My iPod was stolen a couple of weeks ago. Okay, actually all three of my iPods were stolen. Yes, that is right: three. And as I was rushing out to buy a new one, my boss surprised me with a gift of a new Zune. I never would have bought the Zune on my own. I’m a bit prejudiced against the Zune. I believe the iPod is cooler and I’m married to iTunes, so the Zune never really crossed my mind.

Long time readers know I have written about the Zune vs. Pod a few times and have never been shy about my love of Apple. But today I must say, the new Zune is a pretty slick product. The playlist and sharing feature rival any iPod, the radio feature lets me tune into the TV at the gym, and finally I can download audio books for free through the Seattle public library. The wireless synch feature and email aren’t too bad either.

But for a girl like me, the most important thing is the look and "cool factor." And while I will still give Apple props for being the "coolest," the slimmer model and matte black finish of the Zune has enough aesthetic appeal to keep me hooked. But probably the most "uncool" thing of all is that I am hanging out in the new Zune social space, and I have yet to link to any "friends" so to all of you readers, if you have a Zune like me, come join me at my new profile here.

-Jenna

JobsBlog readers have lots of questions. You ask questions in the comments; you email them to us; sometimes we even think you send them telepathically.  It’s really hard for us to get to all the questions (and the majority of the questions are very similar) – so to make sure cover what you’re wondering most, we’ll answer your questions more often as blog posts.  To start it off, I wanted to answer a question we received last week over email:

Question:
Hi JobsBloggers!
 
I've been reading the JobsBlog for a while, and I was wondering if you would be willing to address a question of mine.  I was recently contacted by someone who signed his email "Search Wizards at Microsoft Corporation".  It's pretty clear that this guy is legit (he has a Microsoft email address and inquired about a position for which I had specifically applied), but I haven't seen much about them. Also, the recruiter called me from a Georgia phone number.

So my questions are: Who are they?  What role do they play in the recruiting process?  Should a candidate expect the hiring process to be any different if they were contacted by one of them rather than if they were originally contacted by a member of an internal Microsoft team?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Answer:
Yes, you were contacted by a vendor for Microsoft and should expect no difference in the recruiting process. Microsoft Recruiting often works with vendors and agency temporaries, especially when there are big hiring influxes and we try to flex the business up and down.  Besides Search Wizards, some other companies you might currently encounter working with us include Corestaff and Kelly Services.  Also, this particular recruiter likely works out of a remote office, which is not a problem either.
 
So, go for it!  There should be no difference for you …. He will guide you through the same process with the same information and should not give you any different of an experience than a full time Microsoft recruiter.
 
Best—Jenna
 
(who started at Microsoft as a contract recruiter too)

I gotta tell you …  the internet is so weird.  After my last blog post where I stated that Vancouver had “worn me out,” news articles began popping up with my quote.  And the flood of emails followed with more questions around Vancouver and even more comments on my quote.  I never realized that saying your job was tough was newsworthy - but I guess it is.

For most of you who have written to me over the past few weeks wanting a job in Vancouver, I realize I have not replied.  Why?  Because we are not really hiring there yet.  So your emails are currently going in a folder on my computer, where I plan to review them when our Vancouver roles open.

Why the wait?  Well, what I stated before is still true:  We are all busy on-boarding and hiring the people who already committed to Microsoft.  You may not realize that we have people who accepted offers from us in 2006 and are still waiting for a visa.  So Vancouver is a welcome relief, and we are prioritizing finding positions for these people.  After that is complete, we will see some new jobs open.  And when we do, I will post the news here (and open that folder with all the emails!).

But until then, we continue to work away with those people who were already in our process.

So let me give all those reporters a little more to talk about:  it is still tough. Tougher than ever.  And while you are quoting me you can say I love it, too.  I am tired but loving it.

-Jenna

During an afternoon meeting last week, my cell phone rang with a call from my son’s camp counselor, telling me that my little boy had cut open the back of his head on the playground slide.  Keep in mind I am the mom to a busy 6 year old, so this is the second afternoon accident in 6 months that has required me to take a trip to the emergency room during work hours. So I picked him up and readied myself for another evening in the emergency room. 

But then I remembered a Microsoft benefit that I had not yet used called “mobil medicine”.  The benefit allows you to call a doctor 24 hours a day for medical advice and care.  So I dialed.  And there was no message machine, no waiting, but a real doctor talking to me, and then moments later driving to my house to care for my son in the comfort of our home.  And as we watched movies and lounged on the sofa, the doctor turned my living room into a mini-medial station and stitched the back of my son’s head. For free. Covered 100% by my Microsoft medical plan. (Mobil Medicine was also highlighted in a recent Business Week story:  How to Make a Microserf Smile.)

Did you also know that on the Microsoft benefits plan, you can get everything from blood-pressure checks to mammograms right here on campus? As well as free workout, weight-loss, quit-smoking and ergonomic consultations. My family has fully utilized the benefits; from a year of cancer treatment for my spouse to the at-home stitches for my son’s accident-prone playground antics, I have never paid a dime.  While I don’t often gush about this company, after being saved from the chaos of the ER last week, I am hoping you will forgive one day of blatant advertising.  I almost can’t wait for the next call from my son’s camp. All his accidents just got easier. 

Jenna
 

There is a dark side to being transparent... 

Where have I been?  I have been swallowed up by the endless offers and questions around employment at the Microsoft Vancouver Development Centre.  The last few weeks have been times of big growth for me, as I have realized how little I actually know about international employment and how often I have to say, "I don't know".

I have been asked everything from how to get your pets immunized for Canadian customs, to how to get a discount on a Canadian bus pass.  And, it seems I am filled with seemingly unsolvable questions. Everyone loves the idea of being "transparent", until you don't know the answers.

The good news is, that I am now emerging from the bottom of my email and I have nearly every SDET and SDE who was impacted by the H1B visa cap, placed in a job in Vancouver.  And I'm starting to say, "I don’t know", a whole lot less often.

So, what do we know?

Well, plenty of people will be in the new Microsoft Canada Vancouver office starting in September, and waves of others will be joining in October and November. Next month, will mark the 6 month mark of when we first dreamed up this office. 

Yes, that is right- an international office conceived of and fully operational in a span of less than 6 months.  So to anyone who wonders if Microsoft is still a nimble and innovative company- I can tell you that I have lived through it and can confidently say,"yes". 

For the next few months, I am happy to be a little less nimble and a whole lot more relaxed...Vancouver has worn me out.  But, for all of the people who I personally placed in this last month, I thank you for your patience and am thrilled to have you as a part of the team!

- Jenna

Ahh, finally someone asked for it.  I have been contemplating writing this post for quite some time, but I feared it would be too risky.  But after getting the following question, I decided to take the leap:  

“Hey I was wondering if someone could write a blog about when it's appropriate to contact a recruiter and when it's not appropriate to contact a recruiter. Like maybe you could write a top ten list of annoying things you see people do commonly?”

I have surveyed my team and come up with some common complaints.  While I’m happy to say that I don’t have enough complaints for a Top 10 list, here are a few of the top common themes:

• If you are going to reach out to a recruiter, please do your homework.  We get cold-calls from people all the time who found a name on the internet and call up to talk about their career hunt. If you are going to call someone you don’t know, be thoughtful of their time and call them with relevant questions. (This advice goes to recruiters too… there is nothing worse than a cold-caller who doesn’t know a thing about you). 
• Same is true for the internet: while an email is less invasive than a phone call, please customize your letter so that you are contacting “me” and not just a random email address you found.
• Don’t treat your recruiter like they are stupid.  Yes, we know that recruiters are not as technical as engineers, but we want and deserve some respect, just as you do. We are your advocate, not your roadblock- remember it.
• Know when to back off.  Yes, we love persistence, but some people take it too far. It’s a recruiter's job to be polite, so after we tell you a “delicate no” a few times, you should back off.
• Don’t lie.  I have covered this one on the blog before, but I’ll say it again: recruiters can spot lies a mile away.  If you think you have a new one, we promise you that you don’t. It hurts your credibility.
• Are you sick?  This is overwhelmingly common.  People often come to an interview telling you how they are sick, or getting over a cold, or jet-lagged or tired.  While this may often be true, we suspect it is a thinly veiled cover-up for nerves and an early excuse for poor performance.  We understand you may be under-the-weather, but don’t start the day with excuses.  We have heard them before.

I’m ready for the comments to fly about the inappropriate things recruiters do… so go for it.  I’ll summarize the best ones in my next post.

- Jenna

Recruiters have a joke about Boston: “Don’t try to recruit anyone out of there”.  Why?  Because no one ever wants to leave. 

While this may be a stereotype, I reckon that I have had more people from Boston decline job offers than from any other place.  Never mind the fact that Boston gets more rainfall than Seattle and is windier than Chicago, people from the great state of Massachusetts just can’t be torn away.

So I am pleased to announce that recruiting just got a little easier: http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/06/21/room_to_grow_for_microsoft/. 

Yep, we have opened a Microsoft office in Boston.  Recruiters everywhere rejoice!

While Microsoft has traditionally been a Redmond-centric company, we are quickly changing our ways, and now have people around the globe and in several cities in the U.S. (Dallas, TX; Charlotte, N.C.; California's Silicon Valley; New York; Boulder, CO and Washington, D.C.).

So, welcome to the Microsoft family Boston- you can now work from Microsoft and continue to root for the RedSox.

- Jenna

Wow, all of you are keeping me busy! My email is full of questions about Vancouver. 

As promised, this is my follow-up post about what happens now in regards to the H1B visa situation and the Vancouver Development Centre.  Please understand that this is all happening quickly and I am doing my best to keep up.  I will share with you everything I know, but in exchange, I ask for your understanding and patience if some of the details are still evolving over the next few weeks.

Right now, we are all painfully busy planning for Vancouver and we are contacting all of the managers who have impacted employees and asking them, “Do you want to have this person work in Vancouver?”.

 If the answer is “yes”, this is what happens next:

We are working behind the scenes to align your office space and project in Canada.  We are also figuring out the questions around Canadian visas, relocation packages and travel expectations to-and-from Canada. 

We expect to roll out “new” Vancouver offers in late July or early August.  You will receive the new letter from your recruiter. These offers will be comparable in compensation/benefits to your last offer. We hope to relocate people to Canada and have them start working as early as September or as late as November, and we suspect these start dates will happen in “waves” depending on the details of each case. 

Vancouver will likely be comprised of lots of different people working on lots of different teams that have counterparts in Seattle, although there is talk about permanently housing intact teams in Vancouver in the future.

In addition, let me clear up a rumor: There is space for everyone in Vancouver.  While I can’t disclose the exact number of people who had rejected H1Bs, or the office space capacity in Vancouver, I can tell you that I have looked into it and there is plenty of room for all.

On the other hand, if the manager's answer is “no”, this is what happens next:

In addition to asking teams if they want to have their current hires relocate to Vancouver, we are also asking them, “How many new hires would you like to have if extra people become available?”. 

Some teams with aggressive hiring goals are pre-slotting new openings in Vancouver now.  This means that if your immediate manager does not want you to move, that we will proactively try to find you a new role on another team in Canada. 

In this case, you won’t have to interview again and your offer compensation and title won’t change. However, your manager and team would change.  We would then roll out an offer to you in the same process noted above.

It all sounds good, right?  For the most part it is, although there is one wrinkle.  This currently looks very favorable for SDE and SDETs, although it is slightly rougher for PMs, Media specialists or other roles.  There is a general opinion that some roles function better remotely than others, so while I suspect I can safely encourage the SDEs and SDETs that everything is going to work out fine, I’m not yet sure about other roles.  This remains to be seen.

For those of you wondering when new jobs will be open in Vancouver for new people to apply, the answer is, I don’t know, yet.  We will continue to hire people into Vancouver, but we are currently focused on placing the people who have offers now. 

I will be off of work next week on vacation, so you can expect my responses to lag until I return on the 23rd. 

Where will I be going on vacation?  Vancouver!  Really!   And, it’s not a business trip - it is purely for fun.  Vancouver is an awesome city, and for any of you who are looking at a move there, you should be thrilled.

-Jenna