Gretchen

Spivonious - I wouldn't say "wasted."  The format is in plain text in our database - but once you get contacted by a recruiter, you'll want to have a well-formatted Word resume ready.  So submit applications online in plain text (this advice holds true for most any company.)  And submit resumes to real people in Word, PDF, etc. 

Hi Niners - If you don't know already, Zoe and I are back with our own company, JobSyntax.  In fact, it's been around for a while.  But if you still have burning questions about technical recruiting, we're hosting a jobseeker chat on Tuesday, 10/10/06 at 10 am PT.  You can find out more information about the topic and how to sign up here on our blog.

Carry on.

 

If you live in Australia, you have a couple options .... 1) You can apply for jobs in Australia (http://members.microsoft.com/careers/international/default.asp?lang=EN&loc=AUS) and check out their recruiting blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/ausjobblog/) or 2) you can apply for jobs in the US through our international recruiting team (http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/archive/2005/08/26/international.aspx or apply to ausrec@microsoft.com.  In the US, we do not have a rigid onboarding training, but we do train you on-the-job without requiring that you have prior experience.  We hire lots of college students from the US and abroad each year.

Hi Kyle - the best place to plead for a job is at http://www.microsoft.com/careers.

And check out our blog, if you haven't already.

Hi Fabulous - I'm so glad you enjoyed the videos.  It would be great to do a sequel down the road, if Robert invites us back for more questioning.   Everyone got to see Zoe's office, but they didn't get to see mine.

Yes, we definitely consider community participation.  I know a lot of recruiters lurk in newsgroups and public forums, etc, but sometimes that's low on our list since it's really time-intensive.  We don't have a lot of time in the day so we sometimes have to go for the biggest bang for our buck - which is searching our database, networking with people we know, etc. If you run across MS people in the forums, definitely let them know you'd be interested in working at MS.

Since a lot of our searching (of resumes, of course ... but even of blogs, websites, forums, etc) is by technology keywords just make sure you are focused on the same technologies for which we are seeking, even if it's in your spare time.  And by all means, apply at http://www.microsoft.com/careers, if you haven't already. that's the best thing you can do.

As for people outside the US, we definitely consider them.  We want the best person for the job.  That said, the US government hit its visa cap for new applications last year, and we hear it's going to hit extremely quickly this year.  So the barrier of obtaining a visa sometimes makes it hard for us to hire people outside of North America for jobs based in the US.

Thanks for the great questions!

I'm not sure, but I don't believe any that I dealt with directly have been hired.

Ah ... you are the "guy named Paul."  Am I right?  Still no resume, eh?

Zippy - that's a really good question.  You're right ... we do get a lot of people who apply for positions well beyond their experience and that's always amusing.  Things like:  "I believe that my 5 years as Lead Cook at IHOP has prepared me for the opening as the Director of Windows."  And people are serious. 

As for corporate spies ... wow, that's a good one.  Honestly, I've never thought about that. Kinda like "secret shoppers," huh? 

A couple years ago, it was trendy to make one of those human billboards that read "Hire me" or "Will Code for Food" and then stand on the street corner near MS.  For some reason (and I have no idea why), I was the person typically assigned to greeting them and talking to them about Microsoft.  Never a dull moment ...

One follow-up comment in regards to the recommended interview attire:  My fellow recruiting weblogger, Heather Hamilton,has asked me to point out that I was speaking specifically about people interviewing for Development, Test, and Program Management roles.  For that, it's definitely ok to dress "business casual" (slacks, sweater, button-down, etc), but for marketing roles (for which Heather recruits), you should still wear a suit.  When in doubt, ask your recruiter.  He or she will steer you in the right direction.