JobsBlog Survey – the results are in!
Thanks so much for taking our survey I mentioned a few weeks ago! 155 readers offered their input, and I wanted to share the highlights below as well as preview a few changes we’re making based on your feedback.
Who are you?
Most respondents were what we in recruiting call “experienced” professionals … 27.8% of you have less than 5 years experience and 42.9% of you have more than 5 years of experience. The remaining group consists of current college students (14.3%) and Microsoft employees (15%). Wow, there are a lot of employees reading so I expect you all to chime in and help answer some of these reader questions. : -)
A huge majority of respondents work in a technical field … 85.2% in software development and 7.7% in IT/Support/Technical Consulting.
About ½ of you are currently seeking a job with Microsoft. The rest of you already work here :), are just generally curious about what's going on behind the scenes, and/or are "staying in touch" until you figure out your next move.
64.2% of respondents are age 18 to 28, and 27.7% are age 29 to 40. The rest are over 40, except for one lone 13 year old who responded. :)
Nearly 57% of respondents live in North America, followed by Europe, Middle East, and Africa (the EMEA region) at 28%, and South America at 8.5%. Other regions had small showings.
What do you want?
83.4% of you are very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with JobsBlog as it is right now. No one is very dissatisfied (yay!), but those of you who want to see an improvement focused on improving the navigation / design of the website, highlighting more stories directly from employees – especially more experienced employees, focusing on more “industry” and technical recruiting topics …. and just generally posting more often and including more “how to get a job at Microsoft” info.
You also requested that we lay-off the kool-aid (some posts are too “salesy” or “fluffy”) and do more fun stuff for the developer audience … like coding contests, technical questions of the week, or mock interviews. You also asked that Suggestion Kitty – or at least a Q&A format – make a return.
What’s next?
Based on your feedback and suggestions, we’ve got some new changes in store, and you should start noticing a difference in November. We’re working on the site navigation and categories list to help you more easily find still relevant archives, and the bloggers will revisit some of those older “how to get a job at MS” topics. We thought we said about all there is to say … but I’m sure we can think of more. :) You know us.
One thing I’m most excited about is that we’re going to make sure JobsBlog is even more driven by the readers as well as the employees who want to share their stories. Readers, we’ll have easier feedback mechanisms for you to pose questions / blog post ideas directly to our bloggers. And employees, we’ll start opening up the blog to you so you can tell your story first-hand. And since we know you love to talk amongst yourselves, we’re also working on a way to take the discussion beyond the blog.
So stay tuned. I’m really excited to see these changes happen! Thanks again for your awesome feedback.
Gretchen
JobsBlog Editor
11 Comments
haitham hamed said:
Nice I like that way , so that the site will Improve !!!
Can I ask you some thing ?
Can Microsoft Take survey and suggestion on Windows
from users before any release !!!
Belive me you will find some user more experience in windows than the team , they will also give some Idea out of the box !
so I love your way , Hope Microsoft follow you in the vision!
said:
Thanks, Haitham! I'm not sure about surveys, but I know Microsoft opens up alpha and beta versions of our products and gathers direct feedback from users that goes into final releases. Maybe someone with more experience in product development who is reading here can point you to info on that. I'm sure it's much more useful than a surveymonkey survey. ;-)
Mike said:
Really nice to see that the feedback via the survey is doing some good. Hearing from the "unwashed masses" is good :) If only more people did that - and not just listen, but take action as well.
I know that some of the job-hunting topics may well be "old", and you guys might very well have a hard time of thinking up new stuff that you have already written about, but things change, and sometimes with more experience (and/or water under the bridge) it's worth comming back to (e.g. how have interviews changed in the last 3 years since you started this blog). I'm sure you guys have more stories on the right (and wrong) things happening. Actually, share some of the "wrong" things more as learning by anti-patterns actually do help.
Feel free to moderate this part out, but it seems clear via the survey that people dont want "fluffy" posts, so what is the post I see below this one? More fluff. I know that MSFT is a diverse environment, great, but how does that post help me find and get a job at MSFT (this isnt a PR blog - as the stats show, an overwhelming majority of people are either looking, considering, or already working at Microsoft). It's this kind of material that isnt really part of this blog (it should be on a personal blog not a focused topic one like JobsBlog).
haitham hamed said:
I want to give an Example of waht Ideas can be extracted from open survey, for example I post once about
"100 features you want to add,modify or remove from Hotmail"
<a rel="nofollow" target="_new" href="http://www.egypt-developers.com/forum/forum/viewthread?thread=1367#3054">http://www.egypt-developers.com/forum/forum/viewthread?thread=1367#3054</a>
also on Windows
<a rel="nofollow" target="_new" href="http://www.egypt-developers.com/forum/forum/viewthread?thread=1366#3053">http://www.egypt-developers.com/forum/forum/viewthread?thread=1366#3053</a>
even if the Ideas some what may be outstand or stupid
it can be modified .
some times your kids give you a solution you never expect that it will work.
I love your work , and sharing is the only way to reach excellence.
Chakkaradeep said:
Haitham, I would suggest you to look into www.connect.microsoft.com . Thats where things like surveys,feedback happens. Currently many areas are busy which includes Visual Studio 2008 Orcas, Windows Server 2008, Vista SP1 Beta, Windows XP SP3, Expression Studio feedback. Connect is also a place where alphas,betas are put to test :D
Remember, some invitations open for some time early and then close. So you wont be able to participate if you miss those. For example, for programs like Windows Vista SP1, XP SP3 - there are some restrictions in participation.
Currently am into Vista SP1 beta/XP SP3 and they do have surveys for each build release and also other surveys come up on the experience of Service Pack. The discussion forum too has people from Microsoft discuss regarding SP1 beta with Users.
If you are Windows Vista user, get along with Microsoft Vista bloggers here - <a rel="nofollow" target="_new" href="http://windowsvistablog.com/">http://windowsvistablog.com/</a>
If you are Windows Live User, give your feedback here - <a rel="nofollow" target="_new" href="http://feedback.live.com/">http://feedback.live.com/</a>
Hope this helps :)
said:
I'd like to add this in. I tend to jump in as a little "wisecracking smartypants".
Let me add in this bit about Jobs Blog. For an outsider looking inside trying to get inside the door, Jobs Blog has done one nice thing for me.
It's gives that human connection. It reminds the rest of the world that Microsoft is not just a bunch of "Geeks with Dough" (or there WILL be some no doubt!) but there are humans working in there. Humans who speak languages OTHER than C++ and might not actually know the difference between a compiler and car engine. (Btw, what the #$@! IS a car engine?)
I've found you can actually say something, and they will respond. (But I thought this was a huge faceless nameless corporation you say?)
Jobs Blog seems intended for "College" students (am I wrong?) but they listen to goofy and tolerate people like me. Come on! They can't be THAT bad can they? You can just jump in and say something. Last time I checked, I didn't see them blacklisting the guys who said something AntiMicrosoft because if you can't take criticism, you can't learn.
Jobs Blog seems to be that "first contact" for many non MS people out there, and being that the people are ACTUALLY FRIENDLY seems to go a long way.
What else could they do? I've been digging through the technet and MSDN forums from time to time. Maybe just MAYBE JobsBlog could be linked directly to the main site and become an expansion point somehow to the learning and listening to people that are already in Microsoft. If you poke about BLOGS.MSDN.COM and BLOGS.TECHNET.COM you'll be surprised pleasantly that REAL HUMANS say things there ALL the time. Just do a search for a position under BLOGS.MSDN.COM or BLOGS.TECHNET.COM by name, you might actually find a person who works that job and their comments about their own job.
Anyhow I think I've dropped about 83.5 cents of excess comments down. Babble mode off. Enjoy the week all
Funny Fridays guy out!
said:
Mike – I totally hear you. Keep in mind that a lot of people did ask for more information on “life at Microsoft” so while an event like the one described in the earlier post won’t help you get a job, it does take you “inside” Microsoft. Also, this blog will probably always have personal elements. Heck, if you look at the early days of this blog, it was very personal. I know that this event had an impact on Priya so she wanted to share details about it with readers – part of that was personal and part was professional.
Chakkaradeep – Thanks for those links!!
Sean – Thanks for your comments! Actually, no … JobsBlog is not intended for College students. In fact, when it started, it was only for industry professionals, and we’ve added more college elements over time. What you’re probably picking up on is that Janelle and Ginny are college recruiters so their content tends to come from their own experiences – but their advice and stories still apply broadly. Personally, I found it so interesting that the survey results showed that many readers thought the blog was written for college students (you aren’t alone!) because in the early days, we used to get criticism that it wasn’t college focused enough. But there’s much to be said for striking a balance. :)
gretchen
said:
Well the source link comes from an Email that does not suggest it was a "College link" (Careers newsletter).
Hmmmm.... Me thinks a conspiracy at work... :)
Anyhow, back to studying for my Tech interview for tomorrow... :)
Exchange ROCKS!
said:
Oh oh oh! And what do we all want from Jobs Blog?
In the end a free plane trip to Redmond and a seat within the mothership.
Also the signed picture from "Steve Ballmer" and "Lunch will Bill Gates" couldn't hurt...
Oh Come on, there is SOME fun involved in all this... B)
Microsoft's JobsBlog said:
A few weeks, Jenna mentioned we’re planning to do a better job of addressing your questions via new blog
Noticias externas said:
Did you know we’re Workin' it at Microsoft over on Facebook? Yep. We’ve got a Facebook page where