Leading Trump - Pradeep U.N. & his Blog about Nothing. : Networking, Recruiting and Careers

Seattle Business School Alliance - Sunset cruise 2006 was a success.

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 03:21:00 GMT

Last Friday the Annual Sunset cruise in Seattle had its 2006 version kick off at Pier 55 even grander than last yr! The Seattle Business School Alliance which organizes this every year gets about 320+ MBAs from the region to congregate on a cruise for about 2 hrs with 4 rounds worth of Wine and beer on tap. Ofcourse we had more sponsors than last yr and recruiters in the area are beginning to notice the value such a niche networking event as this can bring!

What was especially a number that I am particularly proud of was that this year Tepper featured #2 on the list with about 21 ppl attending (guests being excluded) second only to Michigan which had a outnumbering 34 on its roster, Harvard came in #3. It was a great evening, meeting old friends and making new connections.

All in all some excellent work done by the organizers to put this up and ofcourse it was always great to get away from the heatwave on a mini cruise.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:
Peter Johnson (Microsoft), Mudit Garg (Amazon), David Bolotin (Weyerhaeuser), Yue Jing Lee (Premera Blue Cross), Robert Sappington (Weyerhaeuser), Sade Fashokun (Microsoft), Monica Robinson, Pradeep U.N. (Microsoft), John Robinson (Vulcan), William Grdanski (Weyerhaeuser), Matt Hill (Boeing), Lisa Hill, Ozgur Dogan, Michael Kuentz (Microsoft), Jim Tarr (Microsoft), Yuhang An (Expedia), Abhishek Jain (Amazon.com), Raju Gupta (Amazon.com)

Meetings with Microsoft Recruiters and Bloggers!!

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 02:07:00 GMT

Less than a month ago I had the opportunity to catch up with Jenna Adorno and she blogged about it too at Jobsblog which really was more a lunch to get to know the new face behind the Jobsblog than anything. Jenna shared her true passion for recruiting and her opinions about where she would like to take it towards and ofcourse various other odds and ends. I had previously had lunch with Gretchen when she was still with MS. What I have noticed in these meetings is that its always fun to know the evangelists of Microsoft. As a common trait they are smart, outspoken, go-getters and extremely fun :)

A week after that I got to meet Maria Curry who is a recruiter working for Heather Hamilton who was more excited about my involvement with The Seattle Business School Alliance and how it could be leveraged some quality talent. What a great idea. Infact we even discussed on how we could leverage the SBSA to get the Seattle chapter leaders of the various bschools to have their alums touchbase with Microsoft recruiters. In fact for the recent Career networking event at Redmond we tried to leverage the Tepper alumni as a testing bed to see if this idea works and maybe try it with other alumni networks with other bschools soon.

H1B Visas and Microsoft Recruiting.

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 02:44:00 GMT

"So Does Microsoft sponsor H1B visas!?" Aaah - how many times have I heard that question asked of me.

Jenna Adorno (the JobsBlog headhoncho) now that Gretchen is out doing her thang at JobSyntax has a small little write up on this issue .. and for everything else there is mastercard she implies.

Being an immigrant myself let me share some of the information I have so far, given that I have been through this process in once before in a different country and started this with another company in the US.

Assertion: If I had to bet my immigration status and therefore my career on any company, I would pick Microsoft hands down. Why? Following are my five reasons

a) The Immigration status and deadlines that are current now are being lobbyed strong at DC by most companies who are worth their salt (the ones that know that great talent is not ethnicity or nationality bound).

b) Microsoft is defnitely on the top of the list of the loudest voices in that lobbying fact.

c) SteveB and BillG included have been said to have made trips to DC to lobby for this - so there is strong support from the very-top for our employees who need visas and green cards. As an immigrant I get a sounder sleep every night knowing this.

d) The lawyers here are awesome. This is NOT lipservice, but they actually know of yahoogroups and msn groups of "informal societies" that share information that is worthy of knowing. They can actually talk about issues that in other firms I have seen the immigrants know but the lawyers have no clue about. And yes - they do have time for you and dont charge you by the hr - the company takes care of that for you.

e) Microsoft has its offices all over the world. So in other words if you are really good and worth your mettle - there are workarounds to get you working for MS. Maybe working at Redmond might take a while, but hey field-experience is valuable before you move to redmond. Brightside to everything :). So if you have a family and are planning on a move there are always great negotiation levers, the more talented/important you are, the better the leverage (no Duh!)

All this positive stories aside - have I heard of any failed stories so far? Ofcourse, here is one.

My friend from Philly He is Ukranian and I know is a super-well qualified MS FTE waiting to happen. He did get a Hire at Microsoft at Redmond but we couldnt proceed with his employment because of visa complications. The lawyers did realize this before he was asked to move and couldnt proceed with his offer. The truth is if we couldnt straighten his visa issues for him, it would take a super-human effort to do that by any other firms. And usually when you do get an offer - the lawyers do evaluate your chances of getting your visa and residenship.

And usually they are on the mark with their evaluation. So as much as I cringe in saying this its true for our MS folks - "Trust the lawyers" :)

One Mail lost during My MIgration weekend.

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 02:12:00 GMT

Apart from the downtime and long hrs at work spent at work migrating across to Vista and back from XP there was one casualty this weekend. I lost one email during all the "pst chunking"

A West Coast blog reader of mine (actually she was Heather's but came to my site from hers) who had a similar experience to mine in terms of interviewing with Microsoft (Yes *that* horror story).

It was a long 4 page email which did warrant a response - but my bad - I lost it in my migration. Now if the person (She wanted to be anonymous, I remember) would come up and try resending the email (allow me to introduce the sent-folder feature from Outlook :) ). then i promise a prompt and very direct reply :)

It was bad enough to lose an email, I just didnt want to compound that error by not admitting to it and giving the chance for the person to touchbase back.

Get a XBox360 while U apply for a job with Office Server Group!

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 23:11:00 GMT

Talk about real-time info....

Office Server Recruiting Reception

Wednesday, June 14, 2006, Building 31 Cafeteria 5-7PM

This event is for external candidates and Microsofties.....bring your friends (or their resumes)!

Please attend our Recruiting Reception and hear Kurt DelBene, Corp. VP of the Office Server Group, introduce Microsoft Office SharePoint Server -- including Search, Content Management Server, Project, and SharePoint Designer -- and hear how SharePoint makes our great Office products even better.

See trade-show style demos of all the SharePoint Server products and network with hiring managers for the openings we have in dev, test and PM.

External candidates welcome.

Food and drinks will be provided. Every resume submitted is entered into a raffle for some cool prizes, including XBOX/360s

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.

First Ever! Carnegie Mellon Tepper MBA Students @ Microsoft Day in 2nd wk of March.

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 03:38:00 GMT

On March 15^th (Wednesday) about 10~12 MBA students from Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon are coming down to Microsoft for a networking session. To my knowledge, we dont do this normally at Microsoft - neither did as a Tepper Student ever have a whole day from CMU at a firm (unless it was for gruelling interviews). But both the parties involved seemed super-excited about the idea - and so this came about.

The objective of the day is to make the students have a feel about the opportunities, excitement and people here at MS!!

0830 - 0900 AM		Breakfast with CMU Alumni
0900 - 1000 AM		Talk with Recruiting Folks from around Campus
1015 - 1115 AM		Talk with Hiring Managers from around Campus
1115 - 1215 PM		Lunch & Network with CMU Alumni

0100 - 0400 PM		Shadow some Tepper Alums around Microsoft
0400 - 0500 PM		Tepper Alumni Panel for Final Qns

Details on this after the event...

Want to join Microsoft BMO? Meet us in Silicon Valley in Feb!!

Pradeep U.N. — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 01:20:00 GMT

Remember my old story of how I started my Microsoft career with the whole networking session in Feb 2005???

Well that event is BACK! Microsoft's Server Marketing BMO Group is having their Silicon Valley Networking Event at our MountainView, CA office.

Positions they are looking for are:

Marketing Manager

Group Marketing Manager

Server Platform Business Manager

Product Manager

Security Product Manager

Segment Business Performance Manager

Technical Sales Engagement Manager

From experience I know the Wine is not too bad, the food is okie, the company is awesome, and chance to meet the hiring managers to give them opportunity to hire you PRICELESS!! Decisions are done quick and You will have an all day interview the next day if you are a fit. Happened with me!!

Heather has more info on this here

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 :)

"Get a job with Microsoft" Recruiting Tip of the month :)

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 19:57:00 GMT

"Write your resume in the holidays (NOW) And post them on the week of Superbowl" - wise words those -( and therefore not from me :) ) Heather Hamilton, our inhouse recruiting rockstar who went on a posting rampage yesterday - said that a year ago - and reiterated it while she made her gazillion posts yesterday (she probably had the new RockStar drink that has been demoed arnd campus in the last month or so to get through that blogging flurry).

No seriously - that is some great advise and it worked for me - see the 1st dedicated post I had on her blog!

I would go to the details on the WHYs - but Heather has covered it all....

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.