Under the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft is a popular employer among graduates in the technology market. The technology giant, founded in 1975, is among the top-five hirers of MBA graduates from prestigious universities.
The business schools where Microsoft usually hunts for talent include Stanford Graduate School of Business, INSEAD, and University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
Since 2014, Nadella has successfully transformed the image of Microsoft as a key leader in the technology services market, focusing its operations and development on the cloud and enterprise software, including enterprise social networking and artificial intelligence.
According to Chuck Edward, head of global talent acquisition at Microsoft, MBA graduates are appreciated at Microsoft during the transformation of the company to keep up with the evolving technology industry. This is because MBA graduates are usually ambitious individuals equipped with working experience, who are well trained in technology, data and analytics.
Over the previous years, Microsoft has increased its intake of MBA talent – currently the annual intake of new MBA graduates is around a few hundred people from approximately 150 different schools in 40 countries. Two-thirds of these new employees come from the US and Canada. After joining the company, these recruits are then positioned at various offices around the globe and given tasks in the areas of business development, finance, marketing, and human resources.
According to a study conducted by Transparent Career, an organisation responsible for gathering data of MBA graduates’ salaries, MBA graduates hired at Microsoft’s Washington headquarters earn around $160,000 as their signing bonuses and median annual salary. The data was based on self-reported salary of the MBA graduates who have been hired as finance managers, product marketing managers, and business programme and strategy managers.
Although there are impressive job prospects for MBA graduates, Microsoft has also been forced to make around 3,000 to 4,000 people redundant during the company’s transformation process. According to the New York Times, most of the employees who have been laid-off are sales personnel who are employed outside of the US.
However, according to Chuck Edward, these redundancies will not change the strategy to attract more MBA graduates. In 2017, the intake of MBA graduates increased by around 30%, and this number is expected to further increase in the future.
Edward also indicated the company is keen to retain talent by converting MBA summer interns into full-time employees. Furthermore, he also provided some useful tips on how a candidate can rise above other competitors during the interview process. In short, the candidate should be able to embrace the company’s leadership principles, which is to generate clarity and energy while delivering success. The hiring process takes around 3-4 weeks, but will also be adjusted to various business schools’ recruiting timeframes.
Microsoft is always working on attracting talent to help build a better future for the technology world. Contact our team at WM Reply today for some tips on how Microsoft’s useful products and services could be applied to improve the future of your business.