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.

This week Microsoft shared some news that’s especially heartwarming in this tough economy. Microsoft employees are making a difference in a big way: by giving to others. Not many companies offer a $12K per year match on Employee Giving. Microsoft does. It’s foundational to the culture. And it’s a benefit many Microsoft employees value.

Through the annual Employee Giving Campaign, Microsoft employees raised a record-breaking US$100.5 million in 2011. This topped the previous year’s total with donations to more than 18,000 community organizations across the United States and around the world. Overall, more than 64 percent of the company's employees – about 35,500 – got involved in the Giving Campaign during the year.

Here’s what we heard from a few employees:

“To be honest, that number means more to me than any other statistic Microsoft releases,” says Joe Michaels, a senior director of business development in the Online Services Division. “I think that says more about who we are as a company than any earnings figure or any ranking in a Best Places to Work list.”

“Microsoft’s an awesome company to work for. I get to continually do new things, and with the generosity of the company I help raise money for wonderful organizations,” says Crissy House, a senior product marketing manager for SQL Server.

People who value giving and making a difference in the world have the opportunity to double their dollars with the Microsoft Giving Campaign. They can make a huge impact for the causes they love and support.

• Read the full Giving Campaign story on Microsoft PressPass 
• Learn more about cool things employees are doing on the JobsBlog and the Facebook Fans page
• Apply for cool design jobs, development engineer jobs and more on the Global Careers site

 ‘Softie in Question: Mike Miles
Position at Microsoft: Principle Group Program Manager
Group: Bing
Location: London

Quick rundown on you role, your team, and a bit about yourself:
I have a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics and have worked in the software industry for the last 20+ (yikes!) years. I started my career as a developer and worked my way up to a director level engineering manager at a medium sized start-up before joining Microsoft. Ten years ago, I joined Microsoft and helped lead some of our new STB projects in Microsoft’s then most recent acquisition, WebTV.  I spent the next seven years in online services, primarily MSN (this when both Windows Live and Bing were still part of MSN) and three years ago, became the third or fourth employee of a brand new group within Bing – Search Technology Center (STC) Europe.

Currently, I am a Group Program Manager for STC Europe and have two different teams and roles.  First, I lead a PM team responsible for the global development of some Bing’s more interesting features - Auto Suggest, Related Search, Speller and ‘Combined Alterations’. Collectively, we refer to these features as Query Formulation and our core mission is to help refine and improve the quality of the user’s query and thereby increase the satisfaction the user has with their search session on Bing. 

Second, I lead a team responsible for ensuring that Bing’s entire engineering team understands and prioritizes the quality and feature improvements that help make our international markets successful. It’s an interesting fast-paced role and I’ve been lucky to work alongside a tremendously strong SDE team to lead an outstanding organization of ~25 PMs and international SDETs who are passionate about Bing and the opportunity to make a difference to the 100s of millions of users word-wide and the 10s of billions of queries that they generate every year.

Tell me more about the Microsoft offices in London?   
Our London office is one of 5 main offices for STC-Europe; others are in Munich DE, Paris FR, Wroclaw PL and Bellevue WA.  All of our offices have a unique culture and product focus but all offices have a definite start-up feel and passion about the Bing product and  search industry overall. The focus of the London office is on Query Formulation as mentioned above.   The team is very diverse talent wise – we have Editors, Testers, Program Managers, Developers, Machine Learning and Information Retrieval expertise, and quite a few PhDs on the team.  We are quite culturally diverse as well – in our London office, we have people who speak French, Polish, German, Italian, Spanish, Catalan and, of course, English.  And the sense of team is very strong, we play football after hours, foosball during breaks and aren’t afraid to have a pint (or two) after work. 
 
What is it like to work at Microsoft in one of our subsidiary offices compared to working in the US Headquarters?
Working in one of the Subs is a great experience. Team members are much more connected with the business and given the relatively small team size, it’s easy to influence product direction and make an impact.  While we are well connected with Bing’s ‘core team’ in Bellevue, we maintain a fair amount of autonomy in terms of setting direction, pace and culture of our team.  And of course, we also have strong relationships with other remote sites in Hyderabad, Beijing, and Silicone Valley and of course our other STC-Europe offices
 
What was the reason you considered applying to Microsoft?  How did you find out about the specific role you are currently in right now? 
I’ve been in Microsoft for almost 10 years now and what interested me originally was the breadth of products that Microsoft is involved in, the diversity of technology used across the company, the variety of disciplines and backgrounds across the company, the leadership position that Microsoft enjoys in a multiplicity of business segments and the opportunities all of that allows for career development. 

My first role for the company was leading the development of a new STC for MSN TV (Microsoft’s acquisition of WebTV).  This was a challenging role for me since it was the first consumer focused product that I’ve been involved in and the project was quit complex, comprising hardware, embedded systems, client and  server elements and distribution channel.  I have had very diverse roles in the company since then and that career diversity is one of the things that keeps me excited about Microsoft. I was lucky enough to have good relationships with our then VP and who encouraged me to explore a role in our new offices in Europe.  I spoke to a number of people about the role and plans for STC-Europe and was hooked. It’s been a fantastic role for me and has been a great opportunity for my family. 
 
Any tips to job seekers around the world interested in relocating to London and working at Microsoft?
We are always recruiting and currently hiring in STC Europe’s London, Munich and Bellevue offices. If we don’t have a position that currently matches your interests and experience, it’s possible that we will again in the near future.  We are looking for anyone with expertise, experience and passion to build a world-class Search product with a special focus on Developers who have Machine Learning, Information Retrieval or related Computer Science background.  I need to provide updated contact information.

Dear JobsBlog: I am a developer with 6 years of experience working outside of the US. American recruiters have been rejecting my application and I suspect that it is because of the international-nature of my coding experience. I thought that coding was not affected by place. Does the location of my coding experience really matter?

-International Dev

Dear International Dev: It is unlikely that they would pass on you based solely on the geography of where your coding experience is gained. That said, there are many factors at play when considering candidates with international experience – some of which, may inhibit our ability to consider you further.

Here are a few personal examples where I’ve rejected resumes with International experience. Perhaps one of these applies and will help shed some light?

The candidate requires a new visa, yet none are available. There really aren’t many options for overcoming this obstacle. No matter how strong a resume may be, there is a legal barrier here, which must be respected.

The candidate still lives abroad. This is a problem of time and money and – as painful as it might be to admit – it’s not about picking the absolute best candidate. Frankly, interviewing an international candidate takes longer and costs more money. For some positions, it might not make sense when a domestic and equally qualified candidate can be found faster. 

The resume isn’t the best match for the role. The years of experience listed are just a number; other qualifications must also be considered, as well as the depth of that experience and the overall quality of the resume.

The important thing I’d want candidates to know here is that Resume Review is both a quantitative and comparative process.  Recruiters are evaluating resumes based both on the requirements of the position and how that resume compares to the others in the stack.    

The fine print/some critical reflection: with any generic question, it’s important to remember that each position is different in what it will and won’t consider. A personal frustration, which I’m sure many of our readers share, is that most job boards (and job descriptions) do not make it easy to search and filter positions based on the above type of criteria. 

Our systems also do not currently provide automated updates to a candidate at the earliest stages of consideration. This is commonly perceived as the “Black hole effect,” and unfortunately, not going away soon.  Just know that recruiters like myself are spending hours each week reading the resumes which are submitted to us, and there is *usually* a good reason if we aren’t moving forward.

-Kenji

In my last post I mentioned that we would be touring the globe visiting some of our international development centers. Our first stop: Oslo, Norway. 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!

All the best - Anne

‘Softie in Question: Sveinar Rasmussen
Position at Microsoft: Principal SDE
Group: Search Foundation, IEG
Location: Oslo, Norway

Tell me more about the Microsoft offices in Oslo?
The offices here are nice. Last year (2011), a few areas in the offices here were refurbished. A sip of coffee in the new library is relaxing between the coding sessions – and there is a foosball table too, kicking back with games and consoles. The atmosphere is relaxed but with lively loud discussions sometimes. The cantina food is great with a huge selection of salads plus a hot dish every day. On most Fridays there are plenty of cakes to counter those healthy salads, too! It’s balanced.
 
What is it like to work at Microsoft in one of our subsidiary offices compared to working in the US Headquarters?
Despite its Redmond-centric past, I feel that Microsoft is embracing the subsidiary offices quite well. With extensive use of Lync, the practical difference isn´t huge. Being a subsidiary, I believe we are in on the action. Naturally, we cannot attend the yearly huge company meeting in person - but we do get the luxury of attending these meetings from the comfort of our chair. Another thing that I feel is very heartwarming and respectfully impressive: Redmondians happily suggest Lync outside their working hours. We get the same employee benefits like a fantastic free Windows Phone 7 device... and discounted Kinect sensors and games etc.
 
What was the reason you considered applying to Microsoft?  How did you find out about the specific role you are currently in right now?
I would claim that Microsoft is a company for us engineers. And with the focus on delivering quality software, I feel that one can truly be proud of what Microsoft is doing to stay relevant in the technology sector. The competition is fierce, but we are tenacious. But with certain innovative products in the market now like Office 2010, Windows 7, Xbox360, Kinect, Bing and Windows Phone 7, there is a huge customer base that follows. When you have so many users of our products, the impact of this great engineering playground offers a great place to work building the next version of Office.

I have been writing search engines for over a decade. Microsoft acquired our team here back in 2008. The role I have today is mostly the same as it has been all along - having fun, learning and building a platform to help people with finding stuff they need. Being a principal software engineer for enterprise search is rewarding. I blessed with skilled co-workers here with strong problem solving abilities, expertise in server side development with emphasis on scalability, reliability and security.

Any tips to job seekers around the world interested in relocating to Oslo and working at Microsoft?
Oslo is not a big city, the weather isn’t particularly warm during the Norwegian winters... but the working atmosphere that Microsoft offers, the friendly warm people in our distributed group coupled with the joy of tech = makes my day. Maybe it will do the same for you, too?

Dear JobsBlog: I've done it before, and I've seen it in virtually every resume that I come across. But let’s put the question to rest. What is your take on the famous "list of skills" like: "Programming lauguages: C#, Java, C++ Software Design: UML, Merise Services and Hosting: Web Services, WCF, OData, Windows Azure platform." Are they always good, always bad, or "it depends"? Should this list be included on a resume? If so, why? Thanks in advance!

-List of Skills

Dear List: As a Developer or Engineer, your main skill or trade is your ability to code, build, ship, optimize, test, and solve problems.  As recruiters we review a lot of resumes and  appreciate it when you include the arsenal of technical skills you have with regards to specific programming languages, database experience, and other tools/technologies.  So yes, you should include this information. With one caveat: what we don’t want to see are technologies listed you barely have experience with.  If you’ve used XML once and aren’t well versed in it, it is better to leave it off your resume. Anything you list is fair game to call out during a technical interview/screen.  It doesn’t bode well to list things you aren’t very familiar with. We know you have a lot to offer and that you have broad technical ability but we want it to be clear to us what you have done and what your areas of strengths are technically. For example, by your skills list alone we can tell if you’re a hard core Microsoft technologies engineer, someone who fully immersed in the mobile world, a UI Developer, or someone who is focused on the LAMP stack. 

Beyond technical skills, if you have a strong ability or domain expertise in an area please call that out.  Without clearly listing this, we won’t know what your expertise is in, what jobs might best suited for you, and better yet what your technical background looks like.  Also if you have special skills such as experience with R, machine learning, data mining, Hadoop, or MapReduce to name a few, we would love to be able to see these skills listed clearly.  Writing a resume is not an easy or quick task however erring on the side of simplicity, getting straight to the point about what your contribution was for each job, and clearly citing your strong ability in certain technical areas is probably your safest bet. A resume is supposed to summarize your skills and experience on paper, it’s job is to get you that phone screen and interview.  Help us understand you on paper and get you to the next step in finding your new career.

Good luck!
Eugenia

Geek in question: Steve Kaplan

Job title: Program Manager at Microsoft India Development Center (MSIDC) in Hyderabad.

Other titles: Runner. Marathoner. The fastest engineer at the MSIDC.

Upon shipping CRM 2011, Steve Kaplan sat at his desk at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond pondering his next step. A few months later, he logged in from his new desk at Microsoft’s India Development Center (MSIDC) in Hyderabad.

Although working and living on the other side of the planet, Steve took with him his passion for adventure, technology and hardcore distance running.  He also took a passion to learn from India and his new co-workers.

I spoke with Steve via Lync to find out why he made this move and what makes him tick.

Did you always know you wanted to work for Microsoft?
Growing up, I was always passionate about technology and Microsoft software was always in my house. As a teenager, I read every book by Bill Gates and thought that working at Microsoft sounded cool.

How did you first start working here?
During my junior year at Carnegie Mellon, I did an internship at MSN Money. It was an amazing experience. I got to build real things and ship a real product. I had an offer to come back again as an intern, but instead I went to Salesforce.com for my next summer to work in their Professional Services group. I wanted to try something different while the stakes were still low.

I learned a lot there too, but also decided that I most wanted to build products. Microsoft was and is really one of the best places for a grad to be an engineer, particularly as a PM. You truly learn how to ship large software at scale. Just as McKinsey might be like finishing school for business types, Microsoft is the same for software nerds.

Tell us about your first role at Microsoft and how it led you to India.
I started as a full-time employee in the CRM product group in 2008. I worked on the team for 3 years and got a ton out of the experience – learning, learning, learning. But after 3 years and shipping CRM 2011, I was ready for a change.

Half of our team was based in Hyderabad and after meeting some of the team who were visiting Redmond, I got the idea that I would like to work as an engineer in India.

What was it that drew you to India in particular?
I’ve always been fascinated by India  – it is the world’s largest democracy and has such rich cultural history. At the same time, I was also looking to work outside of my normal comfort zone – as that’s when I have some of the most interesting experiences.

What was the process of getting the job and moving?
I met with the Group Program Manager from Hyderabad while he was in Redmond and interviewed then. He was interested, so I did a field trip to India for two weeks to try to wrap my head around what I was about to do.

I decided to go for it. Microsoft was extremely supportive in terms of logistics. They shipped all of my stuff. I had a stipend for relocation expenses and even a relocation consultant. The consultant helped me to get the lay of the land, including a car, apartment and a driver. Incredibly, this made it possible for me to be in the office and getting stuff done on day one.

How does working at MSIDC compare to working in Redmond?
As someone who grew up in the US, there is so much wild stuff happening here in India that work is actually the most familiar thing to me. From the physical campus to the work culture, it is very similar to Redmond. Specifically at MSIDC, it is amazing to see the deep engineering contribution teams are making to several Microsoft products from CRM to Office to Bing. MSIDC is truly a key location in Microsoft’s global shared development strategy.

And you’ve continued your outside-of-work interests in India too?
Running has always been a passion of mine and I’ve brought that with me, even to India. I’ve been training five to six days a week. I recently ran the Hyderabad Marathon, traveled to Berlin for another and am now competing in all of the major distance races in India. I just completed the Mumbai Marathon this past weekend and finished 6th in the open race.

Since I’ve been in India, I’ve met a lot of local runners online. And through them I’ve figured out times and places to run. It is important to go early in the morning here before it gets too hot and the streets get too crowded or noisy.  This actually forces me to be much more disciplined about my running and I have to say that I think I am in the best running shape of my life.

Do you meet other North Americans who have moved to India to work in tech?
I’m surprised that there aren’t more young people doing something like this, especially considering all that is happening in India. I think this is really an amazing opportunity.

What’s next?
China? Maybe.  I love that I can work in different countries and get these experiences all within Microsoft while still being focused on building the best products.

 

Inspired by Steve's story? Here are the top engineering positions open at MSIDC. Take a look. You might be suprised at what you find!

Group Program Manager, Microsoft Office Division 

Principal Test Manager, Microsoft Office Division
 
User Experience Manager, Microsoft Office Division

User Experience Designer, Bing 

Test Manager, Online Services Division  

Senior Test Lead, Windows 

Senior Development Lead, Microsoft Business Solutions 

Partner Director SDE, Server & Tools Business

Partner Development Manager, Server & Tools Business 

I've got good news for International job seekers interested in Microsoft software development opportunities, but not ready to relocate Stateside: we have jobs in the places you live!
 
This is the first in a series to showcase some of our global development centers and development teams. They are working on a wide variety of different technology and products with the team sizes range from big to small. The one thing that they all have in common is that they have huge impact on products that are used around the world. I'm looking forward to sharing the interviews and pictures from these places around the world.
 

So keep an eye on JobsBlog for my posts over the next months as we go around the world  - meeting the people who build the software we use. Our first stop next week will be in Oslo, Norway.
 
In the meantime, for a listing of all of our development opportunities – visit the below links.  There may not be openings right now in all of these locations, but join the Talent Network and get notified as opportunities become available within your location and technology interests.
 

Canada:  Click Here
China:  Click Here
Europe:  Click Here
India:  Click Here
Israel:  Click Here
Japan:  Click Here
For all other positions and locations:  Click Here
 
Thanks all – hope this helps you find that job you’ve been looking for….it is possibly closer to home then you thought!
 
-Anne