LisaO

Hi JM,

Fortunately what you heard is not true.  As a recruiter, our job is to find the best candidates to fit a position.  We absolutely look for candidates in our internal database and typically start with the ones that applied directly to the position.  The candidate expressed an interest in not only working for Microsoft but also for that specific role and team.  We also expand that search and look at all candidates within our internal database who might not have applied for our specific role.  I'm happy to say that we have hired many candidates over the last year that came from our internal database.  So definitely keep applying to the roles that interest you because we are absolutely in there everyday. 

Lisa

Good question!  Right now your latest resume is the one that’s considered your “primary” resume in Boolean queries.  But a good piece of advice is that your resumes shouldn’t be very different.  You should start with a general resume and then custom sections, like a summary section or specific accomplishments, to highlight your skills for particular job descriptions – but otherwise, your various resumes should be similar, keyword-wise.   Hope that helps!

I realize the videos 3 years ago were a different format.  Dan and I chose to film it this way since the resume tips were based off of Channel9 and JobsBlog readers submitted questions. 

I would be happy to answer any additonal resume questions through the comments section.

Thanks!
Lisa