Beyond the resume - job hunting advice from a Microsoft HR professional
Since resumes are among our most popular template downloads on Office Online, and particularly from our Career Center we thought it might be worthwhile to offer you job seekers even more assistance as you start the journey of finding that perfect position. So, it just made sense to go directly to the source - our own human resources department - to glean some sage advice. I'd like to thank Ty Madarang for taking time out of his busy recruiting schedule to share knowledge gained from his experience. -- Nancy
I am a Staffing Consultant with Microsoft and hire Industry talent for the Office Online organization. I have been in the Staffing Industry for nearly 10 years, and love what I do. One of the satisfying elements to my job is the impact I have in people’s lives. Every candidate I talk to I learn something from. I’d like to share with you some tips for those of you that want to explore the job market and want to get ahead of the game. Enjoy!
1. Know what you want: if you’re going to invest your time and energy in a job search, you owe it to yourself to first identify what want to do. What’s your passion? Why are you looking for a new role? What makes you happy? Keep these things top of mind, and it will not only be good to keep yourself honest, but keep you focused. That energy will exude well when talking to future employers.
2. Keep it short and sweet (K.I.S.S.): many of you may remember that phrase from your teacher or career counselor in school – well guess what, those are great words to live by! Employers aren’t so hard and fast about 1 page resumes, but be sure to compose your resume with experiences that are relevant to what you’re looking for. Your resume tells a story and should have a flow of related/transferrable experiences. Keeping it succinct listing examples is a great way to lay that out and will also give you guiding points for you to elaborate in an interview.
3. Do your homework: with a healthy and competitive job market you should remind yourself that there will always be more candidates than job openings. That said, getting ahead of the pack is key. What can you do? – great question….here are some basic pointers:
a. Tailor your resume to the position you are applying for.
b. review the job description – focus in on the key things that is referenced in the position
c. research the company/product/service/business model/team
d. come up w/ key examples of skills/experiences that you have that transfer to what is being asked
e. prepare a set of critical questions you want to ask - think about what’s most important to you at the end of the day
4. What do recruiters look for? That’s always top of mind with candidates. Disclaimer - different companies have different sets of requirements for their respective positions. From my perspective as a Staffing Consultant at Microsoft, I tend to look for 3 core things in all candidates:
a. Functional aptitude: the related skills, experience, and aptitude that are transferrable to the function or role itself (for instance, for a software development role – things like industry software development experience).
b. Technical aptitude (if applicable): the technical skills, experiences that are relevant for the role (for instance, software development/programming, working with specific technologies in a particular domain). A candidate may also be probed regarding what they have worked with, and how have they used the technologies – what have they done with it, their depth of knowledge/experience, etc.
c. “Core Competencies”: competencies are a set of behaviors that differentiate outstanding performance from typical performance in a profession or path. They are linked to critical business needs that will enable our success today and in the future. To put in other words, it’s the “how” that elaborates on the “what”. For instance, what is equally important to answering an interview question right or wrong, is how does the person come up with the solution – what is their thought process?, drive for results?, are they thinking about the different stakeholders/users?, do they need to think globally (different cultures, languages, characters)?, etc.
5. Follow up: these days there are so many different ways to connect with job opportunities – through the Internet, your contacts, company website/job posting, recruiting events, career fairs, etc., etc, so keeping your name top of mind with the employer is key, so do your part and follow up. Contacts are typically available to you, especially when companies have open positions – they try to make it as easy as possible to reach them. Be sure to ask for a contact just in case and follow up within 1 week of your last contact with them. Keep in mind that you may also be doing a favor to the recruiting contact since they may be overwhelmed with the number of responses.
I hope this was helpful for you. You’re probably asking yourself, “hey this is great, how do I take action and apply?" I'm glad you asked! You can go to our career site, select your country, and search for open jobs by product, keyword and more. Or you can look at specific jobs for Office Online because the Office Online organization is hiring!
--Ty Madarang
Staffing Consultant
Microsoft Corporation
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