They’re also so broad that it’s impossible for an interviewer to offer anything specific. “Questions like what are the biggest challenges or what keeps you up at night aren’t bad, but they’re really safe, and you could apply them to any company,” Edward explains. And it helps to have done a dive into the company’s career pages to get a snapshot of the culture and the current state of the business. This will become evident when it’s the candidate’s turn to ask questions of the interviewer, he says. It’s at this stage that they need to be mindful of how they might fit into Microsoft’s culture. That includes how they recover from mistakes, and how they show grit and resilience.Įdward notes that a good candidate who passes the initial screening will be asked back for between four to seven in-person interviews with a number of people. Edward underscores that a key cultural attribute at Microsoft is curiosity and openness to learning.
At this point, the recruiter is looking carefully to see if the candidate displayed leadership behavior in the past and if they are curious. Edward says this is a traditional behavioral-based screening with questions designed to look at the candidate’s technical aptitude if they are going for a tech job, or other aptitude if it’s a role in a different area of the company. The next step in the process involves a Microsoft recruiter who does an initial screen of a candidate. The key to be discovered is to brush up your skills bucket and make sure to highlight projects or career development experiences that showcase your continual learning on the job.
“There’s a lot of talk in the industry about AI and bots, but I don’t see them replacing recruiters anytime soon,” Edward contends, and Microsoft’s human recruiters are doing the heavy lifting using LinkedIn and other tools as a primary way to find talented people with the skills they’re looking to add–who may not even be actively seeking a new job. In addition to resumes coming in to be considered, Edward says there are hundreds of recruiters all over the world mining data, particularly through LinkedIn, which the company recently acquired. If you want to stand out among the masses, Edward offers an insider’s perspective on how the interview process works. Recruiting efforts and job openings have garnered 9 million visitors to Microsoft’s careers site each year and draw about 2 million applicants annually.
“This is the best time to really open up who you look at,” he explains, especially because “if skills match the labor market and our customer base, we are all going to win.” “And there’s no better way to bring fresh new ideas and skills into the company: Our leaders and hiring managers are hungry to bring in talent.”Įdward says that internal initiatives like inclusive hiring training and unconscious bias training set a tone with managers. “There’s been an extra emphasis on transforming our workforce over the last three to five years, given the company’s transformation,” he says. The move toward emotional intelligence has seeped into Microsoft’s recruiting and hiring practices, too, according to Chuck Edward, Microsoft’s head of global talent acquisition. This cultural shift put Microsoft on Glassdoor’s recent list of best places to work, according to employees. With Satya Nadella at the helm since 2014, it’s generated more than $250 billion in market value, but he’s also led its workforce of over 126,000 employees to adopt a “learn-it-all” curiosity that emphasizes soft skills alongside technical wizardry. The company that facilitated both is Microsoft.