Leading Trump - Pradeep U.N. & his Blog about Nothing. : Everything MBA

The Tepper Students @ Microsoft Day was a Success. Detailed Report here.

Pradeep U.N. — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 17:37:00 GMT

Back in March, I had hosted on behalf of Microsoft and the WWESS Recruiting committee (this is was much before the last reorg ofcourse) The Annual Tepper Students @ Microsoft Day and thanx to my extended 2-part blog-hiatus the update is coming now! Oh well better late than never.

Summary: It was a great success, everyone acknowledged the pioneering idea of this from the various angles - Microsoft/Recruiting/Hiring Managers/Tepper or for that matter any university and got great value all around. There were several internship interviews as a consequence of this event, and one offer made and accepted to a Tepper Student. Yes - Mike Kuentz now works here at Redmond.

About 10 students (7 were interested in the Shadowing opportunity) showed up from The Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon Pittsburgh - and met with the several ppl form Microsoft. They met over 22 MS employees in various positions and capacities (Some of them met more because of the networking through shadow sessions). With nearly 1:2.5 student:MS Employee touch this was the BIGGEST Networking session ever for students! The students met: GMs, Directors, Product Unit Managers, MBA recruiters, Program Managers, Product Managers, Marketing managers, Release managers around the campus and shadowed 7 Microsoft Managers 1:1 around campus in various departments.

Here are some quotes from the students on their overall experiences :

"Overall it was the best company visit I have ever done. The combination of panel, networking, and job shadow sessions made it a tremendously positive learning experience. There is no doubt that one can really make an informed (career-related) decision on Microsoft after going through this experience. " - Tatat Yuniarto [Tepper/MBA Class of 2007]
"Having some of the alumni come in to informally talk over breakfast was a great idea that helped relax people and set the pace for the day. - Mike Kuentz - Tepper MBA Student [Current Intern at Microsoft]
"I want to congratulate you on putting so many hiring managers together in one session. It does talk very highly about Tepper at MS. This was a great opportunity to sell myself" - Enrique Garduno - Tepper MBA Class of 2007

Categorized feedback on the events? Sure - Right below

Breakfast Session with CMU Alums (sponsored by WWESS Recruiting Team) Thank you - Eve Psalti

"This session was a very good introduction to MSFT from the point of view of a Product Manager. It also gave me a broad perspective of MSFT and all of the opportunities that exist".

Featured Speakers: Larry Waldman, CMU Alum (MS Office), Adam Cooper, CMU Alum (MS Office), Jenny Lo (Windows Communications)

MBA Recruiting @ Microsoft - Perspectives by a MBA Recruiter

“I felt that the MBA recruiter (Dina Lewallen) did a tremendous job of outlining not only the hiring process, but a lot of the question about the culture at Microsoft."

Featured Speaker: Dina Lewallen, (MBA Recruiting)

Meet Microsoft Hiring Managers Session

“I found this to be a really great session. The speakers were experienced hiring managers hailing from diverse groups within Microsoft. Besides learning about what they do, we also learnt about the qualities that they are looking for from aspiring Microsoftees: ability to execute, value proposition, passion, and so on.”

Panelists:

Michael Smith, Tepper Alum (OBA),
Jack Tang (MS Office – IWAG),
Gary Cohen (Windows),
Kate Hughes (Services),
Raju Malhotra (Services),
Cathy Hsieh (Licensing)

Lunch with CMU Alums (Sponsored by XBox ProductGroup) Thank YOU - Paolo Malabuyo

"I thought the people who attended this session, and the structure of the session, were excellent. I would prefer to start the day like this, and have a check-up over lunch.”

MS Employees Networking with students

Shawn Vij (Krannert Alum, Server & Tools),
Charles Anthe (Windows Small Biz Server),
Shirlene Lim (Dynamics CRM),
Deepa Vij (Tepper Alum, MSN AdCenter),
Glenn Pereira (Wharton Alum, Services),
Paolo Malabuyo (Xbox)

Shadow Event - Students Shadow MS Employes for 3 hrs around campus

“This was the best experience of my entire job-search time at Tepper. It gave me a chance to really “see” myself working at MS, interacting with other employees and helping to make key decisions. Far beyond my expectations, and it really boosted my perceived value of MS.”

MS Employees who allowed Students to shadow them through meetings & brainstorm sessions:

Larry Waldman	Program Mgr	Office: IW-PM Graphics
John Smithwick	Lead Prod Mgr	Office: IWAG Solution
Justin Kirby	Lead Mktg Mgr	Xbox Global Brand Strategy
Shan Haq	Prod Mgmt	Biz Talk Server Mktg
John Rodman	Product Planner	Xbox Planning & Design
Charles Anthe	Release Mgr	US Windows
Jack Tang	Snr Prod Mgr	Office: IWAG Solution

Tepper Q&A Alumni Panel

“This session allowed us to reflect on what we saw earlier in the day and ask any nagging questions. The diversity of the people on the panel made this a very valuable experience, because they could offer us many different perspectives on things.”

MS Employees Networking with students: Adam Cooper (Office Infopath), Charles Anthe (Windows Small business server), Stuti Shukla(Windows Server), Peter Johnson (Finance)

THANX & Acknowledgements

Apart from the people already mentioned above A long-over due thank you to the folks below who were behind the scenes and helped make this happen. Through email and sharing the news with their contacts and putting me in touch with wonderful people who helped me run this event even when I had never met them before ever J THANK YOU ALL.

Sponsorship: Paolo Malabuyo, Eve Psalti

Friends who helped through 6 degrees of seperation to setup the folks for Hiring Manager Panels and Shadow Engagements: Microsoft Community/Distribution Lists for: CMU Alumni, Tepper Alumni, MBA Mentors, MBA Jobs. Sanjeev Jain (GSBChicago), Ivan Joseph (GSBChicago), Renuka Agarwal(Wharton), Yaya Guo(UC Davis), Harini Gokul (Owen), Sassan Saedi (Kellogg)

Logistics and Support: Ann Gorman (For Survey results and student logistics), Samaara Zulfiqar (Microsoft Logistics)

Tepper Folks: Ann Gorman (Survey results and Ad-hoc help on the day), Steve Rakas (For coordination and making this happen), Ken Keeley (for support)

Legal: Pauline Price (Drafting the Non Disclosure Docs, making this event smooth and legal!)

MBA Recruiting: Dina Lewallen, Ian Rosi, Sharman Mailloux Sosa

Admins: Nancy Apthorp, Christy Fox, Lynn Curtis, Joan Yarkosky.

Ofcourse for everyone else who I forgot – I have to blame my bad memory than intentions. We will run this event again in 2007.

A Tepper 2006 students gets a Microsoft HIRE today

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 22:41:00 GMT

Time for the Happy dance.

A 2006 Tepper School Business (at Carnegie Mellon) just got his Microsoft Hire call and we are all excited.

Woo Hoo.

If its good for Scoble - its good for me:) : Employee Blog Survey Study

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 00:25:00 GMT

Michelle Heng - a post-graduate student in Information Studies at the Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) [ Yes - it the same University that I got my undergrad degree at] - mailed me yesterday talking about her work which involves studying about corporate bloggers who blog about work (amongst other things) in their personal and/or company blog - and asked me to spread the word around to my readers/fellow bloggers.

The survey is here at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=480441548245 and yes - Robert Scoble also got the same email - and according to Michelle has promised to link her through his blog :)

So Michelle for all the ppl who respond - I hope you will be sharing your learnings, study summary so that we understand the blogosphere as we participate in it...

Authors of new Strategy/Innovation book in Town nxt month!

Pradeep U.N. — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 22:14:00 GMT

Shannon Huffman - the hyperactive Tuck grad (03) is organizing a Tuck talk with her profs coming over to Seattle.

Authors Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble for an evening of holiday spirits, hor d'oevres and great conversation as we celebrate the publication of their new book, TEN RULES FOR STRATEGIC INNOVATORS. The after-work holiday event will be held at the new South Lake Union Discovery Center (at Denny and Westlake downtown), and will begin at 6pm on Dec. 15th.

Registration is open at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2821

This event is cosponsored the Tuck Alumni/Pacific NW Chapter, the Seattle Business School Alliance, Seattle Fast Company's Company of Friends and Kim Ricketts/Book Events. Tickets for the event are 15.00 per person, and books will be available for purchase on site, which the authors will happily sign.

Vijay Govindarajan is the Earl C. Daum Professor of International Business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, the author of six other books on business strategy and has acted as consultant to many corporations such as IBM, AT &T, Sony, Weyerhauser and others. He is also the co-director of the William F.Achtmeyer Center for Global Leadership, along with:
Chris Trimble, who is an associate professor at Tuck and a senior fellow at Katzenbach Partners, a corporate consulting firm. Together they also write a column for FAST COMPANY magazine called "The Leading Edge", which explores the challenges faced by leaders of "high risk business experiments."
Their new book outlines the "10 Rules" that are every leader's guide through the unexplored territory of innovation and growth--while sustaining excellence in your existing business. With an indepth, multi year study of ten successful companies to back them up, the authors use real examples and great storytelling to bring important issues to light.

The Tepper/Tuck/Chicago MBA Collaboration at Microsoft.

Pradeep U.N. — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 05:46:00 GMT

Ivan Joseph - talked to 5 Tepper MBAs selected for 2nd Rnd interviews today and answered some of their questions about the Microsoft recruiting process and other qns the students had. Some of the questions he wanted to the share the answers are on his blog.

Thx Ivan for taking the time for my students.

Between Shannon Huffman and IvanJo - we are discussing opportunities to collaborate the recruiting support structure for Tepper/Tuck/Chicago MBA students who are interested to get in at Microsoft, since the alumni here at Microsoft for these schools are comparitively less in number compared to the Big-wigs: Wharton/Harvard/Kellogg.

I know - it does have all the makings of a good book in it....

MBA Salaries inflates. Prestige of the job deflates.

Pradeep U.N. — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 10:43:00 GMT

Last week, Boston.com Business had an article about MBA pay jumps this year in double digits - 11% in Harvard to $174K means, $149K avg in Stanford up nearly 10% and about $150K in Tuck up 15%. Needless to say - you'd have to be superman to get that kind of raises in a year in the industry (I graduated 2 yrs ago - and No I do not date Lois Lane unfortunately). But this is not even a ballpark figure - infact this is not even the same ball game!

Ofcourse is that worth all that dough being a major question in anybody's mind - I remembered the Harris Interactive Poll's recent survey (actually its a couple of months old) which looked at the "most prestigious" jobs out there. Ofcourse post MBA jobs are not only NOT ranked in the top of the list - they do make it to the list as "Bankers", "Business Executives" and "Stockbrokers" but on the bottom of the pile. So MBA jobs are not that "presigious" after all.

Insala had an article citing this story too - and they even compared the salaries of these positions. No surprise - the skew is different. MBA jobs do a lot better on this list!

Seems like to have a prestigious job AND a high paying job Bschool is the wrong place to go to. MedSchool is where is at. Atleast according to these polls.

When you think about that - the reaction is quite obvious: No-Duuuh!

IvanJo answers MIT/Sloan student's questions. Talks to Carnegie Mellon prospects!

Pradeep U.N. — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 22:10:00 GMT

Ivan Joseph (Chicago GSB MBA) - the same ping-pong guy who put his job underfire 1 wk after joining our team by defeating HardeepW our General Manager at the Ping Pong Tournament in Rnd 1 (Massacre would be a better word I hear - but hey English is not my first language so I will go with defeating) was giving his insights to a Sloan student about the Microsoft hiring process.

If you know IvanJo - you'd know you should take his advice with a grain of salt. If you know him even better - you'd add some pepper, garam masala and other fancy multicolor indian spices to boot , but seriously he has some good pointers here.Mentoring students almost on a daily basis - I get the qn of how much of the reading an interviewee does can be used in an interview (though not asked in so many words).

Ivan's response to that is spot-on. "There's so much material out there that it isn't worth stressing about. I haven't read even 1% of the stuff that is written about Microsoft. So the chances are pretty high that whatever you read, your interviewers won't have read- so use that as fodder to ask questions of the interviewers."

While on IvanJo - without much arm-twisting - he was kind enough to take some questions through a concall with a gang of my Tepper students who have been selected to come to Redmond for 2nd rnd interviews (7 of them so far for marketing) end of next wk. The students are preparing on what qns to ask him. Thanx for taking the time IvanJo - appreciate it.

Tepper gets voted into SBSA!

Pradeep U.N. — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 22:45:00 GMT

Monica and John Robinson (my classmates from Tepper 03) at Carnegie Mellon University have been instrumental in the work behind getting our alma mater voted into SBSA yesterday. I get a free drink each time I put John's name on my blog (well thats what he tells me) - so I figured I should "Go beyond" and "exceed expectations" and add Monica's name too and maybe John/Monica will throw in a dinner to go with that free drink offer. (thats 3 drinks and Dinners John - count for yourself!)

Anyways this is exciting stuff - since a lot of the ppl on the board already work at Microsoft and Shannon Huffman (our PingPong-phobic marketing professional) is on the board representing Tuck!

Small world :)

SBSA [Seattle Business School Alliance] Happy Hr today!

Pradeep U.N. — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 02:14:00 GMT

Thanks to my Tepper classmate - John Robinson volunteering me to be the webmaster of the Seattle Business School Alliance - I am on their board now! So the SBSA has their Happy Hr today - minutes after - Tepper's Bid to be included on the SBSA roster of member-schools.

Apparently its a 1 yr dating with the SBSA before Tepper becomes a member-school and John has done his dues and helped run the SBSA Annual cruise to perfection with some great guys from Ross (UMich BSchool) and Harvard.

Rock Bottom Brewery is the venue from 7-9pm and the funny part is - Joan (our lovely admin) had chosen the same venue for our Team's Happy Hr from 4-6pm.

The question remains - why is a Happy Hr called a Happy hr? I understand the Happy part of the Hour....

But when the time it lasts for - is more than an Hr why is it still a Happy Hour?

Mentoring at Tepper School of Business @ CMU

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 21:24:00 GMT

Analytical Decision Making, Great effervesence of Technology leverage, Passion for Technopreneurship and Strong Team Collaboration to get results: There are a my top differentiation points for the Tepper School of Business @ CMU and I was there during the halloween weekend with a super-packed schedule! But it was worth it.

Leading to the preparation for the trip was a fairytale ride that would have been worth blogging if I had been diligent enough to put some time - but hey that did not work out.

Apart from the wild parties that happened - I met some great students, club presidents.

Over all it was a great time and everyone was super-excited about Microsoft. Playing a very hard coach a-la Bill Cowher - I did take a rather harsh stand with the students - and got great feedback for the same from them because I was not sugar coating the message.

The results of all this has been great:

* Over 67 students attended a 730 AM presentation - which is mind boggling considering I never woke up before 10 AM when I was at school leave alone go to a presentation at that time!

* Over 30 students attended my presentation when there were 4 other events happening at the same time in 8 different halls!

* As of now we have more students being called to Redmond for their next round of interviews than in 5 years combined. Thanks to some great folks at MS Recruiting who have taken the right direction in leveraging some excellent schools which have not received love in the past.

The next step is to work with these students to help them reach their alumni and other folks to get an idea about what is required to join some great teams at MS and how they can Go beyond!

Any questions from ppl I have met or others who want to join MS would be welcome at this pt. Though this mssg is more for the MBA/school recruiting crowd.

Meet Beny - as Microsoft Enterprise Services Recruitment committee goes to NSHMBA next wk!

Pradeep U.N. — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 01:30:00 GMT

This year the NSHMBA conference will be at Anaheim, CA from 9/28 - 10/01 and Beny Rubinstein our Senior Strategy Manager will be there talking to potential candidates for various roles in the Worldwide Enterprise Services & Support group here at Microsoft.

On that note - I have to share a story that happened last yr related to a similar minority conference. One of my friends attended one of these conferences - and her major hangup was there was no conference that covered her specific diverse background- so instead she went to all the minority conferences and decided to jus network. While at first I thought it was a wild idea - she came back with 5 interviews and 3 second rnd interviews and 1 job offer.

Makes you think - doesnt it :)

Anyways - feel free to mail me your resumes or ask any questions and I will make sure Beny gets it before he meets you at Anaheim. And if you feel you cant attend the conference and would like to meet with him anyway - then mail me your resume anyway - you never know how things work out :)

Carnegie Mellon Prof Talks about "Managing Creativity" at Microsoft Campus.

Pradeep U.N. — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 02:52:00 GMT

As part of my first activities as a new alumni and Boardmember in the Seattle Chapter of the Tepper School of Business at CMU - I am helping organize a talk at Microsoft Redmond Campus open for All Tepper Alums, CMU alums, Microsoft FTEs and their guests.

Interested parties should register here - registration Fee: US$10 only.

Please print out this invite for helping us let you in

The Seattle Alumni Chapter of the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University

Proudly presents

Dr. Peter Boatwright on

"Managing Creativity to Achieve Pragmatic Innovation"

Associate Professor of Marketing at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon and co-author of

"The Design of Things to Come: How Ordinary People Create Extraordinary Products"

Thursday, September 15, 2005.

Networking: 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Talk: 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Building #34, Quinalt Room

Refreshments will be served.

Product developers have worked for decades under a mantra of total quality management, quality is increasingly a commodity; everyone can get it. And costs have been cut about as much as they can be.

The next opportunity for a competitive edge is to be found in creating products that are more innovative than those of the competition. The most important issue then is a) how to produce innovation, b) how to repeatedly generate innovative products.

A necessary first step is to understand successful innovation from the marketplace point of view. Innovation is not about new technology but about meeting people’s desires, about fulfilling their fantasies. Rather than a leap in functional capability, innovation provides a leap in consumer value. (Consider the iPod. When developed, it was a minor technological advance but a major leap in consumer value.)

So, how does one innovate?

Innovation is not wizardry or luck, but innovation is the flower of diligent work — work that uncovers the potential that a product can achieve for its users, producing comprehensive solutions that consumers respond to emotionally, cognitively, and then economically.

Since it is work, it can be accomplished with procedures, tasks, and tools. Since it is work, it is teachable. This content is the subject of Dr, Peter Boatwright’s teaching, work, book and this talk.

Peter Boatwright, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. He is an author of the new book, "The Design of Things to Come: How Ordinary People Create Extraordinary Products," (co-authored with Jonathan Cagan and Craig M. Vogel). In The Design of Things to Come, he discusses not only the importance of innovation to profits but also processes and tools that innovative companies use to achieve their success. Prof. Boatwright has worked with a diverse range of product companies in the fields of electronics, telephony, packaged goods, B2B durables, and medical devices. Prof. Boatwright has both developed new statistical methods as well as additional theories of consumer behavior, spanning qualitative and quantitative methodologies. His expertise and teaching focuses on innovation, new product marketing, and marketing research methods.

My Rollercoaster Ride to join Microsoft. Part III-A. Spring 2005 – When it Rains, it Pours.

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 21:04:00 GMT

2.5 years since my first application to Microsoft and even though there had been several Rounds/Phases/signs that did not exactly end in disastrous dings – they dint even in offers either. But the Spring of 2005 changed all that.

My Rollercoaster Ride to join Microsoft. Part III-A. Spring 2005 – When it Rains, it Pours.

Heather’s Marketing at Microsoft blog was very much the watershed event that changed the recruiting scene as far as my chances at joining Microsoft was concerned. And as a regular lurker and commenter on her blogs – I did tell her two things:

a) that for people like me who were not in the regular hubs of Industry recruitment (read: Seattle, Silicon Valley and Boston), an announcement of these events with ample time could help us schedule our calendars around these recruitment events.

b) Sharing JobIDs/Job Descriptions of the jobs that are open for these events so that the conversations that happen with the hiring managers at these events is directed appropriately. The old marketing adage of – Value, positioning and Sell-Sell-Sell, of course!

Feb 2005: Heather gave us all a 4 week heads-up on a Silicon Valley Microsoft recruitment event for Marketing from the Server and Tools Division. Not only the hiring managers going to be there but they were Directors and Senior Directors there as well. Excellent.

As always – I did my homework on the Job IDs, highlighted all the keywords in the job descriptions, re-positioned my resume to highlight the skills the hiring managers were in search (this wasn’t too difficult considering my experience has been in the Enterprise IT industry in 2 top 10 Server and Software firms!!). 2 wks later I got invited for the event in March 2005. Emailing Heather (this is when I guess she began to get bored of me) again – I realized that these networking events are an evening event and based on how one “connects” with the hiring manager over cocktails there could be a day’s worth of interviews the next day.

While this communication was happening with Heather, I got an email from EB, a Director of Windows Core Managed Software (my area of expertise in my first company) who invited me personally for the event and that he was happy I was coming. Excellent – that’s a first, I thought.

March 2005: After flying in from Philadelphia to Silicon Valley, I realized I was the only person who was not from the Valley in that event. In fact everyone there just walked no more than a few blocks from their offices and looked at me like I was insane when I said – I flew in from Philadelphia for the networking event, taking a no-pay day from office during the middle of the week. Oh well.

The Silicon Valley Recruitment/Networking Event: HC was the team’s Staffing Consultant and probably one of the sweetest, smartest and friendliest you can meet. Ofcourse she never replies to emails or phone calls, but that’s another story.

As anal as I am about planning, I had to understand the format of the event and how the event was supposed to work and figure out the optimal way to meet the most influential person while having interesting, thought provoking conversations. (In other words, I had to know who is the person I had to impress to get me to my next day’s list of interviews). I met EB immediately and thanked him for his email and during the course of the conversation I said – we should probably have a more formal conversation the next day if possible (I have to thank Heather for provoking me through emails to ask that openly – if I thought there was a connection) and lo! Eric walked up to a computer hidden near the stage and scheduled me for an interview with him for the next day. Ofcourse I already had an interview with LG, another Director in the Exchange group for 830. Eric had me for 930. Excellent progression I thought.

Next I met HC and she was excited about my resume and said she was glad some ppl put effort into writing a resume (chalk One WIN For customization!!). I quizzed her on the format and she repeated what I already knew from Heather. That I had to impress the directors myself and that she would help in the scheduling. I also realized that she was anxious for feedback on the format of the event and how it will help her recruiting goals and I promised her that I will be in touch with her – on how my individual conversations with each director/group Manager went and give an overall feedback for the event – if she would do her best to schedule me with the teams I thought I would be a fit for. DEAL! Yayy! I did ofcourse make a ton of conversation about Philadelphia and how the Eagles lost the superbowl the week before to the Patriots (I had to tell the world that I had flown down from Philly just for this event unlike my ‘competitors!!! While on that I threw in the other constraint that My flight back was for noon the next day so I had only 3 hrs of interviews I could possibly do!)

Next I met SA, Senior Director of Windows Core, LG the director that I was supposed to have an interview with the next day and also MS, another Group Manager for the Windows Security software. Thanx once again to Heather’s insight into Microsoft recruiting – I knew that it was critical to not only impress the hiring manager but also the his team of peers. So even though I had an interview with LG and EB, I probably had to impress SA and MS as well.

10 mins into my talk with MS, MS was selling 2 job positions he had to me! Ofcourse I had absolutely no background in the specific position that he was talking about or the technology and/or the industry space, but he thought I would be great in it. Hey, who am I to argue, right? MS said he wanted to talk to me in detail and ran out to schedule an interview with me and given his schedule he could only slot me for 930 (therefore taking out EB’s slot).

As promised the talk with HC (staffing consultant) was easy, she was excited that MS thought I would be great and said she will do my best to have a conversation with EB even though EB was booked solid.

I remember from the talks with MS that he worked with Active directory server and Identity management. Federated Identity management was a new buzz in the industry and I remembered from the talks I attended at Wharton’s Emerging Technologies Conference about some latest initiatives that firms where doing in that field. No wonder MS thought I would be a good fit and forced HC (the recruiter) to schedule me a 1hr the next day.

So with a 3 hr jetlag and the time already well into 10pm PST I spent the night in my hotel reading about Indigo – on both the technology and business sides. It was a pretty quick burn-out rate that night (thanks to the jet lag, and my inability to drown myself in caffeine) – in other words I slept on the desk over my computer. SAD! I know.

The Silicon Valley Interview Day (The day after the Networking Event):

Interview #1 with LG, Director of MSExchange: The 830AM interview was an all-out case interview.

The interview started the usual way – until 2 mins after the pleasantries were exchanged something called “my personality” kicked in (I Blame Gretchen’s Protein bar for this) and I was talking like I was having a conversation by a bar with a friend than an interview with a director at Microsoft. Here are some excerpts:

LG: So tell me, why do you want to work for Microsoft.

Me: I’ve always believed I would be a great fit at Microsoft. You know just like everyother kid at one point of time in his/her life I knew I wanted to take over the world. Where more do you think I can start doing that?

LG: You want to take over the world?

Me: Oh not in the pinky-and-the-brain sort of the way. (I assumed she knew about that cartoon show) but it really is in changing the world, empowering people, making them do more than what they dream towards. And I believe I can do that best at Microsoft given the resources to ppl and technology.

Needless to say she was giggling when I mentioned Pinky and the Brain, very curiously concerned when I mentioned world-domination and totally at ease when I explained what I really meant.

4 mins IN – and I knew if first impressions counted, I was now covered in Gold. (I know. No more Bling-Bling for you!)

Then LG went into some standard behavioral qns like “tell me about your biggest strength”. And some pseudo-standard behavioral qns like - “So what was your best decision” “And what is your toughest decision.”

I think it was during one of these questions the Protein bar-effect kicked in yet again. For out of nowhere I was quoting from Seinfeld and Gilmore Girls!!! It was a great help that LG watched both the shows, though I was convinced she thought I was getting a little too comfortable! Oh well.

End of behavioral 15 mins round in the interview and next was the business side.

LG apparently had a stint at McKinsey before she joined Microsoft and it showed! The next 30 mins was spent on a business case. (since there are a million cases out there, and each one have a million solutions and none of them the optimal solution – I am going to detail the question to the best of my memory). Okay memory-pill do your magic.

The case was about a startup firm which makes a technology that is niche, unique and integral to a total solution in the telecomm world. There is a budget of 15M$ to be spent (I remember this was a large amount to compared to the annual revenues of the firm, though the exact numbers I forget. Damn you memory pill!) and as the CEO I had to decide I wanted to spend it all in Marketing/PR, Sales or Research. The rules were that 15M$ couldn’t not be chunked up (I am not even sure if Chunked-up is a word, but I have a KitKat Chunky on my table, and I dint get the squiggly red line under that word – so it probably is!). In other words 15M$ was what any project in either of the 3 disciplines would cost for a successful implementation and it would be pointless to break it down into anything smaller. Obviously it was all about prioritization based on simple tactical business needs (and if possible strategic too)

With further probing in the first 15 mins I realized the product was already done and well past the stabilized beta stage (Thank you Maturity model). In other words I stated my first hypothesis that unless I got some extraneous information later on in my investigative questioning I am chalking out “Research and Development” since the product has reached maturity. Further I found out that the product was not only unique but niche and perceived as niche and integral in the market. The problem as LG said was that the market knew about the product but couldn’t get its hands on it(yes, This is a major thing I learned – in these types of cases the more questions you ask and probe the more the interviewer will help and give you answers or light the path to the answer. To all you engineers out there – Do NOT think this makes you feel dumb that you cannot come with the answer your self. Ask, Talk and Thou shall get the answer.) Maaan – that sounds like the Toyota Prius, I said, LG smiled nodded and waited. I said well that does mean I am chalking out marketing too – since they already know about the product – lets put 15M in sales and get this to the masss and make some revenue!!!

Now to get some brownie points. I told LG now I want to decide how I am going to spend the 15M in sales for. I got from her that This was typically a B2B industry where channel sales doesn’t make as much sense and it’s always through the enterprise. In other words strategy deals, which means we need more people and the talks happening to C-Level people in the industry. She said that was not an option since recruiting has a huge ramp-up time and the product wave might be missed.

*rub of the chin, a look at the ceiling, raise of an eyebrow*… Interesting I said….

(okie – Where is that protein bar-rush when I need one) PARTNERS! We could spend some time in training partners, and leverage their expertise to implement this, while we support their sales-arms and sign deals to get them to represent us. High volume, low ramp-up time at the cost of some margin-sharing ofcourse – but the volume and penetration will help us manifold.

Bada Bing, Bada Bang – Jackpot. And I was doing the happy dance internally.

Now lets move forward said LG….. (Ofcourse I was still doing my mental happy dance, when I realized she was not finished with me. Damn shez tough!) So you have a big sales and have some record sales and when you are ready to go into the next cycle you get a call from your partner to check the news. You do and you realize that the papers have the article that says your product opened up a major security issue which is mission critical in your client. Do remember these are enterprise clients so nothing is trivial for them and now with the media on the case – the stakes are high. What will you do???

I go from a happy dance to a potential lawsuit on the first product launch? C’est la vie, ha?

We have to use the Get-in-Filth-and-come-out-smelling-as-roses strategy, I said.

I told her my first phone call will be to the firm’s lawyer and ask him/her to get on the case and let me know all the potential liabilities and issues I should cover. Second phone call to engineering/support to check on the claims and see what is up and if the claim is true or if it jus one-off at this environment or based on the way it was implemented? They get funds as they like it. Third phone call to round up the Marketing/PR team to get hold of the analysts/press they know on who wrote the story and start working them.

Priorities were to solve the issue, turn around the table and make this a strong PR effort and make the firm a customer-centric one.

So spend the 15$M to solve the issue, get a customer success case out of it, Market the hell out of the angry-turned-happy customer and then use it to sell more of that software on how not only does the software functionally work and bring value but the company stands by the product and also the customer. Brand Brand Brand! In other words – spend the 15$M in R&D/Tech Support and the rest in PR/Marketing.

End of interview and when I asked for feedback – Lynn said I was a definite MS hire and she would recommend that – and it was all about finding the right team and fit and that on a personal note – she found be super-aggressive and added that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing – but something to watch for since MS is filled with super-aggressive go-getters. So while it would fit, it can clash too J

Interview #2 with MS, Director of Active Directory: The 930AM interview was all behavioral.

MS talked a lot about his job, the product and asked about my team leading abilities.

This was a normal behavioral interview – nothing Microsoftie about it at all.

I do remember that I had taken some powerpoint slides from my previous job on some value propositioning of technologies on business terms. And that totally helped me make the sale. Nothing fancy about it – most business text books have the business value matrix/pyramid the key was just make the links between the technology through the key performance indicators and eventually results and how they are measured.

At the end of the interview, MS specifically stated he thought I was a fit for his position, even though I had no experience in the position he was looking to fill. I did add that I was a very quick learner and look forward to working in that position. Smooth sailing.

1030AM NEXT – I waited in the reception – to get back to HC (recruiter) with feedback on the interviews and how I thought the interviews went great and that my flight from San Jose to Philadelphia was at 1230.

10 mins later – HC made sure I talked to EB for 40 mins about another position. EB if you remember did have a filled schedule – so obviously I was eating into somebody else’s scheduled spot. I took that as a good sign for me! Obviously.

EB nevertheless wanted a very technical person who was more engineer than marketing and strategy and stated that I had a good technical background but think very strategically and he wanted a much more hands on technical person. So that 45 mins interview went nowhere.

Another 15 mins conversation with HC on the interviews by when she had the feedback from my 2 interviews which she stated was very positive and would confirm on next steps by a week. And that the next steps would be interviews in Redmond.

A self-funded California trip for this event and I thought at that point that it couldn’t have fone any better than what it had!

Life is wonderful J

-End of Phase 5 -

My Rollercoaster Ride to join Microsoft. Part II-B. Spring 2004 – Winter 2004

Pradeep U.N. — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 03:50:00 GMT

Main takeaway After Phase III (for anyone who has been following the story) was to apply in/after Spring 2004 when my “MBA-Student-Recruit” status as according to Microsoft’s database will be refreshed and I will be an industry-recruit again. So herez what happened from Spring2004 (since I did have a fun, challenging time at Unisys as a Manager in Strategic Marketing during that time.)

My Rollercoaster Ride to join Microsoft. Part II-B. Spring 2004 – Winter 2004:

a.k.a The Chaos Theory.

I wrote back to SC (remember from Part 1 - Phase I), everyone I met in Phase II (RH included) and BW (from Phase III) about what I had done in the 6 months at Unisys and how I was still interested to talk to Microsoft about any opportunities. To SC in particular I made a list of things that he had suggested I could work on and told him how I had with lists of quantified results I have driven for my team.

As an aside I started spreading my alumni network at Microsoft for information and wrote them all emails to help me with ideas/opportunities In fact I even sent in a paper application with gold-gilded ivory stationary (anything to set myself apart, I guess)

Results: SC forwards my resume to SK a HR recruiter who responds instantaneously that she will keep me in mind if opportunities come along. RH responded immediately and said he had moved on to other roles at Microsoft but he was mailing my resume to his HR contacts. The alumni network from CMU at Microsoft ofcourse never responded – so much for alumni networks. But my stay at Philadelphia (and proximity to the Wharton campus helped me) and I began to talk to some Wharton alumni at MS through my friends at Wharton.

By late Summer 2004 – all these attempts went nowhere and I was back to square one with not even one single warm lead.

In frustration I adopted some internet spider search algo and started looking around for some/any feeds that spoke about Recruiting at Microsoft for Marketing/strategy professionals.

Fall 2004 – the spidersearch works and I chance on a website that reads “Heather Hamilton’s “Marketing and Finance at Microsoft” Blog”. While Heather featured the workings of Marketing, The Moongals – Gretchen and Zoe went the whole nine yards on what would happen when you were invited to Redmond for interviews. Hallelujah!!!!

A few weeks of lingering, and a months worth of asking questions and posting on her site about anything and everything later – she gets me an interview with JS (HR recruiter).

Phase 4 Winter 2004: Organized Chaos.

This was the shortest phase ever.

My interview with JS lasted 45 mins and she said she was impressed and she could immediately find 4 open positions with 3 hiring managers who would be interested in me Several firsts here:

a) this was the first time that I had a HR person directly talking to me

b) first time that they were talking to be about an actual open position

c) the first time that I knew the names of real hiring managers who had names (till now it was a black box in Phases 1-3)

The groups were supposed to be .Net, MSOffice Sharepoint and Windows Core. After scheduling and rescheduling phone-interviews with directors in these positions – I never even got to talk to any of them.

Reason: They had hired internal candidates. (Now that I am in Microsoft, I find these hiring managers use internal distribution lists to source out their candidates) – Bummer!!

Not only JS not give me any further follow-up but with the holidays coming up – that communication line just froze as did the roads in Philadelphia in 2004.

That was a cold winter.

- End of Phase 4 -

My Rollercoaster Ride to join Microsoft. Part II-A. Winter 2002 – Summer 2003

Pradeep U.N. — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 03:07:00 GMT

So after the SC talk which concluded Phase 1 in my attempt to join Microsoft, detailed in Part 1 – here is part 2A & 2B – which includes Phases 2 through 4. If you think my naming/numbering convention is weird, wait till you see some of the design documents floating around here J …When in Rome…..

My Rollercoaster Ride to join Microsoft. Part II-A. Winter 2002 – Summer 2003:

a.k.a “I (don’t) know what you did Last Summer.

Warning: This is going to be a long, bitter entry. So go get your sodas, ice creams, popcorns and reading glasses.

Well I always knew I wanted to work for MS and kept hovering around on their career website and had subscribed to the Microsoft career newsletter and always had an eye open on the Microsoft Careers events and Happenings for opportunities to sell myself to senior managers, VPs, Directors, HR ppl – pretty much anyone who could direct me towards a challenging strategy/marketing/management Individual contributor post-MBA role at Microsoft.

Phase 2 Winter 2002: Microsoft is a large firm and as with large enterprises – one hand doesn’t not always talk to the other. So days after my interview with SC, I was invited to the Tablet PC launch in Las Vegas by another Microsoft HR team, which found my technology background and Computer Associates background interesting. I met a ton of hiring managers there in Las Vegas, built a contact Database around them, followed up with them and had to deliver elevator statements to them all and had 15 min-standing screen-interviews in a cocktail setting.

In a conversation with RH, a senior recruiter, it all went find and dandy till he realized that I was graduating in Spring 2003 and the conversation stopped in mid-sentence. Apparently the MBA-school recruiting team talks to MBA students and even if the MBA student has industry experience and certifications (like I did) the Microsoft industry recruiters would not talk to you till a year passed before you had graduated.

Qn to ask ofcourse was – wasn’t this information on my resume? Wasn’t it obvious I was still a student? Wouldn’t my information be on the HR database?

Bright Side – I had a ton of contacts which I could leverage and have a conversation with no mid-sentence conversation drops – starting Spring 2004.

Either that, or as aggressive and confident (read: smart-ass & obnoxious) as I am, I had to convince the MBA-recruiting team into talking to me again.

- End of Phase 2 Microsoft Attempt -

Phase 3 Spring 2003: So I graduated in Spring 2003, and was very fastidious about the job, firm and position I accepted. In other words, I chose to be jobless and help Carnegie Mellon’s Career Center marketing team for a meager sustenance and leeching of friends (God bless them!) than working in a place that was not aligned with my goals and directions. Blame my mom for my idealistic hard-head.

So Spring is when the real mad-rush internship recruiting happens (if you dint get into Consulting/Banking). When BW, a Senior Business Manager from Microsoft came to campus to recruit for interns, my career director (this is when the pro-bono school work that one does helps) recommended that he talk to me and see if I was worth his time.

This is how it went…..

When I entered the interview room on campus, BW had made sure that my back was to the whiteboard and was sitting facing it. After the usual talk about the Pittsburgh weather (which sucks), the Steelers (who rock) and the likes….. it started.

On the whiteboard were a list of fill in the blank qns: On the left were the numericals - Stock price of MSFT, 2003 Revenue, 2003 Profits, on the right were name-placeholders with titles – CEO and CFO. Then below where a list of 5 bullet points which asked me to name 5 products I knew of Microsoft and then to name 3 competitors to each and every single one. I filled them all and BW was very impressed with the fact that I not only knew the revenue and margin numbers but also thankful that unlike some colleagues who still wrote BillG under the CEO bracket I could write SteveB for that and knew the CFO’s name too. Ofcourse products and competitors were the easy piece given my industry background.

Then the real interview commenced.

BW being a business Manager – we talked about Business strategies, value chains, revenue streams and profit margins. When asked to pick 2, any 2 product suites from the ones I had written and start listing out the margins, I said I will pick Office and Xbox for 2 different reasons – one being a super-margin-mature-cash cow product that generated enormous cashflow to the firm and the other which even though Microsoft was losing on every box being sold – was a huge bet for the future and therefore had different stories to tell.

The next 40 minutes we talked about these two businesses, their industry landscape, the revenue streams, marketing channels, issues at hand and how we can mitigate them and my top 3 recommendations to address them while refueling the revenue streams. It was one my best interviews yet and I knew it while I was talking which was wonderful.

BW went out of the way to thank my director that he was happy she had recommended him talking to me since he said – I would be his best hire yet. Ofcourse BW promised me a next set of interviews at Redmond for full time position even though he was here to hire interns.

2 months, and various phone calls after –later BW confesses that he had tried his best, raised the issue to his General Manager and VP-level but still could not overcome 2 issues at Microsoft:

a) A hire if rejected on the MBA-student track by person A – cannot be given another chance within a year from rejection

b) An person remains under the MBA-student track for a year past his/her graduation and cannot be pulled in through the industry-recruiting track.

In other words, BW was profusely apologetic that he couldn’t call me in for further interviews at Redmond, because of “company policies” but said He thought I would be an asset at Microsoft and would have to try after Spring 2004 – when the 1 yr period lapses.

- End of Phase 3 Microsoft Attempt -

What did I do wrong: I dont know. Nothing apparently.

What I did right: I thought everything. Showed my interest, research, technical/communication/leadership/business skills.

What I learnt from it:

a) Corporate policies are not easy to bend.

b) When all is lost or seems lost go to Captain Morgan on the rocks.

Bottomline: Great Interview. Great communication. Excellent Connection. No results. Bummer!