The first step to getting a job at Microsoft – or anywhere for that matter – is to figure out where you fit. Start by asking yourself these questions:

Where do I want to work? While we’re headquartered in the Seattle area, Microsoft is a global company, and our career opportunities span the globe. Begin your search by visiting our Careers Site and selecting the region or country where you want to work (not necessarily where you live now). In the US alone, we have offices in almost every major city – with major development and support centers in Seattle, Silicon Valley, Fargo, Boston, Dallas, and Charlotte.

What do I want to do? We’ve got lots of career paths to choose from, and once you’re here, we invite you to explore as many as possible. But the hard part is choosing where you want to start. If you’re currently a software developer, you might be a program manager, developer, tester, or architect here. And that’s just one example! Great places to meet employees and learn about their jobs – especially in technical careers –are Microspotting and View<myWorld> - and, of course, JobsBlog's Job Hunting posts.

What do I want to create? Systems, servers, hardware, home entertainment, online services, business software, developer & designer tools … These are just a few technologies and products we create. Whether you work in development, sales, marketing, or finance, you directly affect our products and customers – and it’s important to have passion around what you create. To get an overview of a few of major business divisions, check out View<myWorld> and find out what the acronyms Corp R&D, E&D, MBD, PSD, and STB mean to us. 

Get started with a few of our favorite posts:

Can I get a job at MS without a degree?

How do I get a recruiter?

Get your name out there

How much does GPA matter?

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.

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What makes a workplace great? What makes a product or service world class and life changing?

The answer: people.

A great workplace provides the opportunity to learn. As much as you will learn here at Microsoft on the technical front, you will also learn from the people you interact with - customers, coworkers, managers, that guy with the Powerset Pigeon t-shirt on. What you learn will help shape the person you are and the product/services you work on – or at least challenge you to think in a way you never thought you would.

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With all of this focus on internet social media – it’s easy to lose sight of those tried and true methods of decades past.  

In recent years, it seems like everywhere you look the term “Social Networking” is staring you right in the face. Stories abound from recruiters and jobseekers alike telling of how their latest social media experience lead to that last “great” hire. But what about back in the day of the dinosaur: before Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn dominated the marketplace? How did people network for jobs before social media? Did people really have to *gasp* meet face-to-face??? It seems like a foreign concept – yet recently, I’ve discovered that face-to-face networking events are making a bit of a comeback. And you know what else? I think they actually work better. 

After a suggestion from one of my out-of-work friends, I decided to try out a networking event known as the Seattle Job Social, which is held monthly at Twist Lounge in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood (if you’re interested in relocating – Belltown has great nightlife, just FYI). While I’d been to my share of job fairs, this was my first social networking event, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

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Over the weekend, Bing partnered with world-renowned public speaker Richard Greene and Avatar director James Cameron to host The Avatar Award Competition in New York City.

Over $12,000 in scholarships were given to the students who delivered the best 2-3 minute speeches on “An Environmental Lesson I Learned from Avatar and How to Apply it in My Community, New York City, America and/or the World”.

In addition to the competition, attendees saw a special screening of some of the highlights of Avatar, heard from James Cameron, learned public speaking secrets from Richard Greene, and learned how Bing can help them become better informed and confident about their ideas.

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This article was originally posted in January 2009 and continues to be one of our most read pieces.

Understanding that every recruiter conducts initial candidate screens differently, I wanted to share some of the themes that come up with candidates I don’t end up moving forward with. JobsBlog has lots of great tips for ways to improve your phone screen, but here are some things to avoid.

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Have you ever searched for information on something that is happening right now, only to find out that there’s nothing matching what you’re looking for? Details on an earthquake that just happened, shocking celebrity news or the announcement of the Kin phone from Microsoft may not show up until hours after the actual event occurred. One of the cool features that we have recently released will give you better relevance with real-time social results from the Twitter community.

Bing now pulls in social content generated on Twitter to surface the most relevant updates within seconds of a breaking news event.

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Our very own Ryan Graves was interviewed on KUOW 94.9 (the National Public Radio affiliate radio station in Seattle and the most listened-to news station in Washington State) last Friday.

Host Ross Reynolds, of the popular program The Conversation, looked to Ryan to provide a recruiter’s perspective on how to find a job in this economy.

Reynolds previewed the show as, "In this tight job market, people are competing with many well qualified applicants for every job. How can you make your resume standout? If you get the job interview, what can you do to make a positive impression? Microsoft staffing consultant Ryan Graves joins us to offer advice. Have you ever totally blown an interview, or been appalled at an interviewee? Tell us about it."

Ryan - as always - had a ton of insight and great ideas. Check out the interview here. You might just learn something.

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'Softie in Question: Jeremy Tillman

Job title: SDE, Home & Small Business Server

How did you come to arrive at Microsoft?
I was born and raised in Gary, Indiana. Back in ‘99, when I was in about 8th grade, my brother brought home a Gateway computer in that black & white “cow box.” It had a whole 7 gigs of storage and that nice little AOL Internet package. I was the first person on my street with a personal computer.

Everybody on the block started coming to me for computer advice. If you needed t-shirts made, business cards, tickets – I did it all. When Yahoo! Chat was hot, everybody used to come to the house and try to play around on it.

My sister worked at a medical office and soon I was helping to set up their network. After high school graduation, I worked for the school board and created a database to organize all of their building blue prints.

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This is a cross-post from Bing Search Blog.

Starting today, Bing will be participating in full force at what’s shaping up to be another stellar SMX West (March 2-4, Santa Clara CA). Every SMX show is a special one for Bing. But this one is super special for one reason – we’re bringing Steve Ballmer! 

This is Steve’s first ever conversation with the search community at an industry event. Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land and co-chair of SMX, sits down with Steve to discuss Microsoft’s commitment to search and how Bing is working to evolve the search experience. 

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About to graduate or just out of school? Poor job prospects and national economic woes got you down?

Never fear... help is on the way. Call it a bailout for recent college grads.

Today, Microsoft joined 15 other companies in the Invest In America Alliance, a national commitment to increase recent college grad hires. This shot in the arm for recent grad employment levels will result in 10,000 new college grad hires among the 15 participating companies and aims to push grad employment back over 2009 levels.

Have we piqued your interest?

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It’s no secret that there are a lot of people out of work these days. What you may not have known is that the national unemployment rate has a direct effect on everyone looking for a job.

Companies are inundated with resumes, many from people who aren’t necessarily qualified for—or even interested in—the position for which they’re applying. This has been not only my personal experience, but I’ve also heard similar reports from many of my peers regarding the sheer volume of resumes landing in our inboxes.

So how do you highlight the right skills on your resume to stand out, especially given the current quantity of resumes recruiters are sifting through? 

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This post is courtesy of Bing Jobs Blog:

I’m a big Top Chef fan and I love to cook, but I don’t really consider myself a “Foodie.” There are too many concepts I'm totally ignorant of that are old news to most Foodies. For instance, the whole concept of deconstructed cooking was foreign to me until started watching the show.

Given the large number of ingredients Microsoft uses to create our online services, I thought it would be fun to look at some of the main groups that combine to deliver Bing, courtesy of our OSD Career Site:

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Dear JobsBlog: I have a computer engineering degree and several awards, distinctions, and honors. However, I did not attend a bigger college on the east/west coast. How do I get a Microsoft recruiter to look at my resume?

-Under the Radar

I’ve asked Alicia, a fellow recruiter from our U.S. University Team, to help answer your question.
-Janelle

Dear Under the Radar: Microsoft has always made it their business to hire the best and brightest students, regardless of what university they attended. We know that students choose universities based on many factors like location, cost, size, urbanization, program standings and, of course, reputation. That means that incredibly smart people are everywhere, not just at the Ivies.

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Hi everyone - It's been a while since I've given you an update about our international recruiting efforts so I wanted to let you know the latest.

For candidates interested in positions outside of the US, we have offices, development centers, product groups, and innovation centers around the world working on exciting projects. This includes internships for university students and entry level sales, marketing, and development roles for recent graduates, all the way up to senior level opportunities in many different roles. 

Right now, I’m recruiting for or will be recruiting very soon for Development Managers, Test Managers, Developers, Developers in Test, and Program Manager positions across Europe in locations such as Copenhagen, London, Oslo, Dublin, and Paris.  My counterparts on the International Recruiting team are also looking for top talent from around the world.

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We have a new JobsBlogger! Alison is the morning concierge in our “Experience Microsoft” candidate lobby at our headquarters in Redmond, WA, greeting candidates before their interviews and helping them plan their local itineraries while visiting the area.  She also manages several communications, including JobsBlog, the monthly U.S. Careers newsletter, and the weekly intern and new hire newsletter. Alison plans to use her on-the-job experiences to share information on JobsBlog ... like info about Seattle, the Microsoft campus and interesting interviewee questions.

And now, in her own words:

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Today's guest post is from Microsoft's Student Audience Marketing digital team, a group who reaches out to all students who use and are interested in Microsoft products and technologies - not just those who want to work here. The team manages our student digital outreach efforts such as the Microsoft Student Experience site,  Microsoft Student Lounge site, Microsoft Student Facebook and Twitter sites, and Mobile Student Experience site. They engage students through social causes, videos, and content that spans from career to learning to fun stuff to software and technology.

Hi all,
I’m Amy – I've been with Microsoft over 10 years but have a unique work history here.  About 4 years ago, I left to be a “bigger fish in a smaller pond” (so to speak) but realized that my heart and passion is with Microsoft.  So, after 6 months of being away, I interviewed with Microsoft and was re-hired.  

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You may have heard about our plans to open Microsoft retail stores in cities around the world. Well, I know a lot of you have heard because the JobsBloggers have been getting peppered with questions. :)

We’ve recently announced our first two stores in Scottsdale, AZ and Mission Viejo, CA. And we’re now hiring!

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You may be wondering where Gretchen, Angela and I have been the last few months. We know it's been awfully quiet around here.

Well, we’ve been immersed with a few large recruiting projects that we can proudly say have successfully shipped!  One of the projects is Microsoft’s new global careers site.

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In a phone interview during my last job hunt, an interviewer (not at Microsoft) asked me if I had a Facebook account. Since we weren’t meeting in person, he wanted to put a face with the name.

It made sense that he would want a visual, but my heart sunk when I thought about what he might see: “Am I holding a martini glass in my profile picture? Did I set my birthday party photos to private? Will he be able to access the outlandish comments friends post on my wall?”

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As most of you know by now, there are thousands of job postings on the Microsoft Careers site. It can be more than overwhelming to look through all of them and find just the right one.

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