Microsoft's JobsBlog

• Windows Live Spaces – create your own family space
• A tour of a Microsoft kitchen (complete with a chance to create their own café pizza)
• MS Studio Tours
• Talk on Safety and Security for Kids
• A tour of the Microsoft trading floor
• Microsoft Shuttle Operations Tour

I was able to sit in on the Windows Live Spaces event where children created their own family spaces. There were many happy yellow badge employees enjoying their experience and learning a new technical hobby.

 I also caught up with Alex, 9, who was observing her mother Felicia, Staffing Associate for Windows Experience. Here’s what she said about her day.

What did you do today? Today we went to the cafeteria and got lunch and ice-cream. Then mom showed me what she does at work and I helped.

What did you enjoy most about your day? Eating lunch!

What did you learn about your mom’s work that you didn’t know? That she hires people.

What did you learn about working in the real world? What I think about having a real job is it's fun but hard.

Felicia and Alex

Maybe these yellow badge employees will convert over to blue badge down the line. :-)

-Lisa

If I hadn’t been there I never would have believed it.

This past Friday the Microsoft intern program hosted a "Zoo-n Fest" Intern Picnic, which was sponsored by the Zune Team and held at the Woodland Park Zoo (cute name, huh?).

Approximately 1000 interns were invited to the event along with 200 Microsoft employees and senior executives. Interns were treated to a catered dinner and an empty zoo (other than the animals!). The musical performances by Vampire Weekend and Ben Folds were an amazing entertainment. Prizes, great food, great music, networking with execs and a beautiful 75 degree Seattle day!

But if you ask this recruiter, the picnic wasn’t even the true highlight. Interns (as well as recruiters) were informed that to get to the Zoo no one was allowed to drive. Insert complaining (as Redmond on a Friday night can be at least a 45 minute drive from the Zoo)—and we didn’t want to leave our cars at work. I complained along with the rest of the full time employees, but my manager Jeremy said "it will be worth the bus trip over."

So I begrudgingly got on one of the 30+ tour-size buses and waited as the other buses filled up and got into a line. The buses were ready to go at about 5:30 pm on Friday.

Enter the police escorts.

Motorcycle cops cruised around the buses and led us in a police escort convoy for the 15 miles to the Zoo – all while closing down traffic on the 520 bridge and 1-5 North. That’s right - traffic was shut down.

We had a view of Friday night rush hour I had never seen. Interns cheered with glee and took photo after photo of the empty freeway. A trip that normally would have taken close to an hour took around 15 minutes. It was VIP treatment all the way!

Apologies to those who were travelling on that stretch of road Friday evening but it was something I will never forget (and luckily I was on the bus, not watching them drive by). So there you have it... Microsoft will stop traffic for its hires. Totally cool.

- Janelle

Hello Readers! Greetings from the middle of intern season.

It's been really busy around the office this summer with a ton of fun and technical events going on. The weather has been a dream and the interns are having a wonderful time. Who could ask for anything more?

A couple Saturdays ago, several hundred Microsoft Interns met in one of the buildings on campus to solve a variety of puzzles and coding challenges. The all-day event pitted teams of interns from all different locations around the country in a super tough competition with puzzles of varying degrees of difficulty.

Brandon Unger, a Penn State May 2009 graduate, was kind enough to take these pictures of the future CEOs of Microsoft concentrating hard on winning first prize.

One of the puzzles was so hard that no team could solve it! It was a version of the old school video game Asteroids. You had to shoot the asteroids, and when you did a number flashed. Everyone thought that the number was code for something... but upon second look when the asteroids broke apart it displayed Braille letters. From those Braille letters it spelled out a clue to look at the spaceship on the game. When you looked closely at the spaceship it left a trail in Morse code which was the answer to the puzzle. WOW!

I would be lucky to get through that game without losing all my turns… let alone looking for those intense puzzle answers. I think it would be great to get a puzzle challenge going on the jobsblog soon… any takers?

- Janelle

You may remember a few months ago when Angela shared Tazin's story about founding a free health care clinic in Bangladesh called the Urban Health Care Center.  Now hear Tazin's story in his own words: learn about his job as a UX Researcher, his passion for technology and his dream to open a free hospital in Bangladesh for people who are unable to afford healthcare.

Interested in applying for a job like Tazin's?  Check out our user experience openings.

We've gotten lots of questions about the Microsoft Connector bus stops and routes. Well, wonder no more. My teammates - Jonathan and Melody - put together a Live Maps mashup so you can see the stops for each of our routes.  If you are planning a move to the Seattle area (or already living here and wondering if you can make the Microsoft commute work), this is a great resource:  Microsoft Stops Routes: Live Maps Mashup.

Enjoy!
gretchen

Yesterday, the lobby in our recruiting building felt like the TKTS line in Times Square.

Starting at noon, we handed out over 400 Mariners/Red Sox tickets and stadium food vouchers on a first come/first serve basis to our summer interns. At first, I thought - wow, such excitement for a Mariners game! But on second thought, perhaps it has something to do with the Red Sox. ;-)

So if you are at the series next week and see busloads of interns arriving, that’s us!

- Ginny

Ever wonder what Tina from Channel 10 does when she's not on camera?  Get a behind the scenes look at her job in the new Meet Microsoft video series ... coming to you every Friday over here on JobsBlog. :)

And interested in being an evangelist at Microsoft? Check out some job openings.

Meet Tina, a Senior Technical Evangelist

Please welcome guest blogger Matt Aberham!

All recruiters have different theories on how much to “prepare” their candidates the morning of the interview. There’s only one tip I like to give candidates when they come in, and it’s really more common sense than inside information: Question us.

As Kenji pointed out, most of those pesky Microsoft logic questions have been retired. That being said, it’s important to realize every candidate will absolutely get questions that they don’t know the answer to. This is intentional and speaks to one of the constant challenges Microsoft employees face: dealing with ambiguity. On a daily basis as an employee, you’ll be put in spots where you don’t know the answer (or maybe there isn’t even a right answer).

Are you the kind of person who guesses when faced with something you don’t know? Are you going to build a response based upon what you think they are looking for? Or are you comfortable asking clarifying questions?

In interview settings it’s easy to be so consumed with trying to impress that one answers before thinking things through completely. This is especially true with technical questions that have more than one route to the same destination.

What we are looking for here is someone who understands "framing the debate." Is the question too broad? Ask the interviewer to clarify! Not sure you heard the person correctly? Ask for it again! Make sure that you have parsed things down to a point where you are comfortable answering as an authority.

Asking clarifying questions won’t cover for you if you don’t know something we are looking for, but it will make sure you are not being penalized for misunderstanding a question and it will show the interviewer that you are an attentive listener and interested in delivering the right solution.

Does this make sense? Or would you like me to clarify? :-)

- Matt

We talk a lot on this blog about building a solid resume, interviewing well and more as part of getting that dream job at Microsoft. Of course, that dream job looks different to every candidate, so today why not tell us what it looks like to you?

What's your Microsoft dream job? Do you have a specific team or product you'd love to work on? Is there a research opportunity here you can't find anywhere else? Or do you just want to code for free soda? :-) Let us know!

In May, Microsoft added new routes on their free Wi-Fi Connector shuttles since they have been so popular with their employees.

I’ve been riding them daily when I’m in town, so I wanted to let you know my initial thoughts.

 Riding 5 days a week on the connector:

• I’ve gained 7+ hours in my commute to catch up on email, read, do some internet shopping, etc. And when I get a bit car sick from the reading, I listen to my downloads from NPR on my Zune.
• I've saved money on gas. The latest topic on every news station and newspaper is the gas prices at $4.25+ in the Seattle area. By riding the Connector, I’m able to save. I can even do a bit of gratuitous shopping with that extra cash. My latest purchase on Amazon was an red Ice Cream Maker - bought while on the shuttle.
• My last shuttle ride was full. That equates to around 30 cars off the road or 30 bus seats freed up and unknown quantities of car emissions not in the air with just one shuttle ride.

This post has been brought to you by a happy recruiter on a shuttle. If you'd like to join me, the Connector routes now include Queen Anne/Belltown, First Hill/Capitol Hill, Laurelhurst/Wedgewood, Phinney Ridge/Greenlake Route, Ballard/Whittier Heights, Fremont/Wallingford, Mill Creek/Bothell, Duvall, Snoqualmie/Issaquah, Sammamish Plateau, Cottage Lake/Redmond, Tukwila/Renton and more!

- Anne

Remember those interviewing at Microsoft videos Zoe and I did for Channel9 four years ago?  Well, we're finally updating them.  The videos will star a new cast of recruiters, hiring managers, and recent hires, and we're planning to film 7 segments.  Roughly:

• Applying (resume tips, the journey of a resume, etc)
• The evaluation stage (phone interview, technical interview, etc)
• The in-person interview day (what to expect, a tour of the "new" Building 19)
• Interview tips from recruiters
• Interview tips from technical interviewers (development, testing, and program management)
• Taking the job (new employees discussing why they joined MS and factors they considered)
• Your first day (new employee orientation)

We're filiming in mid-July, and we want to be sure to answer your questions.  So if you have a topic you want us to discuss, leave it here!

gretchen

I realize it’s only June, but it's the end of the fiscal year for Microsoft. This is one of my favorite times of the year (calendar, that is). Summer is starting to really begin, the deer and bunnies reappear in my backyard and Rainier cherries are finally in season!

It’s a time to look back at our last fiscal year (July through June) and see how much success we had in bringing the top talented individuals into Microsoft. It’s astounding to me to see the growth in this company and know that the innovation and future success is due in part to our hard work and recruiting efforts.

Now is also the time that we start planning for the next fiscal year: determining the budget, looking at headcount, figuring out recruiting strategies, etc. I look at it as a time to start fresh and try something new. A time to expand your skills and work out of your comfort zone. A time to try a recruiting strategy that hasn’t been done before.

With that said, what recruiting techniques or ideas have you thought about that you would like to see Microsoft implement? I’ll take off-the-wall crazy ones and all!

- Lisa

Hello Everyone!

This is something I hear about occasionally that came up again just last week. It appears as though some of our Microsoft candidates are relying on outside sources, even recruiters from other companies, for Microsoft related information because they're worried about asking their Microsoft recruiter too many questions.

So, it seems like a good time to encourage everyone to ASK YOUR MICROSOFT RECRUITER if you have questions about process, policy or whatever else is on your mind. We are here to help and have a direct focus on your experience as a candidate. It is our job to make sure you have as many of your questions answered as we possibly can!

As a recent example, one of my teammates was working with a candidate that was told by another company that Microsoft has a waiting period before we initiate Green Card processing. Although this was true in the past, it isn’t the case any longer.

This candidate was really motivated to take the Microsoft offer but almost passed up a dream job based on outdated information from another company!  

We are constantly working towards improving our processes and policies for existing employees and those that we have yet to hire. What may have been policy last year could very well have changed this year.

So if it is important to you, to your career, to your family... just ask! We would be happy to give you accurate information about Microsoft instead of having you rely on inaccurate information from other sources. Just makes sense right? :-)

 - Angela

Here's the final post in Kenji's series about the Microsoft recruiting process!

As promised in my last post, I wanted to shed a little light on our use of Live ID in the application process, and list some of the benefits that both recruiters and candidates can get from this step in the process.

1. Differentiation: Multiple candidates with the same name? No problem. Tracking by Live ID allows your recruiter an easy method for knowing one from the other. Speaking from personal experience, I’ve actually had several occasions where I’ve been talking to two candidates with the exact same name, from the exact same city, in the same day. I’m sure you can imagine the hijinks that might otherwise ensue!
2. Tracking & Communication: This is kind of inter-related to my previous post, but relevant here nonetheless. Not only do we use your Live ID for tracking status in the interview process, but also for communicating with you at various points – such as interview and offer.
3. Security: Given that some confidential and important information such as travel and offer details are both communicated through our careers site, it’s critical that we have an authentication service we can trust.
4. Job Agents & Job Matching: Looking at the different openings and not seeing a match? Signing up for a Live ID lets you set up agents to monitor and keep you abreast of new openings. Never miss that perfect opportunity!
5. Maintaining your history: Job description look familiar? Think you may have already applied? Having a standard authentication allows you to maintain history on your previous applications and lets you avoid duplicate submissions.
6. It’s a cool technology: Okay – I made that reason up :-). But as an end user myself, I am glad to see a standard that’s used by other Microsoft services such as Windows Live and Office Live.

Any other thoughts, comments, or ideas? We’re always looking for ways to improve the overall experience and open to ideas. You never know – your suggestions just might find their way into a new-improved future site... someday :-).

-Kenji

Later this week, Bill Gates will transition out of his day-to-day role at Microsoft to focus more time on his work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Don’t worry … He’ll still be around.  Bill will continue to be our chairman and will be involved in select projects here at the Soft. We're sure his influence will still be felt far and wide. 

By week’s end, you’ll be inundated with all the BillG media coverage you can take, but we here at JobsBlog felt it was only fitting that the blog that talks about careers at Bill’s great company pay a little respect to his amazing career.  On film.  Here are our top 5 favorite “BillG moments” as captured by Hollywood ... authorized or not:

5. BillG goes back to college

Love the Microsoft booth at career day.

4.  Peter Griffin meets Bill

This clip doesn’t show it but Bill invokes the Windows symbol in the sky a la Batman.  Classic.

3. BillG’s last day

The sheer star power is staggering.  Only the Matt Damon and Ben Affleck videos carried more Hollywood weight.

2. Antitrust

Tim Robbins plays a mean Bill Gates – er, I mean  - Gary Winston. This movie is required watching for all our interns. (just kidding.)  :) 

1. Pirates of Silicon Valley

A must-see if you are even thinking about working in the software industry. 

What other good ones should we be sure to call out?

gretchen