Microsoft's JobsBlog

Here’s a quick shout out to college candidates looking to change the world. Imagine Cup, a global student technology competition focused on finding solutions for real-world issues, is diving into its seventh year. This year’s theme is "Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today." Students will be asked to create software solutions that are aligned with one of the UN's eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs range from halving extreme poverty and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS to providing universal primary education. More information about the MDGs can be found here.

Those interested in Imagine Cup 2009 can sign up online. The finals will be held in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt during summer 2009.

I also want to recognize the first-place winners from Imagine Cup 2008 that was held at the Louvre Museum in Paris this past July. 
• Australia's Team SOAK won the worldwide Software Design invitational
• Singapore's Team Trail Blazers won the Embedded Development invitational
• Brazil's Mother Gaia Studio won the Game Development challenge. 

Nic hits up the project showcase at Imagine Cup 2008 Finals in Paris

For pictures and more information on the student’s projects, check out last year's Imagine Cup page. 

Six of the finalist teams from the 2008 competition will have the opportunity to explore how their software solutions could potentially turn into business realities. They will receive business and technology training as part of the Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator Program, which is sponsored by British Telecommunications and Microsoft. So hopefully we’ll be able to see some of these great ideas come into reality!

-Anne

Dear JobsBlog: I see the Microsoft Connector shuttles all over the Seattle area. How and where would I apply to be a driver for the Connector shuttle service?

– Connector Curious

Dear "Connector Curious":
We get this question a lot. Many facilities-related roles at Microsoft are staffed and managed by specialized companies, and the Connector is no exception. To apply for a job driving for our Connector fleet, cruise over to MV Transportation, the largest privately held and domestically owned transportation management company in the United States.

Vroom!

-Gretchen

Dear JobsBlog: Some of the jobs I’m interested in were posted almost a year ago. Are those jobs still available or has someone just forgotten to remove them from the website?

- One-Year Wondering

Dear "One-Year Wondering": 

That’s a great question!  First, yes, the jobs should still be available. Each position has its own story, but here are a few of the common reasons why some positions on the career site have been posted for almost a year:

• The role contains a very niche skill set. In these cases, the role could be opened for the full year while we search for the 1 to 2 percent of candidates that have this skill set.
• The position was put on hold and when it reopened, it wasn’t refreshed. When this happens, the position’s listing date is still the date it initially opened. So while it might only be a few weeks old, it could be showing as being a year old.
• Lastly, a team could have multiple, ongoing positions. In these cases, they are actively hiring for all of them; however, depending on which positions get closed out as they are being filled, it might appear that the position has been opened for a lot longer.

So in all of the above scenarios, yes, the jobs are still available. I hope that helps!

-Lisa

 After discussing the basics of his transition from Canada to Seattle, Jay Sirju, who recently moved to work as a SDET with the Windows Live Shared Data Experience Team in Redmond, Washington, gave me the scoop on his experience with Microsoft’s temporary housing.

JobsBlog: Okay, so tell me about temporary housing. Did you have options, or was it assigned?  Where did you decide to live? Now that you’ve lived there for over a month, tell me: What is it really like?

Jay: I was given a form to fill out when I was ready to book both my travel and temporary housing arrangements. In regards to the temporary housing, I was asked if I would like to live in Seattle, or on the Eastside, how many bedrooms would be needed and if I had any special requests. A few of my friends and former co-workers suggested that I would enjoy myself more in Seattle, so I requested a one- bedroom apartment in Seattle. I figured that I could use this as a trial to see if I wanted to stay in Seattle permanently, or if I would rather live on the Eastside closer to Microsoft. Once I filled that out, the relocation specialist forwarded me the address of the housing and instructions for picking up my keys.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the apartment. The only items I had with me was a week’s worth of clothing and my laptop computer, so I was nervous that I would not be able to live comfortably out of the suitcase for the first couple of months. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the temporary apartment. The apartment was fully furnished with a couch, HD TV, queen size bed and a dining table. It also had a kitchen with a full dish set, cutlery, pots and pans and cooking utensils. This set was not extensive, but it was good enough to live off of for a couple months. The apartment also included full cable television  and Wireless Internet access. Obviously, I would be needing to do laundry quite frequently, so I was extremely pleased that it included both a washer and dryer in unit. The apartment building also included secure underground parking and a basic gym facility.  The company that handles the temporary housing was great. They are able to accommodate some special requests like asking for additional furniture and so forth. The apartment came with more than enough amenities for just myself, so I did not need to request anything.

JobsBlog: You mentioned to me earlier today that you’ve found a more permanent place and are getting ready to move again. I know people have a lot of choices within the Greater Seattle area. What places did you consider and where did you decide to settle in? What were the factors which lead to that decision?

Jay: When I first moved to Seattle, I tried to be quite proactive with learning about my new surroundings. I actually wanted to secure a permanent place as quickly as possible, as that would help me get settled in faster. There were quite a few factors that played a part in selecting where I wanted to live. Since the campus is east of Seattle, the main tradeoff I had to really think about was the ease to get to work every day vs. the social aspect of living in Seattle. 

I considered moving to either Bellevue or Kirkland since they are approximately equidistant to both Seattle and the MS campus. However, over the next few weeks while I was meeting people and regaining a social calendar, I found that I was out a lot in Seattle. As a result, I decided that it would be better for me to live in Seattle. 

Since I had brought my car with me, I found that driving between Seattle and the Microsoft campus could take quite a long time depending on traffic and weather conditions. As I became more familiar with Seattle and Microsoft, I learned about the commuting options that were available for me. The main highway between the east and the west side has an HOV lane, so any mode of transportation that utilizes that would cut down on commute times. Microsoft does offer the Connector shuttle service from various locations in the Greater Seattle Area. It is quite popular, so sometimes it was difficult to make a seat reservation from downtown Seattle during the popular commute times. However, Microsoft does try to expand the Connector service, so this may change in the future. As a perk, Microsoft also offers a bus pass for all King County Metro and SoundTransit bus services. I also looked into these services to see if they were viable commuting options, and found that there was an express bus that runs between Seattle and Redmond. Finding a place close to this bus route would be a huge benefit, and luckily it did happen. Once I moved, it would eliminate my need to drive to work each day.

-Kenji

So if you are an engineer that resides outside of the US and are ready to make an impact on a variety of technologies, look no further. Below is just a sampling of Microsoft teams currently looking for the right candidates to drive innovation forward:

• Shanghai and Beijing, China: This is a very exciting time to join Microsoft China as China is home to many of our major business groups. Be a part of a team working on leading edge technologies in a fast-growing environment. Make a significant impact on projects that can affect millions of users worldwide.
• Copenhagen, Denmark: This dynamic team has great influence over Microsoft's next line of financial, customer-relationship and supply-chain management solutions that help businesses work more effectively. 
• Cairo, Egypt:  Microsoft is looking for the best and the brightest to fill software design engineer, software design engineer in test and PM roles in one of the most exciting cities in the world. 
• Paris, France:  Employees heading to Paris will be part of Musiwave, a Microsoft Subsidiary and leading provider of mobile music entertainment services to operators and media companies worldwide.  
• Dublin, Ireland: Who says a small city can’t make big changes? Impact the next-generation Edge Computing Network for Windows Live, MSN, and other Microsoft sites or drive the delivery of features and services for mobile phones as part of Mobile & Live strategy. This location also houses Office 14, including Office Tube, Multi-lingual Interface Screen Tips, PLEX (setup & authoring features). 
• Redmond, US/Richmond, Canada opportunities: At these Windows Core Networking locations, employees can impact peer-to-peer networking, enterprise networking, transports, Windows networking developer platform and connectivity and wireless networking.   Shape how MSN Search makes Web searches more useful by providing the most relevant results for the most popular search queries on the Web.
• Oslo, Norway:  From inside the enterprise and across the Web to the desktop and the mobile device, be a part of the most advanced search platform and add-on solutions to help our customers overcome all of their information access challenges with Fast, a Microsoft Subsidiary. 
• Zurich, Switzerland:  Build the next generation of a VOIP client that provides enterprise quality instant messaging, Voice over IP and data collaboration.  Drive the vision for Enterprise Telephony, Instant messaging, Presence and Conferencing as part of Office Communication Platform.

To apply to Microsoft for the above or any other core software engineering roles: 

• Americas: To apply if you are from Mexico or Latin American, send your resume/questions to sarec@microsoft.com. To apply if you are from Canada, send your resume to carec@microsoft.com.
• Asia and Australia: To apply if you are from this region, send your resume/questions to recasia@microsoft.com
• Europe: To apply if you are from Eastern, Central or Western Europe, send your resume/questions to cerec@microsoft.com. To apply if you are from Russia, Ukraine or Belarus, send your resume/questions to russrec@microsoft.com.
• Middle East/Pakistan/India/Africa: To apply, find your region and send your resume to: Pakistan – pakcv@microsoft.com;  Egypt – egyptres@microsoft.com; Turkey – turkres@microsoft.com; India – india_cv@microsoft.com;  All other regions - send your resume to mearec@microsoft.com.
• United States:  If you live in the US and you are interested in core tech roles outside of the US, send your resume/questions to Globalso@microsoft.com. 
• University: If you are currently enrolled in a university and looking for either full-time or internship roles, feel free to submit your resume/questions directly to msgradcv@microsoft.com.

Remember, you can always send your resume to http://www.microsoft.com/college/overseas.mspx. 

I hope to see many of you in the coming months. In the meantime, please let me know if you have questions I can address.

Note to potential applicants: if you've had a phone interview before, it's a good idea to at least wait for six months before you re-apply. Similarly if you've had an in-person interview, it's a good idea to wait at least one year before you re-apply.

-Anne

Dear JobsBlog: I’m considering a position with Microsoft in Boston, but that means trekking halfway across the country from my hometown of San Antonio. What kind of relocation services does Microsoft offer and how can the company help me adjust to my new surroundings?

-San Antonio Schlepper

Dear "San Antonio Schlepper": Microsoft provides employees with a variety of services to help them transition smoothly during their relocation experience. I caught up with Jay Sirju who recently moved to the Seattle area to work as a SDET with the Windows Live Shared Data Experience Team in Redmond, Washington. 

JobsBlog: Hey Jay!  First of all, thanks for taking some time to answer questions for JobsBlog!  One thing I thought was interesting about your situation was that you moved here from Canada.  Can you tell me about the pre-relocation experience and what it was like for you? What was it like getting ready to move?

Jay: After I accepted the offer from Microsoft, I was assigned one main point of contact to handle my relocation. He gave me a high-level overview of what to expect in the process and outlined some high-priority tasks that would need to be done.  I was then contacted by many third parties that were assigned to handle specific tasks related to my relocation. This included a legal team to help obtain my work visa, a tax consultant to assist with filing both US and Canadian taxes, two moving companies for my belongings and my vehicle, and a relocation specialist to assist me to get settled into the area. 

I actually took a month to travel in Japan while this process was beginning. When I got back home, the pre-relocation process seemed overwhelming because of the amount of paperwork and tasks that needed to be completed in such a short time frame. The paperwork included both documentation to handle the actual import of my belongings and various questionnaires about what I am looking for in a place to live, my tax situation, etc. Many of the importation forms also had pre-requisites that needed to be fulfilled as well. The one major pre-requisite involved obtaining my work visa, so I made that my top priority. Coming from Canada, it meant that I actually needed to cross the border and file my petition for the visa in the US. As I previously mentioned, I had a legal team assigned to help with this, and they had actually prepared all the necessary documentation. As a result, I had no issues obtaining the work visa. Once this was done, I was able to work with each point of contact to ensure that I had all the necessary documentation correctly completed.  Some of the documentation seemed quite difficult to actually fill out, however, I found that each point of contact was extremely helpful and very timely in addressing any uncertainty or issues I had. Each person also seemed to be in communication with every other person because there were times when I would ask a question to one individual, and another would respond with the answer. 

Once all the paperwork was completed and verified to be correct, I made arrangements for my belongings and my car to be picked up by the moving companies. After this was done, it was only a matter of days before I found myself in Seattle.

JobsBlog: From our previous conversations, it sounds like you’re an avid user of Microsoft internal online discussion groups. Any tips or tricks for others who might be considering a move or adjusting to the area themselves? 

Jay: Quite a few groups are social in nature, so it is a good starting point to both meet people in Microsoft with similar interests, and to learn about after-hour social events. Because of Microsoft’s large employee base, I would believe it would be very difficult for a new employee to not find an internal email group related to one of their interests. Every day, numerous social events are occurring after hours at Microsoft, and I found that people hosting these events are more than welcoming to people attending for their first times. 

Since many people at Microsoft are also Seattle transplants, I found that the people I met were more than happy about sharing their experiences with me.  At first, I found that I was actually split evenly about asking coworkers about work related items vs. asking about relocation related tasks. Just through my interaction with coworkers, I was able to learn about social groups outside of Microsoft. One resource I would recommend to any new Seattle transplants is http://meetup.com. 

JobsBlog: Anything else you’d like to share about your on-boarding experience? Any other recommendations?

Jay: Dealing with a move can feel quite overwhelming. Just remember that you’ll be meeting a lot of people who are either going through or have already gone through relocation.  As I stated before, people are more than happy to share their relocation experiences and give you advice. Also, there are quite a few tasks that can really only be done during work hours. Your manager and teammates know this, and it is expected that handling relocation will take a significant amount of your time.   

-Kenji

Attending school job fairs is a rite of passage for many upperclassmen looking for internship and full time gigs to kick off their career. But we know college students face daunting challenges during their academic school year, including heavy workloads and difficult courses.

The career fair is often scheduled for just one day and not everyone can make it. So if you’re that person, should you just wait for the next career fair and hope the schedule will work out in your favor that time?

The answer is no. Don’t wait! Here are ways you can put your name in the hat for consideration.

• Use your Career Center or our heygenius.com site: We often partner with your career center to post jobs that we are hiring for. In many cases, we have on-campus interviews right in your career center. If you don’t see job postings in your center, simply apply on our heygenius.com or our Microsoft.com/college sites.
• Attend Microsoft sponsored events: From Meet the Company Presentations to Tech Talks and Tech Fests (technology product fairs), we accept college resumes at almost all of our events. Can’t make it? Give your resume to a friend who's attending to pass along!
• If you are abroad or are at another co-op for the fall semester: Once you apply online and are selected for an interview, we can schedule the initial phone interview even if you’re in Spain! If you do well, you can wait until you return to school and conduct the second and final round on one of our Microsoft campuses then. If you have an offer deadline though, discuss with your school recruiter and we’ll try to work something out. We’ve made it simple for you to contact your school recruiter right on our site.
• Attending career fairs at other schools: Ok, we’ve seen this happen and we will always pass on your resume to your school recruiter. However, please adhere to the host school’s policy since they often do not allow students from other schools to attend. Save a little travel time and simply apply online instead!
• You’re never too early to make a connection: Even if you’re a freshman, going to Career Fairs will help you hone in what employers are looking for. 

Happy job hunting!

- Ginny

Our scholarship program is rolling out early this year in the hopes of giving students plenty of time to apply! As a reminder, this scholarship is open to all students pursuing studies in CS and related technical disciplines. Here's all the info you need to apply:

Applications must be postmarked by February 1, 2009. While all candidates who meet the criteria for eligibility described below may apply, a large majority of our scholarships will be awarded to female students, under-represented minority students or students with disabilities. Minority applicants must be a member of one of the following groups under-represented in the software field: African American, Hispanic or Native American. Microsoft will review all applications and select final candidates on the basis of eligibility, quality of application, displayed interest in the software industry, commitment to leadership and financial need. We will target announcing scholarship recipients by March 20, 2009.

What are the provisions of the award? Scholarships are awarded, full or partial amounts, to recipients for the 2009-2010 academic year. Full tuition scholarships will cover tuition for the 2009-2010 academic year as posted by the financial aid office at your college or university. Microsoft will make payments to the designated school, and they’re not transferable to other academic institutions. Funds are to be used for tuition only and may not be used for other costs on the recipient's bursar bill. All recipients of the scholarship will be required to apply for, and complete if offered, a salaried summer internship of 12 weeks or more at Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Washington. Microsoft reserves the right not to offer a position to the scholarship winner if an appropriate match cannot be found.

What are the criteria for scholarship eligibility? Students must be enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program at a college or university in the United States, Canada, or Mexico at the time the application is submitted. Students must be enrolled full-time and making satisfactory progress toward an undergraduate degree in computer science, computer engineering, or a related technical discipline, such as math or physics, with a demonstrated interest in computer science. The student must have a 3.0 cumulative grade point average out of a possible 4.0, or a 4.0 cumulative grade point average out of a possible 5.0.

What is required to apply? A completed application includes five items: your résumé, transcript, essay questions, letter of referral, and confirmation of your online application to the Microsoft Summer Internship program. All items must be mailed to the address below and postmarked by February 1, 2009 to receive full consideration. An application is considered ineligible if all parts are not received. It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that all pieces are received by Microsoft by the deadline.

Résumé - Enclose a copy of your résumé that includes your e-mail address, campus address and phone number, student ID number, permanent address and phone number, major and expected graduation date.
Transcript - Enclose a copy of your current academic transcript.
Essay Questions - Use one page to answer all four of the following essay questions (not one page per question).
• Describe how you demonstrate your passion for technology outside the classroom.
• Describe the toughest technical problem you've worked on, how you addressed the problem, your role in reaching the outcome, if it was team-based, and the final outcome.
• Describe a situation which demonstrates initiative and your willingness to go above and beyond.
• Describe how you are currently funding your college education.
Gender/Ethnicity/Disability (optional) - Please note your gender, ethnicity or disability on the page with your essay questions if you would like that information to be considered with your application.
Letter of referral - Enclose a letter of referral from a faculty member or an academic advisor who knows your work.
Confirmation of Online Application to the Microsoft Internship Program - Apply online at http://www.microsoft.com/college for a summer internship and print out a confirmation page showing you have done so. This printed confirmation must be included in your mailed application materials.

Please send your completed application postmarked by February 1 2009 to:

Microsoft Scholarship Program
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052-8303

Good luck!

Episode 2 of "Get Hired @ MSFT" is here ... and this time Microsoft Recruiter Theresa de la Osa and Program Manager (and new employee) Tharika Chandrasekhar give you the inside scoop and tips for what to expect when a recruiter contacts you about a job at Microsoft.

In case you missed it, check out Episode 1: Write a Killer Resume. And next week ... I'll give you a tour of Building 19 (our main recruiting headquarters).

 
http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Dan/Get-Hired--Microsoft-Episode-2-Partner-with-your-Recruiter/

Long time, no talk! Hello, readers! I send you my best wishes as I type this email with 2000 resumes on my desk. This is the busiest time of the year for college recruiting, and I love every second of it. I have been doing a lot of travelling to the east coast and will be there for the entire month of October!! I will be in NYC 2x, Pennsylvania, Boston 2x, New Hampshire and everywhere in between. It’s a lot of fun, and I am so excited to meet many of the amazing readers in person.

Since I have been working career fairs lately, I wanted to let you know a couple of quick resume tips. These seem pretty common, but they are ones I can never stress enough …

1. BRAG! This is your time to show off all of your amazing accomplishments. Recruiters want to see all of the great things you have done … Be proud and show it off on a resume.

2. No 6 pt font. Seriously … I already wear glasses, and I understand that you may want to save paper - but it's well worth my eyesight to make it at least 10 point font.  And hey, you can give me an early birthday present and make it 11 … :)

If you would like to hear more of my favorite tips and tricks (which share some similarities and differences to Lisa's tips), I recently hosted a webcast of “How to Get Your Resume Noticed." Check it out. It's around 1 hour long but you can look through the slides and hear some great Q&A. And it's appropriate for college as well as industry candidates.

See you all soon on my east coast travels!
Janelle

A few months ago, Channel 9 asked us if we'd like to refresh the old "What's it like to interview at Microsoft" videos that Gretchen and Zoe filmed 4 years ago. Sure! 

So Kenji, Gretchen, and I - along with some other Microsoft recruiters and employees - took part in a 7 part video series called Get Hired @ Microsoft. I star in Episode 1: Write a Killer Resume. Once we've released all 7 videos, Dan and Channel 9 plan to call us back together to film an 8th video (or more?:) so we can be extra sure to address your unanswered questions.

If you have more questions for me, leave them here or over on the Channel 9 post!  Next week's video is all about how partner with your recruiter ... so stay tuned!

Lisa

Last Thursday Microsoft held its annual company meeting at Safeco Field in Seattle.  This is when Microsoft comes together to talk about the different business groups, show demos of future releases, and talk about where we’re going as a company. 

To help explain what it’s like being there, it reminds me of a high school pep rally in a way.  (Can you tell I was a cheerleader?  :)  Most teams have something that will unite them as a group.  What I mean by this is one group had green hats on, another had red scarves, and our HR team had blue seat cushions.  When a specific team’s product is mentioned, the group goes crazy with screaming and clapping.  It is really fun to watch and participate in.

This year we had Rainn Wilson as our host, and he was quite hysterical!  Not to mention that pyrotechnics were involved which scared me and my co-worker every time that loud BOOM went off.   It made everyone around us laugh when we jumped.   I do want to thank the Live Experiences team for creating the Buzzword Bingo cards.  We happened to get our hands on one, and it was entertaining trying to make a bingo with the words the speakers might say.  :)  And the last bit is that we set a world record at our meeting!  We had the most number of paper airplanes in the air at one time.  That was a sight to see!

The demos were amazing and although I can’t talk specifics since it’s confidential, I am really looking forward to the next Outlook release.  That will definitely help streamline my day to day work.  I’m excited about where Microsoft is going in the future.  There are so many opened opportunities for us to make an impact on everyone’s daily life.  The door is wide opened!

If you attended your first company meeting this year, I would love to hear about your experience.  Just remember to keep it general since a lot of what we say is top secret.

It's Friday, and I'm headed out to the fair ... but until we're back next week, express your inner PC. :)

Oh, and we're PCs ... and we're hiring. ;-)

I can't stress enough that interviewing is a two way street. Team interaction and collaboration are a large part of any position here at Microsoft, just as they are a huge part of our interview process. As Matt mentioned, we like it when candidates ask us questions. Whether it’s to clarify ambiguity, satiate curiosity, or challenge ideas and preconceived notions, we can’t say it enough. Questions are good. :)

Of course, interviewing is also about balance. I try to have candidates keep the following tips in mind so that both they and the interviewer get what they need out of the interview experience.

Budget your time:
If an interviewer asks for a brief description of your current responsibilities, give just that. You can go into the details in response to later questions, as long as you give the interviewer time to get to them! (See my post on interviewing cues for more info).

Prioritize your questions:
You may not have time to ask everything you want to know. Ask the most important questions first and remember that you can spread them out over multiple interviewers.

Organize your thoughts:
Learn the art of the segue. (And no, I’m not talking about the personal transporter you might see on campus : )) It’s okay to ask questions off topic occasionally, but we like to see that you can focus on the interview.

I think this advice can really help your interview to be a collaborative and interactive experience that's rewarding for both you and your interviewer.

- Kenji

Dear JobsBlog: I’m concerned about how to focus my resume. For instance, when listing my professional experience, should I only list past accomplishments that relate to the job I’m applying for? Or list all my big accomplishments?

- Over-Accomplished

Dear Accomplished: When it comes to accomplishments, you should list a little of both your job-related accomplishments and your major accomplishments. And good for you for knowing that “accomplishments” are the key here, not just a listing of prior job responsibilities.

I suggest starting with a general, one-size-fits-all resume that will serve as your "template." On this resume, list all the educational, professional, extracurricular, etc, accomplishments that you might want to mention if you were applying for a new job, regardless of what that job actually is. Personally, I update this master document about every 3 months to make sure I’m recording new accomplishments – and even dropping ones that just don’t measure up any longer.

Once you have your master resume, you can use this document to craft specialized resumes for a specific job, a discipline, an industry, or a company. This might mean trimming or deleting some accomplishments that don’t relate at all or don’t help your cause. It will also probably mean re-ordering some accomplishments to put the most relevant ones first or second under prior roles.

Finally, be sure to include a summary statement to the beginning of your resume where you can highlight the most relevant, important, and impressive info right up front.

Head on over to one of my former blogs to watch a screencast that Zoe (the other co-founder of JobsBlog) and I produced a couple years ago to talk about accomplishments on a resume... and the big What, How, and Why. Part 1 and Part 2. (I’m a geek; I know.)

Gretchen