Imagine this: 75 computer engineering students from universities around the US, a chance to build killer apps and a visit to The Garage at Microsoft. That’s some weekend.

That’s Experience Microsoft.

Technology companies vie for the opportunity to recruit talented technology students, sometimes starting as early as high school. To give college students a chance to experience what working for Microsoft is like, the company invited students to its main campus for a weekend.

During Experience Microsoft 2012, April 5-6, students worked on actual projects – they created 48 apps during the event’s hack-a-thon. They even practiced interviewing for a job at Microsoft.

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On a daily basis, our recruiters are asked how to prepare for an interview. While Microsoft mostly looks to fill jobs in IT, we think our advice can apply to candidates at any company. An interview should be a fun experience where you learn more about both yourself and the company you’re considering joining. You’re also interviewing them! You’ll be happiest, and the company will benefit most, when you figure out your fit. This is also known as working in your "sweet spot." This happens when you apply your passion and leverage your skills in a position that is the right opportunity – for you.

I love this Fast Company article and video where Scott Belsky talks about Work Smart: How to Find Your Sweet Spot. What’s your trifecta?

Recently, the University of Nebraska (UNL) approached us to ask how we advise candidates to prepare for an interview. My top-line advice to any university or experienced candidate is the above: Know yourself so you can identify that right opportunity to work in your sweet spot. Beyond this, there are some really practical things a person can do.

Below is a quick summary of our interview tips; or read the story on the Internship Series – Microsoft.

What You Need to Know:
• Learn about the company and the role for which you are applying.
• Understand your own career goals and how Microsoft can help you reach these.
• Know what you can bring to the table.
• Consider how your skills can have an impact on technology.
• Think about what this means and how you can do this in your role.

How to Prepare:
• Attend relevant career fairs.
• Figure out your fit.
• Submit your application.
• Land the interview.
• If at first you don't succeed, try again.
• Use the experience as a learning process.

Learn more about how to prepare for an interview at Microsoft with this collection of interview tips and on glassdoor.

And just in case you’re still not convinced that finding the right fit is important, this article on Bloomberg Businessweek about how to have an innovative company just might provide some additional inspiration: Three Types of People to Fire Immediately. I think most people want to do well, but it’s not fun when you’re not in a good fit.

Have fun! We spend most our lives working, so take the time you need to find your sweet spot!

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.

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.

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

A few months ago we published a brief story on a contest we were running at Microsoft that challenged our employees to tell us why they loved working here in a video of 10 seconds. 10 seconds is not so much time when you think about it. But our US winners were impressive in their creativity.

The contest was also run with our offices globally and we now have the exclusive video from the international winners. Check out the moving, hair raising, and downright heart felt submissions by the winners from our offices around the world. Congratulations!

After viewing the films, take a moment to customize your job search experience with us! You can sign up for individualized job agents and be notified of upcoming events. It only takes a few minutes and it's all here right now!

Emel Ozturk - Microsoft Dubai

Leo Shum - Microsoft China 

Basar Guner - Microsoft Istanbul

It’s hard to recap all the incredible projects ‘Softies dedicate their time to over a year in addition to their work commitments (though we do try!), but I wanted to take a moment to give a shout out to all the folks that spend time mentoring young women through our DigiGirlz program.

2011 was an remarkable year for this program with over 5,100 participating students in locations around the US and the world – Spain, Ecuador, Singapore, Denmark and Jamaica – to name just a few.

DigiGirlz, if you aren’t familiar, is a program run by Microsoft that gives high school girls the chance to learn about careers in technology, connect with Microsoft employees, and get hands on with computers and technology through one day workshops and High Tech Camps.

 

It may come as no surprise, but women are still extremely underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). An August 2011 report by the U.S. Department of Commerce indicates that although women fill close to half of all jobs, they hold less than 25% of STEM jobs. 

As Catherine Ashcraft, a senior research scientist at the National Center for Women & IT, said in an article about the Charlotte, N.C. DigiGirlz camp written for Diverse Magazine, “There are messages that girls get either subtly or not so subtly about who are the kinds of people who do technology. In popular culture it’s often not girls who do the inventing.” And, when they do develop an interest in technology, Ashcraft also talked about the lack of role models. “They find they are often the only girl in the class. It’s intimidating and difficult for them.”

That is where Microsoft’s commitment to DigiGirlz comes in as an early effort to change perceptions of women in STEM related careers.

This amazing lineup of guest speakers and dedicated Microsoft volunteers – all serving as role models, all making valuable contributions in the world through technology – are opening young women’s eyes to the variety of opportunities available in the high-tech industry and to all the things they can accomplish.

As one girl commented on her evaluation form after listening to a workshop session, “It really inspired me to do something extraordinary with my life.”