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Microsoft Shows Strong Job Demand
In spite of a weak overall U.S. economy, Microsoft is showing extremely strong job demand. Over the past few months the number of full-time jobs posted on Microsoft's Web site (at http://www.microsoft.com/jobs) has averaged over 4500 daily. This number doesn't include an approximately 1500 additional open positions at non-U.S. locations.
By far the largest number of open positions at Microsoft fall into three categories: Software Development Engineer (SDE), Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET), and Program Manager (PM). There are of course hundreds of other job titles, and many of these job titles have dozens of open positions. However, on any given day there are approximately 900 open SDE positions (about 20% of the total number of open positions), 650 open SDET positions (14%), and 500 open PM positions.
Volt's director of training recently sat down with a large group of Microsoft recruiting managers in Building 19 in Redmond, WA and asked these recruiting managers what they are looking for in full-time employees. The Microsoft managers stated that they often look to hire contract employees working for Volt and other agencies into full-time positions; however many contract employees simply don't meet the technical skill level requirement necessary to be considered for a full-time position.
Volt asked the recruiting managers what these key skills are and the response from Microsoft was overwhelming and unanimous: coding skills, coding skills, coding skills, and coding skills. Microsoft's core activity is creating software and all jobs directly or indirectly support that activity.
Volt's Technical Training division, VTE, offers over 200 different classes, including many coding classes, at the Volt Campus Office behind Building 27 in Redmond. These classes are offered from 2:00 to 8:00, Monday through Thursdays, and from 8:00 to 2:00 on Saturdays and Sundays. See http://www.vteOnline.com for VTE class information.
Coding skills are not needed for every job at Microsoft, but regardless of the type of job you'd like to have at some point, the more coding skills you have, the better your chances are of landing that job.
Microsoft recruiting managers say they look for job candidates with all types of coding skill but especially in C/C++, C# (and ASP.NET with C#), JavaScript, PowerShell, and the T-SQL languages.
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