As a Staffing Manager in the Windows/Windows Live Division, I have the opportunity to see broadly across what’s going on with the Windows Division. Additionally, I sometimes get a glimpse into how our efforts connect to other Microsoft business units around the world, which is great, especially if you’re the kind of person who took apart a Rubic’s Cube just to see how it works. So, I jump at any chance to get an even bigger or different perspective of Microsoft as a whole.

Yesterday, I walked over to the 2010 Microsoft Product Fair which was held at the Soccer Field on the Redmond Campus. Yep, there’s a soccer field right in the middle of campus. The Seattle Sounders have come out a few times and practiced here; last year Nate Jaqua signed a poster for my son and mentioned that he really liked the field – I guess That’ll Do. Anyway, back to the Fair:

It’s a bunch of tents, big tents, with folks from different businesses and teams showing off the newest developments in their products or services, many I recognized and a few that I only knew on a superficial level.

I can’t comment on a lot of the things I saw, mostly because I’m not allowed to, but partly because after the person spent two or three minutes explaining their technology or feature, I realized I’d need I.Q. Steroids and a Comp-Sci degree to really get it. On an entirely related note, there’s just something very cool about talking with someone who truly is “top of the list” when it comes to talent in their field – even if I don’t fully understand it. Perhaps, because I don’t fully understand it.  

I also participated in an Office 2010 contest where I raced a clock to complete different scenarios in an Office 2010 product, in my case, Excel. The scoring thing wasn’t able to get me a final score – I’m consoling myself that I over “Excel-ed” it.

Overall, I was able to see a lot of great stuff there, some headed to production, some in R&D that may never become a “product” but rather a feature of an existing or upcoming product, and some like new Xbox features or accessories. 

The highlight of the day for me = Kinect. 

Fellow JobsBlogger/colleague Kenji and I played a couple games of “Kinect Adventures,” which quickly highlighted how out of shape I’ve become, and that I should never consider starting a River Rafting company – it’s already clear that my 11 year-old will own me.

By the way, did you know that in Office 2010 Excel - when you press <Ctrl> and click “Total” – a picture of Chuck Norris pops up?

- Chris

Check out this footage from Microsoft Product Fair 2010: employees learn to make music using Windows 7 (64-bit) with DJ Darek Mazzone. Afterwards, they take home their new music on a jump drive.

Darek discusses how Windows 7 "is a revolutionary operating system in the creative space." This was one of dozens of amazing products that employees were able to sample at the Product Fair this week.

Resume review & advice. Part II of II. (read Part I)

Resume review actually consists of several different “layers” of consideration.

There are multiple factors that I consider simultaneously and all need to be accounted for before I make the decision to contact a candidate for a phone interview. What I’m looking for is a resume that “pops out" at me on multiple layers. 

The first thing that I look for when reviewing a resume, are the basics: does this candidate meet the minimum requirements for the position? Keep in mind, for many positions there are two sets of requirements – the bare minimum required – and the bonus qualifications that I’m ideally hoping to find. In this layer, I’m only looking for the former – but I’m militant in my resolve. If I need a year of experience, and you have six months – sorry, I just clicked “NEXT”.

The next thing I look for is relevance. This is where some of the bonus qualifications start to come into play. Again - I’m not looking for everything here – but I’m looking for a combination of factors that will make this resume look better than the last one I just read. As such, resumes which fail this step don’t get completely ignored. They just go into my “secondary” list of people to look at when I’m done reviewing the rest of the stack.

Relevance further revolves around job-specific behavior. Beyond technology match, did this person work in a similar product space?

Do they seem to have similar passions & interests?

Have they shown growth over the course of their career?

Do they show job stability (which implies domain expertise)?

Do they appear to be a driver for the project or someone who takes tasks and implements them?  

These are all issues with a huge degree of subjectivity and gray area. It’s impossible for me to know with 100% certainty how many of these are true just from a resume – so I try to look for as many indicators as possible and then flag those resumes for follow up.   

The last layer of consideration is completely comparative in nature – and dependent on how many resumes made it past the other layers of review. If I have 20 resumes that made it this far, I might only have time to contact 10 or 15. If that’s the case, I need to stack rank the resumes and will call only those candidates I can fit in my schedule. Fortunately, if I end up with extra time, have co-workers with similar positions, or the original candidates I call don’t make the cut – this is the first group that I revisit and try to find placement.

Obviously, this isn’t a perfect science, and the most difficult part is the lack of transparency and knowing where your resume might sit in this process. To me this is an obvious area of improvement on which many companies need to continue to focus. I can’t make any promises – but will do what I can to make this better in the future.

Keep an eye out for my next post where I’ll go a little more in depth into things I look for in a resume and provide some more specific feedback on how to improve and “Stand Out” from the crowd.

-Kenji

Resume review & advice. Part I of II. (Read Part II)

I’ve considered writing about resume advice since I started contributing to JobsBlog. However, I’ve put it off and even considered not writing about it at all because the subject matter can be VERY controversial.

I’m not going to make you the empty promise that following my advice will *really* help you land that next job or get your resume noticed in the sea of resumes. Resume writing is more art than science and any advice charading as the singular truth can lead you down the wrong path.

What I will share with you is, for better or worse, the process I use when reviewing resumes – and I’m going to give you the honest not-so-sugar-coated-truth about what goes through my mind when I click “NEXT.
This is an unvarnished account. Reader beware:

Resumes, Resumes, Resumes
First off, I expect excellent resumes. However, I don’t expect applicants to be expert resume writers. I expect them to be expert engineers.

Unfortunately, I’m going to confirm your biggest fear: when I sit down to read resumes, I’m literally sifting through hundreds (if not thousands) of resumes looking for that perfect fit. I also don’t have the benefit of the time to genuinely sift through them all.

What does this mean for you? Well, just like any project, I’m constrained by time and resources. This, combined with the sheer volume of applicants, means that I need to make every effort to efficiently narrow the stack by artificial means, before my human eyes even see the resumes. It also means that the amount of time I have to dedicate to visually review each resume is short. Net: I’m going to have to make some quick decisions.

Artificially reducing the stack
What I mean by this, really, is just using some simple Boolean logic (which is based off of the job description) to pare down the list of resumes to a more acceptable number. If I’m looking at applicants for a position, I generally try to keep this pretty basic, using keywords like C++, C#, asp.net, web services, SQL, win32, etc.

If I am out looking for resumes on a job board, I’ll typically be more enterprising and also include action words like “lead,” or “drove,” or “designed.” Depending on specific job descriptions, I might also include terms like “Machine Learning,” or “Image Processing,” or “Distributed systems.”  These are all just various examples from multiple positions I’ve sourced on in the past.

Human eyes
Once my Boolean logic has reduced the stack to a reasonable number (hopefully 40-50 for applicants, or 4-500 for job boards), I’ll then begin the process of reviewing resumes. For applicants, I do actually read EVERY resume that makes it past the Boolean search. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time or resources to respond to every applicant to let them know I’m not going to move forward, and our system is not automated in a fashion to make this simple for me. In my opinion, this is a bug that needs to be fixed.
Now I’m down to a reasonably sized stack of resumes. What do I look for and how do I actually consider the different elements of a resume?

You’ll have to check back to JobsBlog for Part II:  How I evaluate resumes. 

-Kenji

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- Matt

The JobsBlog Rewind post was originally published in 2008.

I am not a proponent of fads. I do not believe you do something because everyone's doing it. That said, sometimes we must join in a trend—particularly if you are looking for a job. Sometimes just because "everyone's doing it," it can be a perfect job search strategy.

In a previous post, I suggested that because Microsoft is one of the most social companies, integrating a social medial strategy into your job search would make sense. To further emphasize this point; please notice below the Percentage of Recruiters Using Specific Social Networking Sites for Recruiting. Clearly, every recruiter is using LinkedIn; nearly every recruiter has a Facebook account; and the majority of recruiters are on Twitter.  While The Web 2.0 Recruiting Trends Report covered a broader audience, I suspect the findings would be similar at Microsoft.

Percentage of Recruiters Using Specific Social Networking Sites for Recruiting 
2009 Versus 2010

- The Corporate Executive Board Company, CLC RECRUITING™ 
Web 2.0 Recruiting Trends Report April 2010

Note: The height of the bars in the chart indicate the percentage of recruiters that use the tool for either sourcing, branding, or conversion activities.

Also, Twitter was not rated in 2009.

So, if everyone is doing it, how does that help your job search?  Specifically, how does having LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts assist in finding your next job? 

Before we dive into the strategy of “social job hunting,” let’s make certain that you are ready to participate. Between now and next time, take a few minutes and make certain your LinkedIn profile is up to date (While on LinkedIn, please join our corporate group). Logon to your Facebook account and make certain your friend list is complete.  (While you are there, Facebook, we invite you to join Microsoft Careers on Facebook). If you already have your Twitter account set, check your bio and make certain it describes your talents. You might event want to mention you are mention “#looking for work.”  (While you are on your Twitter site, we invite you to follow Jobsblog).

Next time, we will continue our social job hunting discussion by leveraging LinkedIn, the social networking site that everyone uses.

Happy Hunting,

Marvin

‘Softie in Question: Connor Lanman

Job title: Intern – Viral Video Ninja – Sophomore-to-be at Stanford University

Tell me about your internship at Microsoft.  Is it pegged to a specific technology?
I am here as an “Associate Product Manager” Intern. That means I’m just a non-technical intern. But, my internship is a bit out of the ordinary, because it is based on my experience in viral video marketing. 

I work for the Windows Live Division – specifically Windows Live Essentials. My job is to engage photo and video enthusiasts, say people who use iMovie, and help to familiarize them with our Windows Live products through a viral marketing strategy and to create a viral strategy for the future.

Tell me about your earlier experience with viral marketing.
I went to a special art high school in Los Altos, CA, and had to do a 10-minute short documentary film and a photo book as special projects.

I chose to study colony collapse disorder, which is devastating honey bee populations. I‘m interested in honey bees because I’ve been beekeeping with my godfather since I was five. When I made my doc film, I posted it to YouTube and Häagen-Dazs contacted me about it. They have a “Help the Honeybees” campaign because they need bees to pollinate crops that are necessary to make their ice cream. 

I went and met with them up in Oakland. I combined my research and photo book into a longer book called “The Plight of the Bee.” Häagen-Dazs was pretty excited about the 16-year-old kid who was into saving the bees, so they put stories about me and my project up on their website

How’d you end up making your video “Do the Honey Bee!”?
Some months later, Häagen-Dazs got in touch and asked if I would make a two-minute video for them to submit for National Honeybee Awareness Day. They were thinking about a basic video. But they didn’t know that I had studied film in school. And one of my four brothers, Max, just majored in film at Yale. And my other brother, James, is a musician who has a band here in Seattle. 

So, I got my brothers together and we started thinking about how we could make a video that would go viral. We decided that hip-hop videos where they teach you a dance – like Soulja Boy’s “Crank That “were the way to go

We made up our own dance: Do The Honeybee. We came up with all of the lyrics, beats and made the music. Häagen-Dazs gave us a little budget and we bought bee costumes, rounded up 30 of our friends through Facebook, went to our family friends’ garden and shot it in a single day. 

We sent it to all of our friends on Facebook and it just took off from there. We got 20K views in the first week. I like to call it informative entertainment. You are sort of advertising at the same time, but it’s entertaining enough that people don’t stop watching.

And are you applying these same skills in your internship at Microsoft?
I want to figure how I can use my art and creative skills to help a business. I’d like to make a difference in what consumers do. The reason that I did this whole thing is to try to inform people through social media – which to me is the best way to educate. It is a great way to get people to pay attention and participate. I think that it has a ton of potential for businesses.

Microsoft hasn’t given me any traditional “intern” work. They threw me right into the deep end.  I’m creating a plan of engagement, sourcing info from other employees, hammering out a viral marketing strategy and more. It’s really cool. Soon I’ll start making viral videos for Microsoft too. It’s all really intense, but really exciting.

Coming off the heels of the launch of the new Bing Entertainment feature, we're excited to kick off a music-themed summer with an East and West coast concert series, chances to win tickets to private shows and a Lady Gaga fan search contest.

First let's talk Gaga. In honor of the 40th Anniversary of  America's Top 40, we're teaming up with Stubhub and Ryan Seacrest to launch the Lady Gaga Superfan Search. To enter, upload your best Lady Gaga Superfan photo showing your most fierce Lady Gaga fashion.  The winner will receive the ultimate Lady Gaga prize package – round-trip travel and tickets to one of her shows either in Miami, New York, Las Vegas, or Lollapallooza in Chicago. Go to Bing.com/gaga to learn more details and get inspiration from Bing Visual Search and Bing Video; sample Lady Gaga music; read the latest news on Bing Music; and check out what the social sphere is saying about Lady Gaga.

The lucky Lady Gaga Superfan will be chosen on July 23, 2010, so make sure to enter soon.  We will also be building a Bing Visual Search gallery of the entrants, so even if you don’t win the grand prize, you’ll still have the chance to show off your Lady Gaga finery online.

And that's not all... last week we kicked off a summer concert series taking place along L.A.’s famous Sunset Strip with Jane’s Addiction and in the lovely resort town of Montauk, NY, with Pete Yorn.  We'll be uploading videos from the private show to Bing Videos so check back soon for behind the scenes footage of the concert. The concert series will continue through the summer with acts like the Pussycat Dolls and RATT. So how can you get in on the action? There will be chances to win tickets on the Bing Facebook page so stay tuned for those details and if you're not a lucky winner, we've got you covered with continuous coverage on Bing video.

Summer is always a great time to catch a music concert! Be sure to check Bing Music for all your music needs.

Kristin Meldahl – Bing

JobsBlog would like to wish everyone a happy Fourth of July weekend.

Let's take a moment to recognize that, for veterans of the US Armed Forces, the transition from military to civilian careers can be daunting.

Microsoft's We Still Serve community supports US Military Veterans and those still active in the National Guard and Reserve, in preparing for transition, or looking for their next corporate opportunities. Check out the recently relaunched site at westillserve.com

We have a group of volunteers that have a shared military experience who will be available to discuss what it’s like to work at Microsoft and to help veterans think through next steps toward applying for a job with us.

Join the We Still Serve Community today.

Hi, I'm Marie Watkins, a new JobsBlogger, and I'm so excited to be part of this! 

Ever heard of DigiGirlz?

DigiGirlz offers technology programs to get high school girls hands-on with technology, to connect them with Microsoft employees and to help dispel stereotypes about working in the high-tech industry. I recently worked with the DigiGirlz team in Southern California when they held events in San Diego and in Orange County.   

At DigiGirlz, I had the opportunity to talk 1-on-1 with many of the teens and I found that there was a common tension permeating the conversations. One girl expressed this eloquently when she told me about the balance she is trying to find between her mom (the artist) and her dad (the computer scientist). Both parents are trying to get her to go into their disciplines. The teen is artsy, but loves technology, and is trying to live up to both of her parents' expectations. She also called it an "anxiety" and, after hearing from her and the others I spoke with, it seemed like many of the girls were struggling with the same art vs. science conflict when considering what they want to do for a career. Their anxiety was rooted in the fear they wouldn't have a "good job" (high pay, high prestige) if they follow their passion.

The girls all thought Microsoft has really cool products and all like using our technology, but none saw themselves working as programmers.Therefore, none of them could visualize themselves working at Microsoft. The main reason why they didn't see themselves working for us is because they were artsy/creative/humanities-focused and our jobs are perceived to be hardcore science and technology. 

As I work in staffing, I went into "objection handling" mode. I talked to them about the non-technical jobs we have. I shared my own story about how I found myself in technology despite having a non-technical degree.  We discussed how being successful at Microsoft requires strong creative and lateral thinking skills despite the fact that we're a technology company. But, most importantly, we talked about the relationship between having passion for something and being able to turn that into a career. 

As a continuation of my conversations with the DigiGirlz, I'm going to keep blogging about these topics.  I will be profiling people at Microsoft who have unexpected backgrounds for the jobs they are doing. I'm going to take a look at all the non-technical career paths that we offer (and I know a few of them will surprise you!).  I'm going to keep spreading the message that if you do what you love, there will be a career available to you. But, most importantly, I am going to show that if you have passion for what you do – no matter what that passion is – you have the potential for a career in technology.