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This week, I attended Microsoft’s Global HR Conference, a gathering of the company’s HR staff from all over the world. Today, during my last break, I snuck way to a kiosk to check out the goings-on in the blog world. A trip to Robert Scoble’s blog delivered this juicy headline: Zef says Microsoft can’t hire great programmers.

Let me tell you – after three days of rousing speeches by key executives like Steve Ballmer, detailed discussions surrounding our organization’s strategies and initiatives for the next year, and declaring my profession about thousand times (“Hi. I’m Gretchen, and I am responsible for hiring great technical talent!”), my first reaction to this headline was: “What the <expletive deleted>?!” Followed by: “Who the <expletive deleted> is Zef?” And then: “What the <expletive deleted> does Zef know?”

I quickly scanned Scoble and Zef Hemel's entries, but as my next session was ready to begin, I couldn’t devote much attention to the read. And I walked away still piping mad.

After the conference, I was due at obedience school with my puppy, and since Josh was playing a baseball game, that meant, between work and home and home and school, I was stuck in the car by myself for about an hour - just processing that little amount of information more than and over in my head.

I hate when I obsess more than things.

Upon returning home, I had the opportunity to read Zef’s post in more detail, and in fact, I mostly agree with everything he said. Here are my thoughts:

Zef writes:

How do you recognize great programmers? And if you’re able to find them, how do you get them to work for you? The first question is hardest,Office Home And Business 2010 Serial, if not impossible to answer. The second is easier to give, but isn’t enough for some companies (particularly: Microsoft) to actually get the programmer to work for them.

I couldn’t agree more. Recognizing (or “identifying,Office Pro Plus 2010 Serial cl��,” as I like to call it) great technical talent can be difficult,Office 2010 Home And Student Product Key, but for a company like Microsoft, Zef is right – it’s very difficult to lure that talent out of hiding. I use the word “identify” instead of “recognize” because I think recognizing talent is the easy part from the job. And, contrary to what Paul Graham (and a few others, judging from the comments on Scoble’s blog) believes, you don’t have to be technical to recognize technical talent. Fully “evaluate” technical talent? Yes, I give you that. But recognize and identify it. No. Trust me. I can do that.

In fact, I know exactly where the talent I want exists. I agree with Zef; it exists in the open source community. But it also exists within the walls of other first-party, commercial software companies. And that talent is deeply buried.

Once you’ve recognized where your talent pool exists, identifying specific talent is tough. It’s much easier to identify talent in the open source community, and (since I realize the limitations of not being technical do not fully allow me to evaluate talent), we (as in Microsoft as whole) rely heavily on our personnel and MVPs to assist us in calling out and referring that talent.

Identifying talent who may currently work at other commercial software companies is much more complex, and that’s the problem recruiters struggle with every day. How to I lure the happy-go-lucky programmer at Company XYZ out of her coding utopia long enough to grab her attention? Better yet, how do I find her at all? She’s a secret agent, leaving no clues to her whereabouts or even her existence in the first place. What’s the value proposition for this person to give a damn about Microsoft? That’s the riddle I have to solve.

Zef goes on to write:

So, what can Microsoft do about this? Well, they can launch more recruiting initiatives, but, most likely great programmers won’t even notice them. If they see “Microsoft” in a job ad, they’re not likely to read it.

Yep, my sentiments exactly. Microsoft pays me to devise and deploy “recruiting initiatives,” but I’m not naive enough to think a job posting is going to attract anything but flies. In this age,Microsoft Office Pro 2010 Key, a successful recruiting effort must not only be highly innovative but also incorporate real “depth” into its message. Silly recruiters saying “here’s a free t-shirt” just don’t cut it anymore.

(Update 9/24: I realize my “flies” comment above may not come across as I intended. It was not my intention to characterize our applicants as bugs. I am very passionate about the applicant experience, and I believe many, many great people apply to Microsoft via our job postings. I was trying (badly) to spin-off with the old saying: “You can attract more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Job postings are the ultimate honey, and they attract a wide spectrum of people – some who are qualified; some who are not. Job postings play to the “volume” game. But what they don’t attract is that breed of insect who is not attracted to honey, and that’s still a large chuck of our potential candidate population. Job postings serve their purpose,Office 2010 Pro Serial Key, but you must employ other tactics as well. Again, I did not mean to offend anyone, and I sincerely apologize if did.)

Now, here’s where I disagree with Zef. He writes:

Possibly Apple hired better or smarter programmers [than Microsoft.] How come Apple hired those great programmers and Microsoft didn’t?

Ok, Zef. Gotta disagree with you on this one. There is nothing to indicate Microsoft hasn’t historically and doesn’t continue to hire top technical talent … and I believe we do this, at least, on par, if not better than our competition. (Ok – except maybe Google. But they are the company du jour.)

Let’s look at the scale we are talking about. According to Hoover’s Online, Apple’s employee base in 2003 was ~11,000 personnel. Microsoft’s was ~57,000. At this moment, Apple has 88 jobs open under the category “software engineering.” Also right now, Microsoft has 1210 “software engineering” (development, test, and program management) jobs open – and that number doesn’t count jobs reserved for college hires or jobs based outside the US. We are dealing with strikingly different numbers, and while I don’t dispute that Apple may have stolen a few great candidates from us here and there, Microsoft definitely hasn’t fallen behind in the war for talent.

Heck, based on these numbers and my company’s expectations of me, I’d be Apple’s sole technical recruiting force. Luckily, I have about 70 other technical recruiters to help me out!

And trust me; I will not let Microsoft hire anyone but the best.

gretchen