Leading Trump - Pradeep U.N. & his Blog about Nothing. : Microsoft WorldWide Enterprise Services Recruiting

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.

Eve's Powerpoint summary of the women's conference.

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 21:10:00 GMT

To say that we are PowerPoint Monkeys (PPM) here at Microsoft Worldwide Enterprise Services & Support would be an understatement. To one of my pleas to the recruiting committee on news and articles they want to share with the rest of the world - This was Eve's entry summarizing the Women's conference held at Redmond. Yea - shez a PPM too!

Ø 5,000 participants (mostly women J yes! There were some few brave men)

Ø 3 days: Jan.10-12

Ø Focus on Inspiration, Professional Development, The Whole You and Leadership

Ø Lots of cool speakers: external (Denise Harrington, Patricia Fripp) and internal (Mich Matthews, Lori Brownell, Kathleen Hogan and Jeff Rakes)

Ø Some key takeaways:

o Use your natural strengths to your benefit (relationship building, collaboration, ability to communicate)

o Be competitive but don’t compete with other women – instead depend on a network of women

o Stop being “behind the curtain” – Be present and take a bold role

o Dress for success

o The road to success in leadership is not always a ladder (male paradigm) but a spiral (centered, builds momentum)

o Characteristics of powerful females

§ Teacher / Coach

§ Mentor

§ Collaborative / Team Player

§ Intuitive / Vulnerable

§ Passionate

"We have tons of openings.." says Sassan Saedi from WWESS Recruiting Committee

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 20:15:00 GMT

Sassan Saedi our debonair team-man on the Recruiting Committee on the Microsoft Worldwide Enterprise & Support Services spoke to me about his stint so far at Microsoft and the recruiting committee. Here are some excerpts from that interview.

So give us a quick summary of your career so far and why you joined Microsoft, The WWESS Team and how you joined the Recruiting committee?
I was an IT Manager for a large transportation company while I went to grad school at Kellogg. Upon graduation with a Marketing and Strategy MBA, I moved to Ameritech/SBC as a Marketing Manager for consumer ISDN/xDSL products. During this time, I defined and launched the consumer DSL product. Over the next few years I managed a variety of products in both the consumer and business spaces. I then moved to 3COM as a Services Product Manager. Following 3COM, I consulted for a couple of years in the Telecom space on Marketing and Product Management assignments.

Microsoft was not on my radar during my job search. When MS called (they found me on Monster.com), I took the interview out of curiosity more than anything (although I did take it very seriously). When the offer came then next day, I had to re-evaluate my career and weigh the pros/cons of such a move. For me, moving out of Telecom and broadening my experience while building on the foundation that I already had was a key factor in coming on board to MS. The new services strategy also gave me a rare opportunity to create and own something new at Microsoft, a unique opportunity in a $40B giant.

How was your interview process with the Team? What was the toughest question you were asked and why did you think it was the toughest?
Interview process was as tough as I expected it. One person was grilling me hard on measurement metrics of the position I was interviewing for….I obviously did not give him the answer he was looking for….to this day I don’t know what he wanted….anyway, it was very frustrating and I thought I had blown the entire interview. He then escorted me to the waiting area 15 minutes early to wait for my next interview. Obviously the ending to the story was good :)

What kind of work do you do at the WWESS Team?
I am a Sr. Program Manager for Workshop SKUs responsible for the development of the new Worldwide Workshop SKUs that we are launching.

What has been your biggest fun day at work?
I guess MGB was the highlight so far. I was still fairly new and attended MGB in Atlanta. It was a great chance to hear the executive’s vision first hand and also get to know my team mates better….Still can’t get the picture of Pradeep on the swing out of my head :)

Any nightmare-days at WWESS yet?
None yet, but I am sure I am prepared :)

We hear you go to the gym at the same time as Steve Ballmer in the mornings. Fine. And you wear your Ipod on you in front of him? Whats up with that?
Yes, sometimes I workout at the same time as Steveb and have seen him sweating a few machines over. As for the iPod question, I have no idea what you are talking about :) I would never consider buying such a single use device that does not have the ability to provide a broader computing experience :)

So in your words, what would constitute a stellar resume? What are the must-haves and what would be an X-Factor on a resume?
My pet peeve is seeing resumes that list responsibilities. I really don’t care what someone is responsible for. I am most interested on what they accomplished. Too often candidates stuff their resumes with job description bullets. I am most interested in seeing meaningful accomplishments with details, ie. Responsibility levels, challenges, timeframes and quantifiable end results.

What are your next big plans to be implemented on the recruiting committee?
I have been working on online recruiting through MBA alumni career networks. Still working on defining the next “big plans”. To potential recruits who want to join the team – what do you say they should do to maximize their visibility? Know what you are going after and submit a resume that supports that goal. Too often I see resumes that have seemingly have no relation to the job posting(s). I don’t have time to read spend 15 minutes dissecting the resume, I want to be able to see the relevance in 1-2 minutes. If you are not going to rewrite your resume to the job posting, at least update the summary section so I can see why it is logically possible that you are qualified for the advertised position.

Secondly, I would say don’t give up. We have tons of openings and new ones constantly created. Keep applying for the various positions. Just because you are in our database doesn’t mean the hiring manager or the assigned recruiter will come across your resume. Believe it or not thousands of people apply every month, you need to be seen and noticed before they can call you back.

Lisa Franklin talks about working at Worldwide Microsoft Services

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 03:43:00 GMT

Lisa Franklin is one of the few direct-MBA hires (Howard University) at WWESS and on the recuiting committee here. I asked her the following questions: What is your experience like? Was the ramp-up steep or not? Why pick to join Microsoft compared to other options from school?

You know what the problem is with pursuing your MBA…? It is very consuming. It interrupts your routine, it interrupts your life; however, you leave with a pretty definitive idea about what you would like to your professional future to entail. At least that’s how my experience went.

OK, well… maybe "problem" isn't the right word… How about "conundrum?"

I would be lying if I said that my ultimate goal was to always work for the leading software company in the world. In fact, I had always been conflicted in my professional life, because I felt that everything corporate was driven by numbers and less by people. Now the MBA in me, completely embraces the rationale behind this. I mean, I wouldn’t dare try to run a company or an organization and only use the accounts payable entries (would you?). Nonetheless, I wanted a balance and I historically had achieved that by volunteering in the evenings at local inner-city schools. Until now….

During the first semester of my second year in the MBA program, I had an on-campus interview with a very “lively” and “honest” Microsoft recruiter named Lindsey. She had pulled my resume from the Monstertrak database and wanted to chat with me further. As I said previously, I had never given much thought to working for Microsoft, but I wasn’t going to give up an opportunity to interview with them either!

Lindsey spoke less about the opportunities available at Microsoft and more about my background and passion. The weird thing is that I was actually tired of interviewing; at this point I already had three job offers post graduation. However, no one had ever asked me about my passion. You mean there were companies out there that actually cared! I was intrigued. This set the tone for my future interviews which included a visit to the Redmond campus. My interviews were culminated with the WWESS General Manager, Hardeep. His frankness, strategic approach, and clear interest in the career growth of his team sold me. Well, that and the fact that my recruiter called me at least once a day!

The transition: Now that I am here…what is it like……?

Well, the ramp-up was steep. I don’t think you can compare this experience with any other. Having been in other “corporate” environments, I had to unlearn some behaviors in addition to learning about the company and the industry. For instance: it’s okay to speak you mind in meetings you can even disagree with everyone in the room. In fact, it’s expected. Additionally, you can express your desire to do something different, or more challenging.

Don’t get me wrong….the learning process is still in full swing.

I have however thought about it a lot and I have concluded that I am afforded the opportunity to live my passion everyday. I can use work hours to volunteer for organizations that inspire me or I can take on projects that stretch my skill set. I can even write blogs if I choose.

Simply put, I have learned a lot from the individuals that I have come in contact with in my short sixth month stint. Would I trade the experience? Never do.

But……one bit of advice

The faint at heart, need not apply.

~ Lisa Franklin

Eileen Wang our Customer-Sat Snr Analyst talks to our potential Microsoft recruit candidates

Pradeep U.N. — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 21:16:00 GMT

The last time I looked at anything Hello Kitty it was in 1996-97 at the McDonald's-Hello Kitty Joint promotion where Hello Kitty eclipsed the brand partner, with thousands of people buying burgers and then throwing them away but keeping the Hello Kitty promotional items. There are lines as early at 4AM outside McDonald's for buying burgers and keeping the Hello Kitty dolls. There was a business case study on this too! Infact Hello Kitty is ranked #3 in all Asian Brands (Asia the continent so I am including India and Sri Lanka as well when I say Asia here) - pushing such Big brands as Singapore Airlines, Shangri La, Maggi and even Honda to the backburner, according to this survey which is kind of scary!

Eileen Wang - our Sr Analyst who measures Customer-Satisfaction on Microsoft products is on our recruiting committee incharge of External Recruiting Events. Given a choice to share her mugshot and pick a cartoon character to reflect her persona. She went with Hello Kitty! Here are some Questions I had for her....

So give us a quick summary of your career so far and why you joined Microsoft, The WWESS Team and how you joined the Recruiting committee?
Hmm, career so far...well, my first full time job out of grad school (MS in economics) was at a bank where I estimated losses on a variety of loan portfolios. I realized that delivering bad news to executives was not a very pleasant job. A co-worker at the bank helped me find the job posting for this job at MS, and the short story is that that’s how I came here. The longer story is that the job posting sounded interesting, so I applied, had a recruiter call me the next day, and then in about two weeks, had a job offer. It was a very fast experience and serendipitous. So, I’m now a Sr. Analyst measuring Customer Satisfaction with MSN and XBOX Support. I enjoy the job because there is not only the data analysis aspect, but also the human quotient associated with working with internal business customers and external vendors. I’ve been in this role for nearly eight months now.

I joined the WWESS team as a result of my manager’s manager at the time that I joined, taking sabbatical. Then my manager got re-orged into what became WWESS. The recruiting committee seemed like a fun group that also had some introverts (as opposed to the social committee – all extroverts. Too much competition to be heard. :))

How was your interview process with the Team? What was the toughest question you were asked and why did you think it was the toughest?
The interview process was fast. I was a local candidate, so I had the phone screens with HR, the person who became my manager, then the on site in a matter of weeks. I can’t remember many questions from the interview process, but I do remember my last one of the day with a General Manager. She repeatedly asked me questions about scenarios where I could be mean and really force a point across. I kept thinking “why would I tell someone in an interview whether or not I lash out in anger?” (I don’t usually, by the way.) Later, I found that the reason why she kept drilling me was because someone else interviewing me earlier in the day commented that I might be “too nice” to work at Microsoft.

What kind of work do you do at the WWESS Team?
Not many people know who I am on WWESS, and this is because I pretty much do entirely different work from the rest of the team. Measuring CSAT for consumer support of MSN and XBOX is completely different and usually unrelated to the rest of the team’s focus on managed contractual relationships with large companies and government. I feel like I have my “real” reporting team in WWESS and also my internal customers/functional teams with the MSN and XBOX Support teams. It’s a unique position to be in.

What has been your biggest fun day at work?
Jet skis on Lake Washington for a party of a group on which I’m a virtual member. There was South Pacific island music too. (There are a lot of virtual teams at Microsoft. This just means that you work with a bunch of people who are not directly in your org, but you have common projects or goals.)

Any nightmare-days at WWESS yet?
Well, I like to have a full personal life, so the only nightmarish days are the times I have to spend a weekend day or evening getting caught up. I’m into the work – life balance thing. I like my job, and I put in the effort when I’m here, but there’s a lot going on in life that I value a great deal also.

So are you the tennis champ on the team?
Agh. I’m telling you...once I can serve consistently, then I’ll start playing with the other WWESS tennis players. J I’m back to taking lessons, though. Maybe by the summer.

What are your next big plans to be implemented on the recruiting committee?
Well, I’ve told Eve that I’m taking a more latent role on the committee until we can fill the open position that I’m covering right now. (MSN CSAT analyst and XBOX CSAT analyst should be two jobs.) I’ll get back to you on this one.

To potential recruits who want to join the team – what do you say they should do to maximize their visibility?
I don’t know about this one...in my case, I feel like I had a lot of luck to be one of the tons of resumes chosen to be looked at. How about posting and submitting to this blog? I mean, we talk about it so much in the team and recruiting committee. I’m sure that anyone submitting their resumes here is getting a full review of it

Eve Psalti Speaks out: How did I come to join this Grp? Why do I Work here?

Pradeep U.N. — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 01:05:00 GMT

I get a few resumes and comments on joining the team through by blog every week - and the recruiting committee is super-passionate about continuing this pilot of blogging for this reason. One of the feedback was to profile more of our own recruiting committee members and have them talk to you in their words...

So here is Eve Psalti (See left) - The Queen Bee of the recruiting Committee. Unplugged. I asked her a simple qn -

So how did you come to join WWESS Eve? Why did you join the team? What do you do here?

When I first came to Microsoft Services 1.5 ago as a relatively seasoned marketer with 12 years of experience I was surprised by the energy of the group. Soon I came to realize that although there was a communications department that included PR/AR, there was no marketing function per se. Services was traditionally considered as a “necessary evil” from companies who were buying support as an insurance trying to minimize their risk when they bought Microsoft software.

In the past year, the Marketing organization that was later formed has tried hard to change this perception and position Services as a proactive investment to keep customer infrastructure healthy. Because Marketing in Services is still small and driven by “grass roots” efforts, it resembles a start up environment. Lots of energy, lots of ground to cover, lots of short term wins and long term challenges. The team is very dynamic and diverse with people from different marketing backgrounds.

We branch out and collaborate with all the groups at Services (SKU team, Offerings, Release Management, Support Lifecycle, Field Readiness etc.)- we basically “touch” every consulting and support product Microsoft is offering, helping the product teams formulate the value proposition, messaging and then the go-to-market activities. We focus on delivery excellence and ROI measurement. For some “techie” people marketing equals “fluff” and rarely brings value. Our Marketing team is strongly tied to the Sales organization, working with them to provide them with all the necessary materials and tools to be successful at selling. Marketing enables revenue! What a great reason to come to work every day- being creative, focusing on flawless execution and being responsible for the economic success of the group. It’s a tall order, but a fun one, too…

Eve Goes Medieval on the Team...

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 04:41:00 GMT

Eve "The QueenBee" Psalti followed up on our MBTI offsite adventure with her own recommendation of "Rediscovering ourselves in a medieval way" with this online personality test.

I was quite consistent with my ENTP rating that MBTI gave me and was called a "Discoverer" by the Medieval time (so was Eve). Sassan was the Prime Minister!

The Rebranding of Bob Keller....

Pradeep U.N. — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 05:38:00 GMT

One of my new yet loyal readers - Bob "The Maniac" Keller has recently been raising some noise about his inability to brand himself successfully as Bob "More Cowbell" Keller and instead being called "the Maniac."

So to make the rest of the readers aware (apart from Kathleen Holmes - who owns this classic DVD) - let me tell you the story of the "More Cowbell"

Better yet - see it for yourself in this video :) [Warning - please use earphones and shut your office doors - huge laughter might be guaranteed]

I have Fever.. and the prescription is More Cowbell....

IF this doesnt work for Bob's rebranding - nothing will :)

Meyers Briggs called me a four letter word!!

Pradeep U.N. — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 04:36:00 GMT

As blogged earlier - we had an onsite-offsite yesterday and the offsite "fun event" was to participate in Donna's MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) exercise. Over 70 of us in the teams were subject to the lab-testing environment where at the end of it all we were all branded to Four letter words.

Summary-Theory before I move on. The theory is that all people can be classified using four criteria:

Extraversion - Introversion: The first criterion defines the source and direction of energy expression for a person. The extrovert has a source and direction of energy expression mainly in the external world while the introvert has a source of energy mainly in the internal world.
Sensing - Intuition: The second criterion defines the method of information perception by a person. Sensing means that a person believes mainly information he receives directly from the external world. Intuition means that a person believes mainly information he receives from the internal or imaginative world.
Thinking - Feeling: The third criterion defines how the person processes information. Thinking means that a person makes a decision mainly through logic. Feeling means that, as a rule, he makes a decision based on emotion.
Judging - Perceiving: The fourth criterion defines how a person implements the information he has processed. Judging means that a person organizes all his life events and acts strictly according to his plans. Perceiving means that he is inclined to improvise and seek alternatives.

Obviously with 4 binary variables - there are 2power 4 possibilities or 16 types of people roaming this planet and each one can be called a 4 letter word.Here is the scary part - I had 0 points on 2 variables (which means I maxxed out on their pairings) and I got close to maxxing out on the other two.Ugh! So what four letter word did Myers-Briggs call me? - ENTP! Extraoverted, Intuitive & Perceptive Thinker.... Daaamn that sounds soo good I feel like an ego boost of 300 pts.

Here is what an ENTP is known for - (recruiters - pls note with care) Imaginative, spontaneous, original and enthusiastic, (Wow - Myers-Briggs have been reading my blog havent they!) they have a knack for seeing other possibilities, other dreams and options. They see patterns emerging. Keen improvisers, they are rarely caught off guard, there is always something up their sleeve. The sky is the only limit. They initiate change and often are prone to trespassing a few known boundaries to take themselves and others where no one has been before. (Hey the last sentence means that I could be a Trekkie on Capt James Kirk USS Enterprise!).

The other personality types are here so you can read about your personality type and get your very own ego-trip. There were 3 important takeaways/notables for me from the session:

The entire social committee was clicking together for a good part of the exercise when we were to split into the E or I pairs or the T or F pairs and being the most boisterous (we are blaming Eve Psalti on the decibel level by the way!)
The people I hang out with tended to have similar binary pairings and it was awesome to see that informal social networks were backed by hardcore science
Guessing by the fact that my boss was always on the other side of the room - we were apparently poles apart when it came to personality-types. But the fact that we get along famously - is testament to his management skills in recognizing and managing the differences. From that aspect I am sure there were some team dynamics which could have been noticed and some that could have raised eyebrows.

All in all it was a good time - we all learned and had a great time.

One my good buddies is big into opportunities that leverage her ability to run such events, understand executives and communicate it effectively (so if my readers want an expert in this - email me for her info and resume ;) ) Ofcourse she has proven experience in the field in public, private and non-profit organizations! Donna - if you are reading this: maybe you need a super-star apprentice ;-)

Dynamics of a Microsoft All-hands Onsite-OffSite Meeting

Pradeep U.N. — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 21:25:00 GMT

We are the largest team in Microsoft under a GM (do not quote me on it - but we are close to it). So when we have an onsite-offsite, it is quite the production, and a nightmare for our admin folk.

Spoiled by a few of my managers - let me get to the "Crystallize the Taxonomies" first.

Offsites - All-day meetings conducted at an offsite location to take you away from the drudgery of your normal workplace/location and potentially have you think out of the box. Bcos hey you are moved out of the "Box" and therefore can think out of it! Brilliant, ya? Remember that Fedex ad where the offsite is at a farm or the shower since thats where the big-boss gets all his ideas? Yes - those are offsites.

All Hands - Probably derived from the usage in nautical term where this is s meeting that involves "all-hands" of the entire team/crew to be present.

Onsite-Offsite - Offsite meetings conducted on campus where the box you are moved from is maybe your floor or building. So an offsite in Bldg 40 if you are from Bldg 122 is an onsite-offsite - as would be an offsite in Level 1 if you are from Level 3. If you are Not from a Big firm and scratching your head about this - bear with me - this is common in all big firms not just Microsoft. Reason - take a pick between: Budgets, ROI, Funds, Time, etc etc.

So yesterday we had an All-Hands Onsite-Offsite meeting from 8Am - 430Pm - if you are groaning about its length - the last one was from 7AM-5PM - we are already improving here. The dynamics of an Onsite-Offsite are quite typical:

The GM/VP gives a Rah-Rah about our strategy, gets us refocused (not that we need that, but there are new faces and they love that!) talks about any reorgs (dont even get me started on this one!)
The Individual and Team awards are given out for the quarter
Different committees have their presentations talking about what they are doing for the team along the different focus pillars that they have
The Different Business-leads talk about their agenda and have a Q&A
There is an fun-event at the end typically dreamed up by the Admin Queens

The synopsis of what happened yesterday:

a) The morning was spent with Hardeep Walia convincing us yet again that his strategy, motivation, public speaking and powerpoint skills far outweighs his ability to get the computer to hookup to the big screen (But Ken Durham jumped to the rescue within 5 mins!). So the WWESS big family with new members (over 15 this offsite) got to hear about our mission, vision, team structure, strategies and jus a time to refocus. Needless to say - Hardeep ran over his allotted time - this despite the fact that Joan Yarkosky (our sweet admin who pampers me with bottles of wine) was calling Time-out for over 15 mins at the end :) But his talk summarized that we are aware that we are the largest team in Microsoft and that we should be aware of the culture we are building and build the right one.

b) Team Oscars were handed out yet again. The awards were:

Jeremy won for the best individual performer for the quarter,
Best team (Microsoft Support Policy) - which Luca Barone runs and Jeremy is a part of
The Ambassador program to go to Paris/Munich to meet customers/field - won by Jeremy.
and Srinivas Mandalaparthy won an individual award too for MVP this quarter.
The award for the best manager went to Eric Stathers (Employee #6 at Peoplesoft before he joined us)
and The team voted on Ken Durham for his Communications Director role-filling ability before Cheryl came on board.

And in Hardeep Walia's words "like the Titanic Jeremy Korst won every single award this time" I wish Jeremy had quoted Rose and replied with a "I will never let go, Hardeep... I will never let go..." But Jeremy was too busy turning blush, pink and red that he had left his sharp mind at home.

c) The various committees presented (in this order):

The Training Committee: Stephen Clark (Director, Support Offerings) presented a strong case as to why we should use our annual training budget and spend more time on ourselves and training ourselves to be better team players. As usual (Very unlike most speakers) he was brief, under his time, funny, to the point and left with a message. You cant help but love a guy like that, in fact I will be interviewing him soon on the blog.
The Technology Committee: Bob "The Manic" Keller who btw is a fellow-blogger with a growing blog-readership presented about the training CD that that committee created.for us learning productive use of own technologies and some excellent processes. Short, sweet, funny with a take-away too!
Recruiting Committee (Woo Hoo): Isnt this committee what this blog is all about. Eve "The Queen Bee" Psalti updated about the wonderful things we do in the recruiting committee - College recruiting (Sassan Saedi), Industry Recruiting (Felipe Oyanedel), Recruiting Events (Eileen Wang), Presentation for recruiting (Shannon Huffman, Beny Rubinstein), Recruiting Training (Eve Psalti). I had a 5 mins talk about this blog (about 15% of the audience were already regular readers of this blog) and over 50% knew about its existence and have visited it atleast once or twice. Leslie Scheider then talked about the Buddy Program (Harini Gokul is her partner on that) which is this phenomenal program that the ladies came up with that matches up new recruits with a current WWESS member here at Microsoft Worldwide Enterprise & Support Services and help them acclimatize to Seattle, redmond etc.
Career Development Committee: Jonathan Baird talked in depth about how important career development was - and this committee had action items, deadlines, timelines etc. Good stuff.
Best Practices Committee: Jorge briefed us all about the best practices out there that our team followed and shared given their vast and diverse experience. Brief and to the point.
Social "The Fun Folks" Committee: All doubts if I did any work on my team were dispelled when the team realised I was presenting yet again for the social committee this time (My boss decided I had to be given more work than spend any more committee time). We had everyone sitting wave the flags of their country which was on their table up feverishly (over 29 countries) while I talked about the "Social-Past" in the last 8 months - events such as - the Team-Cooking event (Hardeep Walia cooked sushi for the team at Casper's), Bowling event, The Soccer Tournament, Wine Tasting at Ste Michelle's, The PingPong Tournament, Poker Tournament at the Montecarlo Night. David Jones talked about the "Social Present " Wall of Champions here we named the champions of our events - Marc Reguera for Field Domination in Soccer, Brian Boruff for being "One of a Kind" Bluffer in Poker and for Sasha Frljanic for being a "Loopy Smashmouth in PingPong". This was a big plaque that shall be hung on the wall outside the elevator. Jeremy "The Titanic" Korst had the crowd gave the recruiting-spiel to have more ppl join the social committee. Todd Latham contined with "Social Present" then announced that we shall be having a worldmap be hung on the wall by our hallway where we shall be putting boardpins with different team colors on it across the cities we are from (Goooo Chennai!!) Erin Schwitzer talked about "Social Future" about the events for the future - like the Winter-tubing event later this month and potential treasure hunt ideas etc.

d) All the Team leads had a quick panel for the entire team to ask their questions and it went fairly quickly for an open-agenda like that!

e) The Fun event for the day was MBTI! The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator facilitated by Donna Roush on her last day with the group - she is moving on for other pastures in Microsoft. More details on MBTI on another post.

And yah - I saw the chronicles of Narnia last nite and it was a blast. The Lion was kinda too animated and looked obvious - but the movie all in all was a blast!

Poker Tournament - for the entire team of 69!

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 22:10:00 GMT

Early this week Microsoft Enterprise Services had our Monte Carlo Night where the Social Committee (this time led by Scott Armstrong along with Jessica Zulfiqar) organized the Poker Tournament for our team here at MS.

Oh by the way - What is He-Man doing on a post about a Poker tournament? Well Scott chose He-Man instead of his mugshot to appear on this post. "Why He-Man, Scott," I asked.... "Well it is in line with my second-name isnt it?", he said. Can't argue with a communications Manager now can I? [What is Teela doing with He-Man? Well He-Man is Sara Hyatt's Roomie remember?]

Anyways the following is Scott "He-Man" Armstrong's submission for this blog about the Poker tournament.

After a long and grueling battle during last night’s Monte Carlo festivities, a winner was finally crowned as the Poker Champion of WWESS for 2005! Before the results though, let’s recap the table winners who made the final.

Table One – Our first table featured some crazy action, especially from Bob “maniac” Keller, who jumped out to an early lead. David Jones (Our Marketing Manager) made a nice late run after a big 4-of-a-kind hand, to secure his spot in the finals. And Eve Psalti (A Marketing Manager and The Queen Bee who runs our Recruiting Committee!) showed instincts not seen from many beginners, as being a poker rookie didn’t stop her from making the final table.

Table Two – This table was more crafty and conservative – outside of Harco “the Dutch Dynamo” Enting (Our Marketing Director), who pounded the table with relentless betting while building a big stack of chips. Ken Durham (Our Business Manager) and Eric Sabetti (Our Workshops Program Manager) parlayed their poker experience into a final table experience as well, avoiding Harco’s salvos which took down the rest of the table.

Table Three – A game changing moment influenced the fate of this table. Glenn Pereira was looking strong, but had to leave early and sacrificed his chips mid-hand – resulting in a monster win by Kate Hughes (Group Program Manager). And while Omaha is the poker game of choice in the UK, Todd Latham (CPE Marketing Manager) showed his Texas Hold ‘Em poker moxie in making the final table. Finally, the last finalist was determined. An unknown to the table, Brian Bergholm (Marketing Manager) was a late entry due to the fact that Monday was his first day with his new team! This wild card would factor heavily in the final results.

Final table – With the final table set, the action got underway. Eric and Eve were the first victims, eliminated by Bob as he jumped out to an early lead. We then had another double elimination, as Harco and Todd were sent packing on the same hand. David Jones, who along with Ken Durham helped put the Texas in Texas Hold ‘Em at our final table, was then knocked out in 5th place.

Down to four, Kate Hughes finished her strong showing by finishing in 4th. That brought us to three. Bob’s strategy of trying to hide how many chips he had didn’t work in the end, as he put all of his chips in the middle on a bluff, and was called down by Brian who made only a lowly single pair. But that pair was good enough to knock out Bob in 3rd place, and get it down to heads up play against Ken Durham!

Even with Hardeep Walia rooting on his business manager, Ken couldn’t overcome the big stack of chips that Brian held, and when he was eliminated Brian Bergholm became the 2005 WWESS Poker Champion!

Meet Sara Hyatt - The Communications Manager at Microsoft Enterprise Services

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 10:35:00 GMT

In our series of "TeamMember Profiling" sponsored by the Recruiting Committee here at WorldWide Enterprise Support & Services (I had a special memo from our business manager Ken Durham that I was putting the ampersand on WWESS one word too early) : Meet our High-energy Communications Manager - Sara Hyatt.

In what shall be a tradition - if the members profiles refuse to share their mugshots - they get to choose their cartoon-characters - Sara Chose Bubbles - the Blonde Powerpuff Girl! Here is the interview with Sara "Bubbles" Hyatt.

So give us a quick summary of your career so far and why you joined Microsoft, The WWESS Team and how you joined the Social committee?

Hmmm… Quick Summary… I graduated from Western WA Univ in 1999 and started during the dot.com boom at a company called Web3000 which made a freeware product that cached information to your hard drive for supposedly a faster surfing experience. I started as a Marketing Communications Manager and was in charge of running tradeshows and events. It was a cool gig, I traveled all over the country putting on shows and setting up our booth. I was employee 49 and we grew to over 100 before the big bubble burst. I made it through the first three rounds of lay offs and decided not to press my luck so I started looking elsewhere. I ended up landing a contract job working for Christian Jensen setting up the Project Management eKM site (Predecessor to ICE). I then was hired on by Joe Austin as his communications manager for Services Operations in 2002 and have been in Services communications ever since.

I joined the social committee because I have experience planning events and thought it would be a fun group to be a part of.

How was your interview process with the Team? What was the toughest question you were asked and why did you think it was the toughest?

My interview process was interesting :) . I was originally not mapped after the re-org and found myself applying for and interviewing for one of the open comm. mgr positions. I first met with Harco and then with Thierry whom I had worked with previously. I then met with someone who was on their way out of the org. There were no tough questions in that round, however when I was originally brought on an interviewer asked me this question: If I had to pick a color to describe me, what would I pick? I chose orange.

What kind of work do you do at the WWESS Team?

I am one of the three communications managers for Services. We have had a bit of a slow ramp up because our new manager just started last week; however it has been quite a ride for the last four months.

What has been your biggest fun day at work?

Biggest fun day: hard to say. The ping pong tourney was fun. We had great participation and the other teams around 122 were very envious. It is always fun to be thought of as the cool kids.

Any nightmare-days at WWESS yet?

How many people from our team read this? :)

[Good point. We should make this daily required reading - for our entire team. Okie - let me email the communications manager about that, right now ;) - UNP]

I hear you are now going to be sharing offices with another member on your team! Is this a new move by the Social committee to have teammates interact more with each other?

Wow, that’s funny. Sure, that is one way to put it. :)

What are your next big plans to be implemented on the social committee?

We are having a winter tubing event in January which will be a blast! We are also feverishly brainstorming other ideas including an all expense paid trip to the Galapagos Islands for every WWESS member and their extended families. We are also looking into giving away free hamsters and gerbils and having small rodent races every Friday afternoon. Just kidding (trip and rodents).

To potential recruits who want to join the team – what do you say they should do to maximize their visibility?

Work with their doors open, have candy on their desk in a bowl (especially Tootsie Pops, for some reason) and wear clothing that elicits comments from co-workers. :)

[Well Sara - we were talking abt potential recruits here - You should stop answering emails while answering interviews at the same time!!!-UNP]

Transparency in Recruiting should be institutionalized.

Pradeep U.N. — Sun, 04 Dec 2005 02:03:00 GMT

Jenna Adorno from Microsoft JobsBlog quoted one of my comments on her post yesterday titled Transparency and agreed on my call for Transparency in Recruiting. That was a comment I wrote in response to her post asking candidates how long do they want to wait? The answer to the question as an applicant is "as small as possible" but in realistic terms - the wait is made "sane" if there is transparency in the process.

But for folks who have read my blog would remember about the first 3 parts of my "How I got into Microsoft" here, here , here and here that lack of transparency was one main reason why there are 4 parts to that story (and there are 2 more - which I never had the time to write and finish). Every single time - the loop fizzled out with ZERO communication - leave alone transparency! The reason though why I *am* working for Microsoft despite 4 parts of a "How I got in here" stories is because of transparency in recruiting with Heather and one her staffing consultants. In other words - being burnt personally on this topic is why I am a huge advocate of transparency in recruiting - lest we miss quality candidates to competitors and maybe their on ingenious entrepreneurial ventures! In other words - do we have stories where we suck at recruiting (Yes - I have personal examples on that), are we trying to learn from all that and changing for the better? (Yes - our JobsBloggers and Heather and her friends are examples of those!).

Now going back to Jenna's post on transparency, she lists out what the candidate has to do to be transparent and in my book all those points towards "Trust the Recruiter and make them trust you" - Transparency occurs immediately - if that relationship clicks. And to the extent that the recruiter holds all the cards - the onus is on the recruiter to make the candidate comfortable enough to trust him/her! So going to the list of issues that Jenna lists for recruiters:

For a recruiter to be transparent, they should provide you:

A history of the position and the team (did people interview before you?, did they not get the job?- why?)
The salary range on the position
Where you performed strong and weak in the interview and feedback/reasons why
The list of interviewers, with an explanation of the process and how long or short the day could go
The level or seniority of the role

From my own experience over 80% of recruiters would be able to offer points 4 and 5. About 50-60% do go to the Point 2 (assuming u go that far in the process) and if asked (which never happens) they give you Point 1 but I would put that at about 70% too. But #3 almost never happens - 10-20% is what I would say in my case - and guess what - that is exactly what is required for the trust relationship.

Truthful Feedback is important and I do give the same to candidates I talk to, students I mentor and alumni I recommend right from the folks who are fit to those who are not. But being upfront about hte decision making criteria, the benchmarks of comparison and THEN the evaluation will let the candidate realise where they stand and how they can be better candidates and better person and therefore have more trust in the recruiter.

In my mind - recruiters are empowered to be career mentors who can choose to be that or jus stay being a recruiter. The ones who transcend that recruiter->mentor shift are absolutely stars who get the star-hires and have hiring managers adoring them.

So yes Jenna - I agree with you - but we need to start practising this and then preaching this and finally instutionalize it :)

Perspectives for Success at Microsoft.

Pradeep U.N. — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 23:06:00 GMT

Yesterday - Glenn Pereira, my boss started our team meeting - with a cliched question - "So why do you come to work everyday..." This brought forth very cliched responses of "challenges" etc etc.... and some funnies like "My car is not yet paid off...." or "To give you a hard time, Glenn..."

But the perspectives slide that Glenn had were very relevant to how work is done in our teams here - and even how I thought I personally live my life - even before Microsoft that I thought I should share it here.

Why I come to work - Glenn said is for only 2 things:

a) Results and Positive Impact - For Company, Customers and WWESS

b) To Learn, Accomplish & Enjoy - Gain skills/perspectives/experiences, Do something different better faster everyday and Make friends while having fun.

In my mind point B is a required pre-requisite to achieve point A. Pretty much how a lot of our teams work here - and why we spend our insane hours - working to have fun!

So ofcourse coming out of that meeting - I immediately took his advice to heart and pulled Sassan for a 15 mins Pingpong shoot out :)

Microsoft MonteCarlo Nite this Monday - for WWESS!

Pradeep U.N. — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 22:42:00 GMT

After a hyper-successful ping pong tournament last month for Halloween - guess what it's in store this monday? Its the MonteCarlo Nite. Oh what fun!

The Initial Idea (No I do not smoke anything) was to have the following: (Yes we do talk in bulletpoints here)

* Hardeep Walia and his Directs' mugshots on fake-money: designed by my graphic-designer roommate

* Hardeep and his Directs to be running the Craps, Roullette and BlackJack tables - with their incentive to get as many ppl to "spend" on their games as possible

* Best-Dressed contest: Have a "Best Montecarlo" (Tuxedo-style) dressed man/woman/couple and a "Best Las Vegas" (Pimped-Up style) dressed man/woman/couple competition where the table-owners can give their table earnings to these "contestants"

* Competition for the Hardeep-Directs: The more money given out by the GM and his directs - the more fun the table - and the more the table gets in terms of "customers"!!

* Build Team: Have the entire team have fun with their bosses taking care of their gambling needs at the gambling tables for the nite

* Poker Tournament: Have a Poker Tournament run by our own Poker-King Scott Armstrong for our competitive folks...

This initial idea has been cut-short to jus the Poker Tournament and the Tables run by the local-professionals (read: vendors) - but it should still be fun.

More reports on that this Monday. If you want to join this team of fun and work.... Mail me ;)