Microsoft is on a hiring spree at US business schools

Safiya Miller had her selection of job vacancies from large technology companies after obtaining an MBA from the Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management in New York State.

In the end, she chose Microsoft, becoming an account executive at her Bay Area offices in 2015. Her decision was secured by the company's legacy and the long and varied experience of her colleagues. "If I had to move west, I wanted a team where I could learn and grow," says Ms. Miller, who had previously worked on the East Coast of the United States. UU And Brazil. "I wanted to learn together with [people] that not only have they been in the industry for years, but they were also experiencing this renewal and the rebirth of the company," he says.

Few technology companies have the staying power of Microsoft. Founded in 1975 before many of today's technology founders were born, the company is among the top five MBA students at leading business schools, such as Insead, the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.


It attracts graduates like Ms. Miller because it's good to reinvent yourself. It is no longer considered to be tied to the fate of the PC market, under Satya Nadella, its CEO since 2014, the company has focused on offering broader services, such as cloud platforms, business software and artificial intelligence.


That means a wider selection of jobs for business school graduates, says Chuck Edward, head of global talent acquisition at Microsoft. MBAs are usually ambitious, technologically competent and trained in data and analysis. They also tend to have some experience in working life, all valuable to the ever-changing Microsoft.

"With MBAs, we know what we're going to get," says Mr. Edward. "Our demand [for MBA talent] has increased significantly in the last two or three years."

The company says it hires several hundred MBAs per year from nearly 150 different schools in 40 countries. About two thirds are from the US UU And Canada. They are sent around the world to work in divisions from commercial development and finance to marketing and human resources.

The average starting salaries and signature bonuses for MBA graduates at Redmond, Washington headquarters are more than $ 160,000 for finance managers, product marketing managers and strategy managers and business programs, according to Transparent Career, a Emerging company that collects MBA graduates. - informed salary information.


The reinvention of Microsoft has also led to redundancies. This year, the company fired between 3,000 and 4,000 employees, mostly sales personnel outside the US. UU., According to the New York Times. This came after the loss of jobs three years earlier, following the acquisition by Microsoft of Nokia's mobile business. Then, Microsoft dismissed 18,000 employees, 14 percent of its workforce, the deepest cuts in the company's history.

Edward says the recent job losses do not affect the demand for MBA talent. This year, Microsoft hired approximately 30% more MBA than the previous one, and plans to hire more. Many will be recruited from their summer internship program. "Our goal is to convert," says Mr. Edward. "When we bring an intern, [we want him] to become a full-time employee."

Those who want to stand out in the interview should reflect Microsoft's leadership principles: create clarity, generate energy and achieve success, says Edward. That process begins with a telephone interview and those who do the next round are invited to the company's headquarters or to another of its large offices. They meet with current employees and have a full day of interviews.

The process usually lasts three to four weeks, according to Microsoft, although it can vary to meet the recruitment deadlines of business schools.

The company visits the campuses in the second year of students to recruit additional full-time employees, a move that not all big recruiters do, says Michelle Hopping, director of MBA career management at Wharton School. Ms. Hopping says that Microsoft not only searches for Wharton students at recruitment events, but also offers extracurricular activities, such as competitions and educational opportunities in the classroom.

Once MBA graduates have joined the company, most participate in the Microsoft Academy for college rentals. Ms. Miller was assigned two mentors through this program when she joined. In addition to two or three major training events per year, members and alumni of Mach MBA