How To Get a Job At a Mega-Corp 373
Barence writes "'With the economic hangover starting to wear off, the technology giants are once again recruiting in earnest. Apple, Google, and Microsoft all have vacancies on their websites, and now could be the perfect time to land a job at one of computing's biggest hitters.' PC Pro talked to people inside Microsoft, Apple, and Google to discover how to track down the best jobs, and what it takes to get through the arduous selection and interview processes." With lots of experience both within and without, what other words of wisdom can be offered to those wishing to break into a mega-corp?
Re:Freelance decker (Score:3, Informative)
Find a Recruiter (Score:5, Informative)
Provided you have the requisite skills, find a recruiter (aka Head Hunter) to get you a contract position at Microsoft (Volt, Comsys, et al.), Verizon, etc. You'll make more money, get a peek at the corporate culture (to see if you like it), and might have a better "inside track" at applying. You might even get paid for all the hours you work! (depending on the ethics of the corporation and your contract agency).
The down-side is that you will have to pay for your own benefits (generally) and may resent the fact that someone is taking home part of what the company pays without doing any work for it, and will have less job security.
How do you contact such a person, yo ask? Post your resume on Monster with the right keywords (provided, of course, that you have the skills!).
YMMV
Re:First, be a foreigner (Score:3, Informative)
I had one at IBM when I started in 2001, but by the time I left in 2008 they had phased them out for new employees in favor of an improved 401K plan. (Employees kept the pension plan that was in effect when they started... except for the change to a "cash balance" plan in the late 90s that they got sued over by employees a little too young to stay on the really old pension plan).
I suspect NASA still has a pension plan, but there you're working for the government.
Re:anyone noticed the snide arrogance? (Score:5, Informative)
It's totally like a list... Thats linked!
Re:Why would you want to? (Score:5, Informative)
I've worked for Microsoft for almost 10 years, both in Redmond and in Fargo, ND.
I've probably worked fewer than 10 50 hour weeks in my entire career here. I can think of one big disaster where I was at work 40 hours straight, and I slept on my office floor for a few hours here and there as RAIDs were rebuilding. But that sticks in my mind as a singular event, not a way of life.
I've told my last few bosses exactly where I stand: I plan on having more employers than wives, and I prioritize my time appropriately.
I got an eyeful, when, as a fresh-out-of-college hire at Microsoft, I watched my skip-level manager with a zillion dollars after a 15 year Microsoft career lose way more than some of his money going through a messy divorce because his wife was, basically, lonely.
Microsoft does not require consistent 50 hour weeks. If you are someone who can do top-quality productive work 60 hours a week, you'll certainly be rewarded for it, and I think that's a good thing.
I'm not saying that there aren't people who feel they have to work too many hours, and I'm not saying there are no groups or managers that lean on people for more work and are abusive about work/life balance. But it certainly isn't pervasive across the company, and employees can get out of those arrangements if they really need to.
It's really an employee-driven thing. If you feel like you need to work too much, that expectation may be coming from nobody other than you. Talk it over with your manager and move to a different group if there is an expectation mis-match. Every year employees take an anonymous survey where they rate all kinds of 1 through 5 questions about their boss, bosses boss, work life balance, and people do actally look at that stuff and try to act on it.
On the MS Fargo campus, the parking lot is pretty empty by 6pm. Earlier on Fridays in the summer. Most of us have families.
The vacation and maternity/paternity policies are also fine. I have trouble using all my vacation in a year so I roll foward anything that isn't going to be lost.
Re:This doesn't make sense (Score:5, Informative)
It does if you ever been part of recruiting for one of these firms. I've been an interviewer for a so called "mega-corp": 4 to 8 candidates a day, an hour per candidates, and thats after a pretty in depth screening process (so a second round interview: the first round is NOT done by HR, but by people that actually do the work, like software engineers and such, to weed out the worse).
Honestly? its pathetic. You'll have to go through 20-30 candidates to get anything worthwhile. Its not -TOO- bad for new grads. As long as they have the fundamentals, we can train them, no problem (and the quality of grads has increased greatly. 5 years ago it was a total joke). Getting -experienced- developers who actually know squat though? Its almost impossible, to the point that when we find one, we'll pay pretty much whatever they ask. That INCLUDES during the recession where there were 10 times as many applications. Its just that rare.
Where megacorps screw up though, in my opinion, is at the HR department. Stupid blanket policies like "don't hire anyone with 3.0 GPA, no matter what". So someone from Random Crappy University with a 4.0 will make it to first round (and usually gets dismissed, but they still got to talk to us). Someone with a 2.8 from a reputable institution, however, will not even get a phone call, even if we talked to them and know that there were reasons behind it (one bad year where family problems got in the way, and poof you go), and no matter how much we beg, it won't go through HR. That, is really stupid.