I was just thinking about the first topic that I want to blog about. Thanks to Heather's recent post about contracting position at Microsoft, I thought this will be a good topic to start with! I was working in Microsoft Business Solutions group as an a- (pronounced as “ay-dash”, Heather's blog explains about this) until three weeks back and joined Office - Live Communications Server group in a full-time position recently. From my personal experience, I can completely agree with whatever Heather has written!
If you strongly believe that Microsoft is the place you want to be then you can definitely be here in one way or the other (full-time, a- or v-). I know so many smart people out there who deserves to be here, but didnt or couldnt get an opportunity for screening/interviewing here in Redmond. Also, there might be few candidates who slip through the crack or just unfortunate (for whatever reasons that important interview day wasnt your day and didnt do your best to demonstrate your abilities to work here). For all such candidates and other candidates who have the passion and potential (sounds like the Microsoft slogan?!, trust me, IMHO, it matters a lot here), these contracting positions give a great hope! Beware, getting a contract position doesnt automatically guarantee a full-time position in Microsoft, there is no such thing as contract-to-hire, in the best of my knowledge. You will have another day long (at least, in some cases more than a day :) interviews and even before the interview what and how you have contributed so far as a contractor to the group you are working for. There are so many agency temps(a- roles) and vendors (v- roles) that Microsoft works with and as Heather mentioned if you network with the right people and find the right recruiters, you will be here pretty soon than you think....
I plan to write more blogs about Microsoft Recruiting soon.
