Microsoft Students to Business!

Announcement from news.microsoft.com/

BOSTON — March 5, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. and Experience Inc. today announced the availability of the Microsoft Students to Business (S2B) community which directly connects job seekers with thousands of information technology (IT) career opportunities. Through the Experience Network, Microsoft’s community of 10,000 partner companies can easily post jobs or internships and quickly find Microsoft certified personnel that match their IT work-force needs. This was the S2B website for a number of years. The content below is from the site's 2011 archived content.

My daughter took advantage of the Microsoft Students to Business (S2B) with an internship in Boston when she was attending MIT. I remember quite vividly the day she called to tell us her plans. My wife and I had been away for the weekend and were just returning home on Monday morning. A raccoon got into the garage and made a huge mess of our dog's sleeping area, ripping his old bed to shreds and spilling dog food all over the floor! Poor Mongo had no idea what happened and refused to sleep on a makeshift bed my daughter made for him from some old quilts. She went looking for a new dog bed - it was about time to replace Mongo's old one anyway. She found a website selling gorgeous pillow dog bed styles that were easy to clean and found one that matched the camouflage decor of our garage. Mongo loved it! We took pictures of him enjoying his new dog bed and were so relieved to know that thing returned to normal once the new bed was in place. During that time our daughter would periodically keep us informed of her internship at Tribridge, a technology services firm specializing in business applications and cloud solutions and a Microsoft Dynamics Gold Certified partner. I must say recreating this website from its 2011 archived pages certainly let loose a flood of memories. If the information below is of interest you might find The Developer Ramp-Up Series, offered through Premier Support for Developers, is a collection of webcasts created with the goal of teaching developers basic development skills. Go to https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/premier_developer/2015/08/30/us-developer-ramp-up-series/.

Welcome to Microsoft Students to Business!

Are you a graduating student looking for an internship or a job in the IT field? Are you a Microsoft Partner or Customer hoping to recruit students with the skills to meet the demands of today’s technology industry? Welcome to Microsoft Students to Business, a community initiative connecting Microsoft, Microsoft Partners and Customers, with technology students from leading universities and colleges.

 

Students, give your career a head start with an enriching Students to Business internship.

The IT industry increasingly requires students to enter companies with real-life, hands-on experience, as well as deep theoretical background. The S2B program makes that possible through internships with top Microsoft partner companies – internships that provide relevant work experience on innovative projects that greatly enhance students’ value in the job market.

In collaboration with universities, students will have access to online training, workshops or courses as part of their degree. As well, students will have access to many Microsoft applications through the MSDN AA Program, in order to provide the tools students need to be immediately productive in a company. Projects and training will be focused on the most recent and innovative Microsoft products and technologies.

 

Learn IT

Take the Next Step on Your Career Path

Beginner Developer Learning Center - a centralized learning environment specifically targeted to beginning programmers. Here you'll find learning content that starts with the very basics, and guides you through step-by-step to becoming a fully-fledged developer!

Develop the Developer in You

Do you want to gain new Microsoft .NET development skills, but aren’t sure where to begin? If so, MSDN Ramp Up is the place to be.

Microsoft IT Academy

The Microsoft IT Academy connects the world of education to the world of work by enabling students to acquire new technology skills in an academic setting.

Find a IT Academy near you

Wondering what a Career in IT might be like

Check out www.viewmyworld.com for documentaries and interviews with young Microsoft developers, designers, and program managers for Zune, Silverlight, and others.

 

Get IT 

DreamSpark

Giving students Microsoft professional-level developer and design tools at no charge so you can chase your dreams and create the next big breakthrough in technology - or just get a head start on your career.

MSDN Academic Alliance

A comprehensive collection of Microsoft software for students at participating colleges and universities. 

 

What's new

4/11/2011

Check out Career Factor and Get Inspired!

The pressure and excitement is mounting as Microsoft’s online reality show Career Factorquickly approaches its grand finale during this year’s TechEd Covention, May 16th –19th! Check out what the participants have accomplished so far and stay tuned to see what’s going to happen in the coming weeks.

 

3/22/2011

The Microsoft Certified Career Conference

All of the sessions from the February 17 conference are now available for viewing and download by registered attendees. Just click this link, sign in and scroll down the left menu to "Recordings".

 

3/10/2011

Get a FREE Microsoft Certification Exam Voucher. While supplies last!

The job market can be a tough ride—but it doesn’t have to be. Boost your resume by getting Microsoft Certified.

And right now, you can get a FREE Microsoft Certification Exam voucher code for select exams to help you get started.

Like new jobs, these vouchers are in limited supply so don’t wait! Visit http://golink.us/p

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Microsoft JobsBlog: Blog

4/11/2011

One bus ride at a time: a novel approach to career and creativity

The ‘Softie in question: Sam Landstrom

Job title: Senior Content Publishing Lead on Silverlight, Phone, and Windows Presentation.

Working at Microsoft is as much a lifestyle as it is a career. Among other things, we provide a unique commute service called the Connector – some 55 private buses that make sure employees get to and from work without having to touch a gas pedal or jockey for a city bus seat.

Yes, the Connector has Wi-Fi. Yes, it has convenient pick-ups throughout the Greater Seattle-area. And, yes, it’s even good for the environment (with some 200,000 less car trips, employees reduce overall carbon emissions by a cool 5.5 tons per year).

But what would you do if you could replace your commute with a smooth, stress-free ride? Would you catch up on your sleep? Call mom? Or, how about write a sci-fi novel?

One ‘Softie did just that and we tracked him down to get the inside scoop.

Sam, did you come up with the idea to write a book while commuting or did the Connector give you the opportunity to write an existing idea?

I’m a programmer and writer here at Microsoft, so I’d been kicking around the idea for the book before the Connector started [in 2007]. I already had a private blog where I was building up a future sci-fi world and developing certain aspects of a fictional society. But I wasn’t finding a whole lot of time to work on the book.

When the Connector came along, I thought: I’m all over that. Lo and behold, I had time to write. I put on my headphones, and the result is my novel, MetaGame.

And how was the book received?

It did better than I could have hoped. Kindle was good to me. I got lots of downloads, lots of reviews on Amazon and was picked up by Amazon Encore—their new publishing division. Amazon’s going to fly me and some of the other Encore authors out to BookExpo in New York next month. And, MetaGame has even been optioned as a possible TV series on the new 3D cable channel 3net.

Was it tricky to flip back and forth between Microsoft mindset and novelist mindset every day?
There is a little bit of a walk between the campus bus station and my office. For me, it was nice to switch gears. When I am working, I am thinking in a linear way, with logic. Sci-fi writing has its fair share of logic but you move to a different part of the brain.

That said, I had a great balance: after my 45-minute Connector ride, I was ready to get into my office and start working. By the time I left work at night, I was ready to return to la-la land again.

Did you tap into your coworkers for ideas and influence for MetaGame?
At Microsoft, you have an incredible direct access to people working in all realms of cutting-edge technology, from all different angles. But it was actually one coworker who helped me the most by sitting down and reading the whole manuscript before I even published it. He gave great feedback that evolved the book significantly. Others have helped with proofreading and answering questions at later stages.

Are you a writer who works at Microsoft or a ‘Softie who wrote a book?
Luckily, you don’t have to choose. People here are very multidimensional. I mean, I majored in molecular biology and started my career as a deck hand on a ship in Alaska. I was then doing DNA sequencing when I decided to teach myself about programming.

You taught yourself about programming?
Yeah, I had no computer knowledge, so I started at the beginning. I picked up a “what’s a computer” book and learned basics like: What is a hard drive? What is RAM? After that I picked up a C++ primer and taught myself the basics of programming. Now, I am a Programmer Writer: writing about software development.

So you taught yourself creative writing too?
Yep. Not only did I have to learn how to write a novel, but I learned all about self-publishing online and even about negotiating and contracting book rights with TV studios. It’s been quite an adventure and now I’m working on a fantasy novel and discovering that whole universe.

Do you have any advice for others who want to draw out their “inner book” or dream project?
If you want to take on a massive project outside of work, you need to have a framework for putting in time on a regular basis. The Connector provided that for me. Keep at it every day, and eventually it’ll come.

It also helps to work in a supportive environment that nurtures creative thinking.

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4/7/2011

Commute be gone: Connecting employees to campus

Tired of your commute? We think life's too short to arrive at work already stressed-out.

Watch Channel 9's Clint Rutkas as he explores the various ways we support employees to get to and from (and around) campus with "The Connector" private, Wi-Fi-enabled busses, shuttles, hybrid on-campus vehicles, carpools, vanpools, free regional transportation passes and more.

- The JobsBlog Team

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4/6/2011

Asking about your Facebook profile is a big no no

A resounding NO echoed through our Facebook page when we asked you our question of the week yesterday;  “Have you ever been asked about your Facebook profile in an interview?”

Not only had you not been asked about your profile, but it appears to have become a bit of a taboo topic.  In fact, here is how some of you felt if you were to be asked about your information on Facebook:
 

Achi: No never, here it's something "forbidden".
Oana: No, I haven't. I think I would consider it a lack of professionalism from the company's side. Facebook is more personal than professional, even if a is a social network, and asking about this is like mixing the personal life with work.
Bryce: No, Facebook is none of their business. If they asked, I would be insulted. Since it's a personal site for friends and family. Though, LinkedIn would be fine…
 
Perhaps a little surprising since just a few years ago it felt like Facebook was a hotbed for recruiting.  But maybe we, in recruiting circles, have started to better understand and define what counts as “personal” vs. “professional” in our online communities.  Even more so maybe we’ve taken our own advice not to believe everything we see on the internet.  And it will be interesting to continue to track how our social interactions continue to be redefined as we live privately on such a public platform.

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4/4/2011

Chasing inspiration: from Imagine Cup to Microsoft

The ‘Softies in question: Ed Donahue and Ashley Myers

The job titles:
Ed: Academic Developer Evangelist
Ashley: SDET, SharePoint Service Experiences

Ed Donahue and Ashley Myers (Tech)cellent Adventure started when they met as undergrad computer science students at DePauw University and competed together in two Imagine Cups (’09 and ’10). Their team,MangoBunnies, made it all the way to the US Finals – not once, but twice.

These two dynamic, young technologists are now both employees of Microsoft with Ashley on the Redmond main campus and Ed holding down her own home office in Washington, D.C.

Microspotting caught up with the two to get the inside scoop on Imagine Cup and life at Microsoft.

First off, I’ve gotta ask: where’d the name MangoBunnies come from?
Ed: It’s ridiculously simple, actually. I thought, mangos are delicious and bunnies are adorable, so, how about MangoBunnies?

Even though your team has a warm and fuzzy name, I hear that you took on some very serious world issues at Imagine Cup. Tell us about your team projects.
Ed: In ‘09, we made Computer Assisted Medication Regimen Adherence, or CAMRA. It reminds HIV/AIDS patients when to take their medication. Keeping patients above a 90% medication adherence rate helps to avoid drug-resistant virus mutation.

Ashley: And in 2010, we made the Light Alert app, which notifies women on their smart phone when they are in an area that has a history of sexual assault.

What are some of the challenges from those Imagine Cup projects that have served you well in the tech industry or specifically at Microsoft?
Ed: I had to make a 20-minute presentation on the CAMRA project, but I’d never spoken that long in public before. I was really nervous. I attended a seminar at Imagine Cup on how to make a presentation, and ended up going back to the hotel that night and making a lot of edits to the speech. The next day: I nailed my presentation.

That success gave me a lot of confidence moving forward and now I’m an Academic Evangelist so I get in front of crowds and have to make presentations at the drop of a hat.

Ashley: I was the lead developer for MangoBunnies, so my experience was a little different, but Imagine Cup was a great bridge for me from academic thinking to industry thinking.

Building an open-ended project taught me the importance of a long-term business plan and helped me to understand how all of the pieces fit together.

What would you say makes Imagine Cup different from other tech competitions?
Ed: At the core, it’s a student tech competition hosted by Microsoft. But, what makes it different from other exam-oriented competitions is that it’s about thinking outside of the box and building a complete end-to-end project.

Ashley: I’d say Imagine Cup is really about inspiration. It's not a Microsoft recruiting event and doesn't even feel like a competition. It asks students to try to solve the world’s toughest problems and it’s a place to incubate ideas and get feedback from CEOs, CTOs and more.

Did you always have your eye on a role at Microsoft?

Ashley: No. I was always planning to have a career in my hometown in Indiana. It wasn’t until Imagine Cup and all of its related conferences that I started to meet so many Microsoft employees. They were from all different areas of the company, but everyone was passionate about what they were doing. The excitement was contagious.

Ed: For me, I came to understand that I had two career passions: I love sharing ideas with people, but I also love coding and building things. The evangelist role at Microsoft was the perfect marriage of my passions.

Competing in Imagine Cup seems like quite an inspiring experience. What’s it like now that you are actually working at Microsoft?
Ed: I love it here. I’m also really passionate about “women in technology” and “technology in the classroom.” Microsoft is so supportive of those initiatives.

I ask different Microsoft teams for back-up on projects and the answer is always “Let’s do it.” They understand that it’s not just about a product or even about Microsoft, but about the future of the technology industry and how technology can change people’s lives. They’re always looking 3, 5 or 10 years ahead.

And are you two involved with the Imagine Cup this year – from the other side?
Ed: The academic evangelists are supporting the US Finals. So, I’m already busy with a lot of different aspects of it.

Ashley: I’m super excited because I have the opportunity to be a judge for the US finals. And again, as the whole Imagine Cup is really like a dialogue between the students and other professionals, I know that I will come away from it having learned a lot more too.

Any plans for new MangoBunnies projects?
Ed: Not yet. I’m really involved with Microsoft and outreach work right now like DigiGirlz.

Ashley: Yeah, I’m working on Teaching Kids Programming and IGNITE!

Ed: Maybe when I’m next in the Pacific Northwest, I’ll have to proctor some of Ashley’s classes. It’ll be a MangoBunnies mini-reunion.

Learn more from (and about) Ed and Ashley at “Ed & Ashley’s 5 Minute Show” vlog.

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4/1/2011

Top 5 ways to make a lasting impression in interview

Dear JobsBlog: I really want to work in the technology industry, but never seem to make it past the interview stage. How do I make a lasting impression in an interview?

- Desperately Seeking Recognition

Dear Desperately Seeking:
This is a really great question.  Fortunately, we were able to gather data from recruiters and hiring managers to help answer this question.  Together we’ve come up with a unique list of the top five ways you can make a lasting impact during interviews. Hang on to your seats . . . here we go! 

5.  Make a fashion statement
It’s hard to stand out from the crowd if you’re just another dude/lady in a suit (or another dude/lady in a sweat suit if you’re a programmer). Nothing says, “I’m uniquely qualified for this job” more than tinted glasses, low cut tops/exposed chest hair or wearing a crazy hat during your interviews. It’s the little details that make the difference. #Winning!

Extra credit points: Creative facial hair. No shoes.

4. Show your skills
Technology is a fast-paced industry that requires skilled multi-taskers. Why tell the recruiter how talented you are, when you can SHOW it.

Here’s one trick: leave your cell phone ON during the interviews and ANSWER it when it rings. Actually, just go ahead and ask a friend to call you during the interview so that you can be sure to have this opportunity.

Then when you answer the phone be sure to shout about “stock portfolio performance” or your “VC meeting schedule.” This will demonstrate to the interviewer that you are always available on a moment’s notice and can juggle multiple important issues at once.

Extra credit points: Show that you can answer text messages while maintaining eye contact with your interviewer.

3. Get up close and personal
In the digital age, it has become easier to apply for jobs, but we have lost much of the human element. When given the opportunity to meet your interviewer in person, you must make sure to form a true and lasting human bond.

Here’s how: share as much about yourself as possible – no matter how relevant to the job. Is your stomach a little off after that ill-advised trip to the Taco Bell drive-thru last night? Share. Just found a great new treatment for your athlete’s foot? Share. Can’t stop calling your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend at 3am – even though you keep promising you’ll stop? Share. Interviewers are human beings too.

You can then take that extra special step of touching your interviewer’s hand while talking about the more dramatic moments of your life story.

Extra credit points: Don’t forget a (firm, yet sensitive) hug when you leave!

2. Sell yourself
It’s also really important that the interviewer knows how cool and interesting you are. Don’t just hint at it – bludgeon them over the head with it! The one thing our industry desperately needs is more egos.

So take every opportunity to answer those hidden questions that interviewers ask. If they lead with, “How’s it going today?” you can segue into a discussion of how your groundbreaking Master’s thesis from ’05 directly applies to the problem that the hiring team is trying to solve now (or any other problem they might have in the future).

Make sure the interviewer understands that you could easily be a famous novelist, professional kitesurfer or ultramarathoner, A-list actor/actress or could totally blow everyone’s mind at New York Fashion Week – if only you felt like it. They need to recognize that you’ve given them the rare opportunity to be in your presence.

Extra credit points: You can leave a video diary documenting your rise to fame with the interviewer. Images and sound can really effect how an interviewer remembers.

And last, but not least…

1. Leave a little something when you go
This one may seem obvious to you seasoned pros.

You know how sense memory plays a big role in your life? The smell of baking cookies reminds you of home. Office supplies take you back to those first days of school. That’s what it is like for interviewers too!

It follows that if you really want to make a strong impression you should throw on a memorable perfume or cologne. Lots of it. So much that when you walk out after the interview you want your distinct bouquet to last with them all day long. Go one step further by scenting your resume with your chosen perfume.  This will ensure that you stand out from all the other candidates in the interviewers mind.

Extra credit points: Human beings were each born with their own natural scent. Skip the perfume. Skip bathing altogether. If you lead off with a pungent and unique personal body odor, your interviewer is guaranteed to never forget you. Never. Ever.

GOTCHA! Happy April Fool’s!

We hope you enjoyed a little light hearted ribbing from your friends at JobsBlog.  If you want the real skinny on interviews and careers, make sure to check out our recent posts.   

 


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