepts I'm totally ignorant of that are old news to most Foodies. For instance, the whole concept of deconstructed cooking was foreign to me until started watching the show.

Given the large number of ingredients Microsoft uses to create our online services, I thought it would be fun to look at some of the main groups that combine to deliver Bing, courtesy of our OSD Career Site:

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'Softie in Question: Scott Dart

Job title: Senior Program Manager on the Windows Team.

What part of Windows are you working on?
I could tell you but I’d have to kill you.

Seriously?
Seriously.

So, you oversee this highly classified software program while also playing in a 10-piece funk band?
I play baritone sax for DoctorfunK. We’re a high-energy funk/soul/R&B band with five horns, a rhythm section, and vocals. Our second CD is about to come out and we even played at the Muckleshoot Casino on December 26th with the former lead vocalist of Oakland funk legends Tower of Power.

Sounds like you’ve got a lot on your plate.
Fortunately, working as a Program Manager at Microsoft is smooth sailing compared to negotiating the rough waters of the music business and band politics.

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Happy new year to everyone! Hope you are all having a great 2010 so far.

I wanted to share a few changes we've got brewing here at JobsBlog for the new year:

Microspotting and JobsBlog merge: Yes, that's right. Two of your favorite Microsoft blogs are now one. :) Back in the fall (before Ariel, Microspotting's founder, left Microsoft), we decided to bring both blogs together onto one site. Actually, it was Ariel's idea, and I think it's a great one. We know the audiences of Microspotting and the traditional JobsBlog can be a bit different so you'll have the option to read the sections together--or separate.

If you want to read both blogs together, continue visiting our main blog site or main blog feed.

If you just want Microspotting, you can pass go and skip directly to the Microspotting page or Microspotting feed.

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Happy birthday to our Silicon Valley campus who turned 10 last week. Our largest U.S. campus outside of Redmond, Microsoft Silicon Valley (MSV) is now home to 1300 employees (with 2000 total in the Bay Area) working on products like Mediaroom, Windows Live, Bing, Xbox, Microsoft for Mac, PowerPoint and more. You can find out more about the culture and jobs (yes, we are hiring) at Microsoft Careers: Silicon Valley. 

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A couple years ago, Jenna wrote about her own experience with Microsoft’s Mobile Medicine benefit. Now, a recent Business Week article tells you a little more about the details—and economics—of our plan: The Return of the House Call.

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A while back, the Channel 9 team revealed what it’s really like to work at Microsoft. Ok, well, maybe not really—but we sure did enjoy it. Now Tina and the gang are back again with new insight:

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Today at PDC (Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference in LA), our Live Labs team unveiled Pivot, an experimental application that makes it easier (and fun) for people to interact with a massive amount of data in new ways. Right now, Pivot is in a limited technical preview for PDC attendees but check out the video to see this technology in action.

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This week Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, has been visiting college campuses to talk with students about how the new capabilities in computing will help tackle some of the planet’s toughest challenges. 

At Cornell, Harvard, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Washington, Craig is showing the leading-edge work taking place at Microsoft and demonstrating work from the Computational Science Group out of Microsoft Research Cambridge (U.K.). He's also discussing the kinds of computers students will soon be using.

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Our friends over on the Channel 9 team (as well as all of us here at Microsoft) hope you have a very fun and safe Halloween weekend!

Bug Killer: A Channel 9 Halloween Special 

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 Hi everyone, Alison here, the concierge for the Experience Microsoft candidate lobby. Many out-of-towners want to know about the area where Microsoft is located—Redmond, Washington. The great thing about Redmond is that you can take day trips to all kinds of different activities.

Downtown Seattle is about 12 miles from Microsoft campus, and it only takes 20 minutes to get there by car (if there’s no traffic) because it’s mostly freeway. At Pike Place Market, you can see the famous fish throwers and the brass pig, have fresh donuts for breakfast, and eat outside at Copacabana for lunch—the market is mostly about the food, and of course the people watching. There are lots of street musicians, most of them with some real talent. The Seattle Art Museum is there, along with the Space Needle, the Pacific Science Center, the Woodland Park Zoo, and the Seattle Aquarium. Then you can take the Underground Tour and see what old Seattle looked like before it was destroyed by the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. Seattle also has an excellent symphony and ballet.

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For years, Microsoft’s product ship parties have celebrated the great work of the diligent men and women involved in the finish products.

The Windows 7 team recently hit their release to manufacturer (RTM) milestone and rejoiced the occasion on our main campus with a carnival theme while Presidents of the United States of America rocked out with thousands of employees on a Friday afternoon.

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Dear JobsBlog:  What can you tell me about working in technical support at Microsoft? I see a lot of info on what it’s like to work on an engineering team but not a lot about support. Help!

 -Support Guru

Dear Support Guru:  I asked Heather from the Microsoft Customer Service & Support Careers Blog to stop by and share how to learn more about careers in Customer Service & Support (CSS). Others have been asking for more info on CSS, too, so look for more technical support and services careers info here on JobsBlog soon!

Gretchen

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A few months ago I wrote about taking on a stretch assignment with the HR systems team. I’m really enjoying the role and my fun, crazy team and thought I’d give you a taste of what I’ve been up to by writing about our recent morale event.

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Dear JobsBlog: After working for 9+ years as a technical lead, I am now considering a change in career path and am seriously considering the Program Manager role. I work at a start-up and wear multiple hats like meeting customers, working with development teams, managing schedules, resource planning and risk analysis. I read the Zen of PM article, and I think I do some of it.

 I can see it is quite possible for someone from within Microsoft to change gears from SDE or SDET roles to a PM role. Do you see that happening to someone from outside? Do you have any specific advice for me in this regard -- like to get my resume noticed, given that I am coming from a dev background?

-Pondering PM

Dear Pondering PM:  Program Management isn’t a consistent discipline across the technical industry, and as Steven Sinofsky blogged, “PM is unique to Microsoft and I think it is fair to say this is a role that is often copied but never duplicated.” The good news is, when hiring from outside Microsoft, we rarely interview people who have already been PMs because, well, there just aren’t many!

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As mentioned in previous blog posts, we’re working on a new Microsoft Careers site, and we’re looking for reader feedback to help make it the best it can be. We want to know what we can do to ease your online job search and how to best give you the information you want to know about working here.

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