How to land a job at Microsoft [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Is it difficult to get a job at Microsoft?

What is the best way to land a job at Microsoft? I've been developing in .NET for the past 6 years or so (including MVC since it came out and Entity Framework). I have also earned several Microsoft certifications.

Any info greatly appreciated. thanks

Answer 1

You should check out the Microsoft Careers site and see if they have a job opening for the kind of job you are searching for. Also, it helps if you're a bit familiar in the developer scene (speaker at conferences, mvp, etc.), depending on the job you would like to do ofcourse.

Answer 2

There's an interesting book called "The Google Resume"

http://www.amazon.com/Google-Resume-Prepare-Microsoft-Company/dp/0470927623/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312367925&sr=8-1

which was written by a young woman who worked at Google, Microsoft and Apple. She discusses a number of resume and portfolio enhancing steps that you can take to make yourself more attractive to employers.

One step that is not mentioned in this book is becoming active on Microsoft related Q&A boards and answering questions. Having a significant reputation score provides "social proof" of your expertise.

Answer 3

I've had two interviews with Microsoft, the second of which ended in a job offer.

Step one was getting a phone interview - for me it happened when I heard through contacts that Microsoft was doing a recruitment drive in my "neighborhood". I got the right contact and put up my resumé, and they set up a phone interview with me. The phone interview was mostly relatively technical questions that were definitely possible to answer over the phone in a reasonable time frame.

They then invited me to an in-person interviewing event, expenses paid to get there. At this event I was interviewed by several people. Three or four if I recall correctly. Some questions were high-level technical, some were very deeply technical, some were trivia questions, and several were basically "impossible" questions designed to demonstrate your thinking process and analyzing skills in real-time.

I think what clinched the offer the second time was that I was confident (I had done it before and didn't desperately need the job either), and really connected with some of the questions and interviewers.

All in all it was a very nice experience, I learned a lot about interviewing and real-world development, and even though I ended up declining the offer I would recommend doing this process to anyone even somewhat interested in this direction.

Answer 4

Not MS but still. If you can answer these questions you have a chance 15 Google Interview Questions That Will Make You Feel Stupid

Article in Russian (translated) will give you the general idea - Jobs at Google for a Belarusian - dream or reality

In short all top companies search for the passionate professionals. If you can prove it you can get a job.

Answer 5

1. Code, code and enough code - you can write code and ask lots of questions
2. Previous work experience
3. Fit to work with people - Attitude.
4. Love to do something good everytime using code

All the best.

Answer 6

Try studying a book named "The art of computer programming"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Computer_Programming

American Scientist has included this work among "100 or so Books that shaped a Century of Science", referring to the 20th century,[2] and within the computer science community it is regarded as the first and still the best comprehensive treatment of its subject. Covers of the third edition of Volume 1 quote Bill Gates as saying, "If you think you're a really good programmer . . . read (Knuth's) Art of Computer Programming . . . You should definitely send me a résumé if you can read the whole thing." The New York Times referred to it as "the profession's defining treatise".[3]