Social tools show job applicants what it’s really like to work at Microsoft.
By Steve Birge

Anybody who’s looked for a new job knows that the job posting rarely gives a real sense of what it would be like to work at the new place. It’s particularly challenging if the position is new or rare.That’s exactly the problem staffing consultant Terry Jordan was having when he filled an escalation engineer position recently. Applications were few, and people he did hear from were confused about what an escalation engineer does. At a global staffing conference, he met colleagues who suggested adding a podcast of an escalation engineer talking about what the job entails.

“People wouldn’t apply because they wanted to do more development,” Jordan said. “In reality, an escalation engineer is not just sitting on the phone talking to a customer; a lot of [the work] is digging into the code, looking at source code.” Interest quickly picked up after he added the podcast. “The number of resumes coming in tripled, and employee referrals doubled.”

Scott Oseychik was interviewed for the podcast about his work and life as an escalation engineer. Production of the podcast was simple, free, and quick. Doing the interview, editing it, and putting stock music behind it took a bit more than an hour, he said.Microsoft has several nontraditional, social-oriented recruiting initiatives, said Gretchen Ledgard, a marketing manager in Staffing Marketing who started Microsoft’s JobsBlog. Her team manages View<myWorld>, a Web site where visitors can read blogs and look more deeply at various jobs across the company; Microspotting, which Ledgard calls “the People magazine of Microsoft;” the Workin’ It @ MSFT Facebook page; the Hey Genius college recruiting site; and an internal site, Spread the Love, which helps employees evangelize for the company themselves.

All the sites are designed to help people who are thinking about applying or already interviewing for a new job. “Once they’re in the process, we’re giving them tools they’ll need to prepare,” Ledgard said. “It’s a self-sustaining support system, and it’s also one-to-many communication, rather than a recruiter telling people the same information over and over.”

As the reach of social media grows, some companies are going to virtual worlds like Second Life to get the word out on their job listings. Microsoft participated in Second Life’s first virtual career fair last fall, Ledgard said.

Expect more of the same in the future, Jordan said.

“What we’re doing really falls in line with a lot of what recruiting is doing in general, which is a lot more use of social networks,” he said. “It’s not really anything unusual, just a little unorthodox.” He said using virtual worlds for recruiting is a bit extreme, but necessary to woo the best people to Microsoft.Virtual-world recruiting fits in with Microsoft’s interest in uncommon, technology-based recruiting techniques, even if it is not yet a core part of its recruiting strategy, Ledgard said.

“Microsoft is doing some of the most innovative recruiting of any tech company out there,” she said. “Some companies have focused on stunts and ad campaigns, but we’re really focused on being open and transparent and fostering impactful and meaningful connections with applicants. And it’s working.”