Entries tagged 'microsoft'

Dear JobsBlog:
How are software testing careers at Microsoft different from software testing careers at other companies?
-Aspiring SDET Candidate

Dear Aspiring SDET Candidate:
My name's Colleen and I am a Staffing Consultant with the Windows Live Team at Microsoft. I recruit specifically for the Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) role. We are very proud of our SDET role and the complexity and depth of our software testing careers. To answer your question with all of the detail it deserves, I went right to the source and asked John Rodrigues, the Principal Test Lead for Hotmail.

John said:

“When someone typically thinks of a test position, images of manual testing or pushing buttons often come to mind. However, that is not at all what we do as testers here at Microsoft. Here, we have three significant differences.

The job title
In the early 2000’s, Microsoft went away from hiring test-only engineers, commonly referred to as Software Test Engineers. Now, our software testing careers are focused on Software Development Engineers in Test (SDETs).

Requirements for the role
The expectations are that folks have a development background and are able to meet the same type of technical hiring bar as Software Development Engineer (SDE) candidates.

Hierarchy
SDET’s are a first class citizen in the engineering triad. They are responsible and involved from day 1 of a project until that project is terminated. Microsoft is committed to building high quality products that scale the globe as rapidly as possible; SDET’s are core to this commitment.

To put it simply, we hire developers who are bent on understanding how something truly works and then breaking it. SDET’s are involved in the end-to-end design of how a product comes together and how the integration points will work in the eco-system.

Once a design is fleshed out, SDET’s work alongside their counterparts to build instrumentation and automation into the product. Often times, this code will ship and be used for validation of a deployment or for debugging and triangulation purposes.

Finally, it is worth noting that people often move between disciplines at Microsoft. Due in part to the requirements we have for each role, people can move between Product Manager (PM), SDET, and SDE with relative ease. We have people who make the jump from SDET to SDE, SDE to SDET, etc.

Movement like this helps to broaden the perspective one can bring to the team.”

Thanks to John for his answer. I will be addressing other Dear JobsBlog questions about SDET careers at Microsoft with him in the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned.

-Colleen

In my last post I mentioned that we would be touring the globe visiting some of our international development centers. Our third stop: Copenhagen, Denmark. Take a moment to find out more about one of the 'Softies that works at this location and what he works on. Some pretty interesting stuff happens on our campuses around the world! For a listing of all of our open development roles in Copenhagen, click here. 
All the best - Anne

‘Softie in Question: Christian Heide Damm
Job title: Development Lead on the Microsoft Dynamics AX team

Christian, can you tell us a little bit about what you do?
I work with a Dynamics AX team, which means that we build the backbone administrative system for many companies; managing their financials, production, inventory, trade and more.

Are most of the roles in Copenhagen in Dynamics or are there a good variety of other roles too?
During my 7 plus years here, I have had 3 significantly different roles on 3 different projects. It is very important to me that I am able to move around in the organization, to try out new roles and be on new projects.

Fortunately, the Development Center in Copenhagen is large and varied enough to allow this; we have 600 people working in at least 4 major projects, so there are plenty of opportunities.

What is it like to work at a subsidiary office instead of Microsoft’s headquarters?
We are a relatively small development center – and that means that you get to know many of your co-workers. We feel closer to each other. You don’t feel lost in the crowd. But you still get to work directly on many projects that impact the world of software.

Are the employees primarily from Denmark or is it a pretty international office?
About half of the employees here are non-Danes, and people come from 44 different countries. The multi-nationalism makes it possible for us to develop products that are good a fit with customers across the world. I also love the stories that people tell about their home countries. It’s funny and educational.

Give us the basics of the Copenhagen campus.
It is located 20 km (12 miles) from Copenhagen. Most people come by car, some come by bike and many use public transportation. There’s frequent train service from Copenhagen, and Microsoft has arranged a shuttle bus from the train station to the campus, so it’s quite convenient.
 
The campus is really nice, with gardens, green areas, a small forest, and a lake. There’s even a large grass field on the campus. It gets used for all sorts of activities, like soccer and Frisbee. It’s almost calming to walk around campus.
 
Microsoft offers a large number of social and sports activities through its “Club Sport & More.” There are activities like wine tasting, golf tournament, SCUBA diving, cinema events, skiing trip, swimming lessons, badminton, running and biking.

Geek in Question: Mark Gillett

Job title: Corporate VP, Skype Engineering & Operations

Here at JobsBlog, we love Skype. And who doesn’t? (except maybe some telecom execs)

We’re really excited that Skype is joining Microsoft, so we reached out to Mark who runs Skype’s Product, Engineering, Site Operations, Service Operations & Business Operations to get a sense of what it’s like to work for one of the world’s hottest and most beloved technologies.

Mark, what personally attracted you to working for Skype?
This is one of the few companies where millions of people use your product every day. But beyond that, we feel like an important part of those peoples’ lives. They use Skype for reasons ranging from ordering a pizza to connecting with loved ones separated by thousands of miles.   

Every day, we hear stories of fathers attending their baby’s birth by Skype, folks seeing weddings of far-flung relatives and people connecting in other ways that we never even imagined here at Skype. 

Why is now an exciting time to work at Skype? 
Over the past two years, we’ve moved from the desktop to be truly multi-platform with the addition of iOS and Android. The next 12 months will see significant growth with development efforts in Windows Phone and Windows 8, which will bring the new, fast and fluid Metro interface to Skype. It’ll also drive our mission of making Skype “Always on and Always Connected” for millions of users.   

We started as a business with a disruptive agenda – voice across the internet that “just works,” and was free for everyone. We care about enabling communications across geography, device and modality.

What are some of the big challenges that engineers will have to solve?
Over the next year, we’ll have a range of cutting-edge technical challenges. These will include exploiting the power of the WindowsRT networking stack, optimizing our group video calling technology for new microprocessors and building notification services that function at hundreds of millions of users of scale.  

How would you summarize the work culture at Skype?
We “live” our product and are a truly international organization, with engineering at scale in Estonia, Sweden, Czech Republic, Russia, London and the US in both Palo Alto and New York.

We’re agile and consumer focused. We aim to make our products and services better every day and get our innovations into our users’ hands as quickly as possible. 

We work in small teams with a high degree of interaction and communication and value commitment, shipping and technical excellence in equal measure.  We want to “move the dial” and find new ways to enhance communications all the time. We want Designers, Program Managers, Developers and Testers alike to be able to link what we do today directly to a better product and better experience for our users – on every platform.

What makes an otherwise qualified candidate an especially great fit for Skype?
We have tens of nationalities in almost as many locations worldwide, so a real interest in and sensitivity to working with a diverse range of people is a big benefit at Skype. 

Experience shipping consumer products and services, particularly at scale, can often give a candidate an edge. The best potential Skype candidates show a real passion and deep interest in their profession often with as much enthusiasm about something outside of work.

Where do you see Skype as a technology in 5 years?
We see Skype continuing to evolve to offer more and better communication – synchronously with audio and video, between groups supported by cloud services and asynchronously with rich video.  We believe people want to do more than just communicate, they want to share experiences. Our challenge is to remove the barriers of hardware, software, network and geography to bring people together.

What do you think Skype most stands to gain from joining Microsoft?
We believe Skype stands to benefit from being a part of the bigger, but passionately product- and engineering-focused business Microsoft has built. Bringing our ideas together will provide our community with more, better products and services over the next few months and years.