
How to Land a Job at Microsoft - kingsidharth
http://mashable.com/2010/12/26/land-job-at-microsoft/
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dstein
I'd prefer to first read an article about why I would ever want to work for
Microsoft in the first place.

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tomerico
I'm not claiming that Microsoft is the best company to work for.

But - the "I'm to good to work at company X" attitude will not lead you far.
Especially if you say that on Microsoft which still has some of the world
greatest minds.

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nailer
The windows and office company still has the worlds greatest minds? There's no
working web office, they threw their mobile efforts away. They disbanded their
browser team. What makes you think they're smart?

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Dn_Ab
Occams razor and statistical reasoning. The likelihood that the population
contains a (normal) distribution with a not smart mean while also containing
enough technical sophistication to create the products they do seems low.

no business skill Implies no intelligence is false

since

Intelligence => Business Skill is false. Business Skill is not necessary for
intelligence.

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nailer
Microsoft's last major revenue making product was ms office.

People want to work for successful companies, Microsoft, despite residual
income from previous successes, is no longer successful. Not successful at
mobile, not succesful at search, not successful for web development. Occam's
razor, people don't want to work for Microsoft.

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kevin_morrill
Not really true at all. All of their Server and Tools Division grew to a
multi-billion dollar business long after MS Office attained dominance.
SharePoint, a $1 billion+ product is just one example.

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nailer
What percent of ms profits do those make?

That's what I thought.

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kevin_morrill
In 2011 Q1 for the company, Server and Tools was $3.9 billion. For comparison,
in the same quarter Windows was $4.7 billion. So it's a business segment
largely created in the past 10 years that is 82% of the size of Windows (one
of the most profitable business franchises in the history of mankind).

In the past 10 years the company has tripled revenues and is now the 3rd most
profitable company in the Fortune 500 behind just Exxon and Chevron.

I hope my startup should be so fortunate as to make that kind of money. I'd
gladly put up with all the ridicule Microsoft gets in the tech community, as I
laugh all the way to the bank.

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code_duck
Why is this specifically about Microsoft? It seems applying to
facebook|google|apple is about the same, and they're seen as more desirable to
most people I know.

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simonw
The article reads like Microsoft paid them to write it.

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Pow
Or, it might have been written for any generic tech company, and then
"Microsoft" was tagged on for SEO purposes...

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simonw
It has quotes from Microsoft employees.

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coffeenut
This is decent basic advice for generic advice on landing a job at any number
of tech companies.

His advice on how to answer questions, however, fell short. Just saying "I
don't know" to questions is a sure-fire way to terminate the interview loop
early. Interviewers at Microsoft aren't primarily looking for knowledge, but
rather problem-solving skills and the ability to think about issues. If you
don't know something, it's fine to explain that you don't know, but you had
better follow up with a discussion on what you think and why you think it.

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elvirs
the question I wanna ask: is the writer working or had worked for microsoft?
if the answer is no, then the article is not worth reading.

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Anon84
s/Microsoft/MIT/g and the topic of the article would be much more
interesting...

