I get asked this question quite a bit after my talks, so I decided I would share my answer for all to see. Microsoft like most other tech companies wants to hire the best of the best. That could mean a lot of different things to a variety of people, but I’ll offer my take on it.
When I look at my peers at Microsoft, I see a vastly diverse group of individuals with one commonality amongst them: PASSION. Not all of them graduated from top engineering schools like University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (FULL DISCLOSURE: I’m an alum haha I-L-L…I-N-I) with 4.0 GPAs, but they are THE BEST in their respective domains. Not only are they technically proficient, they also embody their passion. They know the history, various areas of application, new developments and key figures of their domain. As a student, you can display this passion in a number of ways.
Classroom Excellence – You have to show that you can at least do your class work for your intended career path. I was always horrible at the objective courses like English, Psychology, History, etc… but in Math and CS I excelled. If you don’t get the basics, you won’t do well with the application. You have to have a solid foundation in order to succeed in anything that you do. The lowest hanging fruit is doing well in class. If you say you are programmer but don’t know how to simply reverse a string, then there’s a problem.
Projects/Research – Another commonality I observed is that most of the people did some amazing project outside of what was required for class. Whether it was with a club like ACM or as a research assistant, they completed a project and can talk at length about the intimate details of the project. This comes in handy when the interview question “Can you tell me about a project that you’ve participated in” comes up. Participating in student research competitions is a great way to get exposure for your project within the technical community and you can talk about the experience for years to come. If that’s not your speed, then do community based projects. Your local high school may need a database or the church may need a website. Showing application of your knowledge outside of the classroom is an excellent way of demonstrating passion for your craft.
Stay Visible – If you want a job at Microsoft you have to make sure that we know as well. Recruiters and other representatives should know who you are by name and can recall at least one of your accomplishments. I can recall of an instance where a student didn’t have a stellar GPA but was super involved on campus and attended every Microsoft event. They eventually got an internship as a PM because of their presence and participation at our campus events. If we haven’t visited your campus in a while, there are ways to still be visible. You can visit your local .NET User Group meeting. These are usually attended by a field employee and will give you visibility into how .NET is used in your local region. You can apply to be a student partner and become our campus liaison. You can attend local, regional and national conferences, and we 99.99999% of the time have an academic discount. You can also participate in our student competition, the Imagine Cup. While this list isn’t exhaustive, these are typical ways of gaining visibility from Microsoft.
I know passion is an emotion that’s sometimes hard to quantify, but in the technical realm if you follow these steps you will set yourself up for success in the long run. I hope this helps all that have wanted to get a job at a top company like Microsoft. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at debrown@microsoft.com
I know. I’ve realized this. Nice write-up.
Cheers!