I was invited to attend a recruiting schmooze with nearly a dozen ‘Softies tonight from the US BMO Server Marketing team and, as with so many other things, Microsoft does it differently. Not only was this a very different, interesting way for them to meet candidates (and vice versa), when I spoke with the recruiter managing the event just before leaving to say thanks she asked me how they could do it better next time.
This was three hours in the cafeteria in MSFT’s Mountain View Building 1. The seven top managers of the group plus recruiters flew down for the day (they have a 6:30 AM flight home tomorrow) and about 60 candidates like myself were in attendance. A nice table of finger food was set out and there was an open bar well-stocked with name brand alcohol and wines. A bunch of giveaways were raffled off including an XBox–I won a copy of Office Professional–and everybody got some chatchkis to take home including a 64MB flash drive. My point is, the company spent some meaningful dollars for about 10 current openings.
I was really jazzed by the opportunities. There were three group managers who I spent private time with after an earlier walk around when all the candidates could get a couple of minutes with each of them. All the positions are in Redmond but for an opportunity to work on the major pieces of businesses represented here I’d definitely relocate. Scoble seems to be doing okay after making the move.
Don’t want to say too much about the specifics, the point here is for all the pointing and hatred directed their way, Microsoft seems to know how to do business and not just produce technology and this event is a good example of it.
Keep your fingers crossed.
BillSaysThis 