Dear JobsBlog: How much impact does participation in student/volunteer organizations have on an application? Do recruiters ‘give credit’ for participating in, leading, or making significant contributions to student or volunteer organizations? Does it matter if the organization is not related to their field (e.g. participating in student government but looking for a technical role)? Do you ever consider it as a substitute for work experience?

Here at Microsoft we assess resumes based on four categories (for technical positions):

Technical Aptitude/Problem Solving, Customer Focus, Demonstrated Interest in Technology, Communication.

It's not required to have any participation in student organizations or volunteer projects, but these experiences can impact each of these categories in a positive way. For instance, if you don’t have a lot of internship experience and have never been a manager of a large work product but you’ve led your ACM club or were president of your sorority, that could show some customer focus or problem solving skills. If you were the webmaster for your student government organization you can talk about any technical problems you’ve solved.

We never require those things on resumes, but we see them as a guide to what we can ask you about your experience. Feel free to talk about them, and use them in your learning experiences when answering interview questions.

And yes, I see it as a substitute for work experience.  Not everyone can work, and not everyone can be the president of the school. We understand there are tradeoffs. We're also aware that all students are different, so we want to see the complete person that you are while in school, not just small parts of the puzzle.

- Janelle