Bing Jobs blog

Want to change the world? Want to make the web a better place? Microsoft Global Foundation Services (GFS) is hiring rock star Network Engineers - by Kay Kelison

BingJobs — Wed, 02 May 2012 03:33:00 GMT

Does being an integral member of the team that is building out the Microsoft cloud for hundreds of millions of daily users sound exciting to you? Are you passionate, high energy and do you have a desire to help build the network that powers the world’s largest online services? GFS is responsible for delivering over 200 Microsoft web portals, Live and Online Services around the world including infrastructure, security and compliance, operations, globalization, and manageability.

Your first thoughts may be that you’re happy where you are at the moment, however I would love the opportunity to provide you with information on these impactful roles that may pleasantly surprise you. I’d like to know what motivates you: Is it intellectual challenges; breadth and depth of responsibilities; freedom; money; career growth?

The Global Foundation Services Team will be hosting a recruiting event in Boston, Mass. July 9^th thru July 13^th 2012 (travel & accommodations for qualified applicants included)! If you are interest to learn more please reach out to me directly via LinkedIn or contact Kay Kelison at kaykel@microsoft.com! I invite you to join our Talent Community then clicking “Join Our Talent Network” and be engaged! Please share this with anyone and everyone as widely as possible in your network!”

Microsoft’s “Garage” incubating the future of online services

BingJobs — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:56:00 GMT

Have you heard about The Microsoft Garage? It’s not a place to park or fix cars. The Garage is company wide initiative, compromised of a community, events, and services to foster and support grassroots innovation inside of Microsoft. In the Garage, you’ll find over 3000 people from across Microsoft who are eager to hear your ideas, provide feedback and, quite possibly, turn those ideas into reality.The Garage also offers a collection of useful tools to put ideas into action including access to hardware, source control, testing instrumentation and even hosting for server- or cloud-based apps.

Last year, the Online Services Division (OSD) started its own garage chapter to provide community and infrastructure to accelerate grass-roots innovation across our team. The OSD Garage community meets twice a month to kick around new ideas, learn from each other and crank out some cool prototypes.

The OSD innovations coming out the Garage are still confidential, but a good example of a recent success to be born out of The Garage is the Lync Conversation Translator. This real-time translator lets two people who speak different languages have an instant messaging conversation in their native tongues. Harry Emil, a Senior Test Lead in the Lync group, conceived the original prototype in his spare time at The Garage. With the support of other creative Microsoft minds, Harry’s idea is now part of our enterprise software and translates into to some 35 languages.The Garage also mixes serious innovation with fun by hosting "Science Fairs," where employees put together poster-board presentations to showcase their last inventions. The judges wear white lab coats, award “Science Fair” winners with trophies and let them ignite a homemade volcano dubbed “Mount St. Awesome.” It’s… well… awesome.

Microsoft Advertising (part of OSD) held their first Science Fair in January. The goal of their science fair was to encourage innovation, facilitate feedback and concept generation between colleagues and provide an outlet to showcase ideas. “Code speaks louder than words” was their mantra and over 30 startup projects were presented to a panel of judges compromised of the MS Advertising leadership team. The competition was fierce, the vibe was fun, and the innovation factor was high. The result of the first science fair?

Again, can’t tell you… yet.

But I can say that that when our smartest minds from across the company get together and think outside of the box, the results are extraordinary.

Want to contribute your ideas to the Garage? Check us out here for jobs and your chance to ignite a homemade volcano.

-Liz

Sit with Me: Bing sits in the red chair to support women in technology

BingJobs — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:24:00 GMT

Last week the Online Services Division at Microsoft participated in the Sit with Me Campaign. Sit with Me was created by members of the National Center for Women & Information Technology, a non-profit coalition that works to increase diversity in computing and IT. Sit with Me encourages others to learn and acknowledge the important role women play in creating future technology by taking a small but symbolic action: sit in a red chair and share your story. A variety of employees and leaders from Bing, MSN, the Global Foundation Services group and Microsoft Advertising sat in the red chair this past week to show their support for women pursuing and succeeding in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) related jobs.

For the month of April, the BingJobs Facebook community page will showcase our Sit with Me campaign. We will kick off our campaign by highlighting the Online Services Division’s leadership team sitting in the red chair! Today, we are featuring Gurdeep Singh Pall. Gurdeep is the Corporate Vice President for the Information Platform & Experience team at Microsoft Corp., and is part of the Online Services Division's senior leadership team. He is responsible for vision, product strategy and R&D for the Bing services and platform that includes mobile, mapping, and speech. If you are interested in working for the Information Platform and Experience team, please visit: http://bit.ly/IPEBingjobs

For more information about our Sit with Me campaign, please visit our BingJobs Facebook page.

To read more about how Microsoft employees support the Sit with Me campaign, please visit: http://sitwithme.org/tag/microsoft/

-Liz

Reinventing Software Testing: by Harry Robinson, Principal SDET for Bing

BingJobs — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:11:00 GMT

When is a Chinese restaurant not a Chinese restaurant?

Think software testing is easy? Then you're probably doing it poorly. Good software testing can be fun, but it's never easy.

Try this thought experiment. When a user searches for "Chinese restaurant" or "burger joint" or even just the word "vegetarian", Bing provides information on nearby restaurants that carry that type of food. As a tester, would you be able to verify that Bing handles these queries successfully?

Perhaps you would type in "Chinese restaurant", "Indian restaurant", "Greek restaurant" and so on, to see what results show up. But that doesn't scale. Bing supports two dozen different cuisines! And, since these results are location-specific, you would also need to check thousands of towns and zip codes. That would mean a lot of typing in queries and staring at results.
You could outsource the task to vendors to solve the scaling problem, but that would escalate your costs. And does a vendor really understand your product well?
You could decide not to test at all, and just wait to see what your users complain about. This solution is cheap in the short term, but do you really want your users to find your bugs for you? That's a poor way to treat customers!

No, software testing is not easy. Test engineering and automation have changed tremendously in the past few years, and serious testers work hard to design innovative solutions. For instance, Bing currently combines human intelligence with computing power to deliver great software.

Here's a hint of how Bing engineer René Barranco tested the restaurant queries above:

1. Send Bing thousands of search strings such as "Chinese restaurant 98004" and "Barbeque near Peoria, Illinois".

2. Write heuristics to evaluate the search results. A supposedly Chinese restaurant that doesn't have words such as "Canton", "Mandarin", "Sichuan" or "Hunan" on its website, or lacks wontons on the menu is worth closer investigation.

3. Check that the restaurants are reasonably close to the target location. If one or more of the restaurants seems too far away, look more closely at that search result.

4. Analyze overall patterns in the answers. Are results more accurate in some regions? Are some cuisines handled better than others?

That's just the start. Software testing isn't easy, but it is challenging and rewarding when done well. We aim to do it really well.

Want to learn more? Check out Bing's Software Design in Test job opportunities and join us in innovating how the world tests software and services.

- Harry

Twitter chat with Bing’s Staffing team and get real time answers on jobs, the Bing culture, and tips on how to interview!

BingJobs — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:23:00 GMT

On Friday, March 30^that 10am/pst, the Bing Staffing team is having a twitter chat up! What is a twitter chat up you ask? Twitter chats are scheduled gatherings of people on Twitter to discuss pretty much anything that interests them, using a #hashtag to keep track of the conversation. This is a great opportunity to ask the Bing Staffing team any questions you have regarding job opportunities with Bing and the Online Services Division. Maybe you have always wanted to know things like ... how much code do engineering candidates actually write during interviews? ... or, what are our most popular benefits for employees ? Maybe you just want to know what positions are open with Bing. This is your chance to ask the Staffing team any recruiting or job related questions!

Here is the team who is behind the @bingjobs twitter handle for our twitter chat up:

Eugenia Sawa -Microsoft Advertising Staffing Consultant:
Nicole Dresser - Bing Staffing Consultant:
Cammy Vasquez - UX Staffing Consultant:
Suman Akerman - Information Platform and Experience/MSN Staffing Consultant
Ashley Jenkins - Global Foundation Services Staffing Consultant
Kay Kelison - International Talent Sourcer

Our twitter handle is: @bingjobs

Hashtag: #bingjobslive

We will also be doing a bit of Bing trivia at the end of our twitter chat up and giving away some fun prizes! So, be ready to ask questions, play trivia and learn about some job amazing opportunities with Bing!

Bing: Deep in the Heart of Texas—at SXSW

BingJobs — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:52:00 GMT

I'm David Nelson and lead the Bing design team focused on social experiences. Before officially joining the Bing team, I was the UI Creative Director for Microsoft's Pioneer Studios - an design engine focused on creating new product offerings in the Entertainment & Devices division. Midway through my tenure there I was able take on a program looking at what the next generation of search could be and was instantly hooked on the search space. Having worked in range of design capacities throughout my career, intrepreneurial incubated efforts have bar far been my favorite area to work on and am truly lucky to be able to work on building out brand new services for a growing product as exciting as Bing.

The Social Search space offers some substantially different challenges than what comes from a traditional search engine. For one, we're at the beginning of a new turn in the industry and most importantly we're looking at putting human beings at the center of the traditionally very algorithmically defined core. Where looking at people and gaining insights from real people doing real things is the secret sauce to crafting great human things.

Microsoft has been a wonderful place to work at that truly fosters growth with a not only an extremely brilliant and talented group of colleagues but encourages participation in community events and conferences. Which I've been able to attend several world-class events, with the latest being SXSW Interactive. This was my first time down and proved to be an amazing networking and discovery experience - in leu of the cold and heavy rain that followed me from Seattle.

The rain, wind and cold did not stop the nearly 20,000 attendees at SXSW Interactive Conference and the folks at Bing made sure attendees were covered (literally) to stay warm from the wintry weather which is not normal for Central Texas during Spring Break. Bing hosted the "Bing Lot" for the 4 days of the Interactive portion of SXSW and supplied those in attendance with Bing Ponchos, blankets and t-shirts and also provided heaters at the lot for warmth and comfort.

Amanda Papp from the Bing Staffing team was also at the Bing Lot and was able to answer tons of questions about the interview process and the types of candidates we look for on our team.

We've got some pretty amazing and ground breaking things coming that we've been cooking up with a extremely talented team. If you're looking to make a difference in millions of peoples lives every day, check out our job board and apply.

*Since 2000, David has been designing and building award-winning experiences for a vast array of clients and industries.

Originally from Madison, WI (via Milwaukee, Chicago and San Francisco), David is currently the Design Lead for the Bing Social Design team. He lives in Seattle with his wonderful wife and two sons. *

Amanda Papp has supported the Bing Staffing team for the past 2 years and is based in Texas.

Want to Change the World? Want to Make the Web a Better Place? by Kay Kelison

BingJobs — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 17:52:13 GMT

Microsoft Bing is hiring the next innovator! We are heading to Dublin, Ireland to interview the best engineers from all over Europe for this quest! Will you be the LUCKY one?

Have you ever considered relocating to the U.S.? Have you ever dreamed about completely revolutionizing the way the world interacts with the internet? Engineers at Bing aim for nothing less than to solve the biggest challenges in computing related to social, local, relevance, computer vision, machine learning, semantic discovery, R&D, data mining and NLP and have the best resources in the world available to them. Have you ever thought about working at Microsoft? If so, then we have some career opportunities that will interest you.

We’ll be visiting Dublin, Ireland May 4^th to 6^th 2012 AND May 8th to 10^th for a recruiting event with some of the senior development directors and managers on the Bing Development Team and I’d love to know whether you’re interested in learning more about career opportunities with Bing in the United States at our corporate HQ in Redmond WA, OR if you can offer me any assistance connecting with others in the European software industry. Our intent at this recruiting event will be to interview highly skilled developers from Europe for U.S. based positions on the Microsoft Bing Development Team. If you’d like to learn more OR if you know anyone else who might, please email me as soon as possible at kaykel@microsoft.com

Microsoft Advertising's innovative culture holds the key to defining the future of consumer ads

BingJobs — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 04:53:00 GMT

One question I am frequently asked by candidates is “what defines the culture at Microsoft Advertising and the Online Services Division?” A few words that come to mind when describing our work environment and culture are: innovation, creativity and passion. One great example of keeping the spirit of innovation alive is the “Creativity @ Microsoft Advertising” initiative that Microsoft Advertising recently kicked off. This initiative is to support their focus on re-imagining the consumer ad experience. The team defined a process for channeling and incubating ideas, and also produced an “Ad Look Book,” which is a treasure trove of creative ad concepts.

In addition, part of this initiative was the “Ad Idol” competition where Microsoft Advertising employees were asked to submit their ideas to the leadership team. Over the course of 3 months, two monthly winners were awarded $1000 each. I don’t know about you, but to me that equals a weekend get away in Napa Valley …

The 6 finalists were paired with a UX designer and had the opportunity to present their concepts to Qi Lu and members of the leadership team.

Sound fun? If you're passionate about what you do, our culture will encourage you to come up with some of the coolest ideas in the industry. Check out Online Services Division’s job openings and join us!

--Liz

SXSW 2012: Bing Booster presents the Bing Lot! 3 nights. 3 happy hours. Lots of technology.

BingJobs — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 22:04:00 GMT

Hi y’all!

This is Amanda Papp from the Bing Staffing team. I will be attending SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas http://sxsw.com/interactive from March 9-13th. If you are attending SXSW and interested in exploring opportunities with Bing then please email me at bingjobs@microsoft.com with “I’m Going to SXSW” in the subject line. I will reach out to you to set up a time to chat about our exciting team during the SXSW festivities.

I would also encourage you to join me at the “Bing Lot”! for some grub and drinks. We’ll be featuring some cool startups from the Bing Booster community, so get ready for a different happy hour every night. I know you are probably thinking “What is Bing Booster???” Well … Bing Booster is designed to help Bing and startups connect, collaborate and drive the future of technology and search. Bing Booster is also interested in hearing about all the cool stuff that the various startup communities are working on.

Bing Lot!

Where: 400 Congress (4^th & Congress)

When: March 9-12^th from 4pm-2am (closing at 10pm on March 12^th).

Happy Hour: 4pm-6pm (early arrival is encouraged since access is limited)

After Party: 6pm-2am (cash bar will remain open till closing each night).

Wait one more thing! Don’t forget to join Bing’s talent network and have the latest job openings delivered right to your inbox. You can sign up here.

I hope to see you there!

Amanda

How Microsoft is empowering women to change the face of technology

BingJobs — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:44:00 GMT

Women in technology is a hot topic in the news today. As a Staffing professional for Microsoft, and leader of the Seattle Girl Geek Community, I am always eager to read about what educators and companies are doing to encourage and promote women in science related jobs. While major strides have been made in advocating women in science, unfortunately we still face a decline in women pursuing STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) degrees and staying in STEM related careers. Although nearly half of young people entering law, medicine and science in the United States are women, an alarming international trend shows a decline in the number of women majoring in computer science since the mid-1980s. Some of the statics to support the noted trends are the following:

In 1985, women earned 37 percent of computer science bachelor's degrees in the United States. By 2008, this share had dropped to 18 percent. At major research universities, the figure is only 12 percent.
Studies show an ongoing exodus of women from high-tech companies at mid-career.

Though there are relevant and important speculations as to why these issues exist, many educators and major companies have introduced strategic programs to encourage women to pursue and stay in STEM related jobs. Microsoft is an industry leader in driving solutions to address this problem, and is well known for attracting women to high tech careers. To achieve this reputation, the company has introduced a wide range of initiatives. Here are just a few of many of the amazing programs Microsoft has launched:

Outreach: The Women's Resource Group at Microsoft has created programs that provide girls with opportunities to interact with today's technology and learn about careers in the high-tech industry. Some of these programs include:

DigiGirlz, our signature program offered at multiple locations globally offers a one-day event and high-tech summer camp for high school girls.
Microsoft's summer internship program for high school students
Through programs including IGNITE in Seattle and SciTechGirls in Europe, Microsoft employees reach out to their communities to mentor students, inform them about the field and dispel stereotypes.

Role models: Recruiting qualified technical women and highlighting role models. Here are a few examples of the amazing women I partner with in the Online Services Division:

Women in Microsoft Advertising: http://binged.it/A2Qywz
Dr. Ying Li: http://binged.it/xu5Uvk
Christina Koehn, UX Designer for Bing: http://binged.it/quhqjQ

Benefits, networking and professional development: Whether you choose a management role, dive deep into a technology, or want to explore multiple professions, you'll find everything you need to drive your career at Microsoft. Here are just a few of many amazing resources Microsoft offers:

Microsoft has built women's networks to help women grow professionally and personally. For example, The Women at Microsoft group organizes seminars, speaker series, networking events, mentoring and volunteer opportunities. Its biggest event is the Women's Leadership and Development Conference. Every year this conference attracts more than 4,500 employees!
Established training and mentor programs.
A variety of distribution lists and information web sites for Microsoft employees to help women share information and build connections across organizations and geographical locations.
Microsoft offers unparalleled breadth and depth of career opportunities and the ability to grow your career. You can work for a well-known product used around the globe or pioneer a startup that could be the next big thing. The opportunity to change jobs within the company or learn new skills is common and encouraged!

Again, this is just a high level summary of some of the resources and programs Microsoft has initiated over the years to promote women in science. I am proud to work for a company that truly recognizes the value of diversity, supports career development, and rewards great work.

If you are interested in talking with me about jobs with the Online Services Division, or careers with Microsoft, please feel free to reach out to me at liz.morgan@microsoft.com. You can also find me here: or here.

The Bing UX Design team travels across the pond to attend Interaction 12 by Cammy Vasquez

BingJobs — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:30:00 GMT

The Bing UX Design team and their staffing partners are heading to Dublin, Ireland this week. We’re not flying over the Atlantic just for a good pint of Guinness and some Irish cheer. Bing is attending the IxDA “Interaction 12” conference. We will be showcasing some of our best products and hope to demonstrate our commitment to producing cutting edge design and the growth of the UX community.

Everyone attends a conference for their own professional reasons. As a Staffing professional, I believe that I benefit from attending industry conferences, such as Interaction 12, because I am able to increase my business acumen and build connections with thought leaders and some of the industry’s brightest and best talent. The benefits from networking in a conference environment are immense. Meeting new people will only provide significant connection points to information related to innovations, new products, and key people to connect with. In my experience, networking can also result in finding a career opportunity of a lifetime.

We invite you to stop by and to chat with the Microsoft UX employees at Interaction 12 to learn more about all the User Experience & Researcher opportunities available. Microsoft will have representatives from various businesses, such as Bing, Bing Mobile, Office, Windows Phone and more. Please be sure to ask one of us how you can join our Talent Network – a great way to stay connected to Microsoft and UX Designer job opportunities. It takes less than 5 minutes to sign up: http://bit.ly/xln0lm

Network, connect, make ties---It will inevitably pay off!

Cheers from Dublin!

-- Cammy

Land An Interview For Your Dream Job By Your Mobile Resume. – By Kay Kelison

BingJobs — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:06:00 GMT

With today's mobile space, employers are creating mobile websites to allow professionals to be notified when the right job comes along. Imagine you have signed up to receive a notification about an opportunity that you'd like to apply for, but you don't have access to your resume. Or you might be one of those who will wait to get home to your computer to send it. Or maybe you might even forget to apply or be too late because of the type a day you are having. However, if you had a mobile app that could create a mobile resume that could be submitted via mobile no matter where you are, this would give you another edge over others in your job search. Below I have given some instructions on how to create a resume, and some of the apps with iPhone, Android, and Windows.

Suggested Steps

Choose a mobile app that allows you to create a resume. These mobile applications should allow you to access your resume from your mobile device. It's important that the app should allow you to create and share your resume with potential employers.
Create an account through the apps websites. These apps allow you to upload or create your resume online or mobile. You can then use resume as a doc to upload to an employer's website. You can also create a Word doc on your computer, save it in a PDF file, download a PDF reader which will allow you to open your resume in a PDF, and send it via email, etc. Pretty cool.
Be sure to enter your relevant information into a mobile application of your choice from your mobile device. A popular application is Resume Bear (resumebear.com) for both iPhone and Android mobile devices. This free application allows you to send your resume to potential employers from your phone and see who has been reading your resume. It's my favorite on usability, simplicity and the fact you can see who has been reading your resume....pretty sweet!
Most importantly: keep your resume updated with current information. Remember that potential employers are looking at and asking for your resume, whether it is on a website or in your mobile application.

Recommended Apps:

Pocket Resume - $2.99 - iPhone/Android	Resume App Pro - Free - Android
Resume App - $2.99 - iPhone	My Resume - Free - Windows
PDF Reader - Free - iPhone	Your Resume - $0.99 - Windows
Resume Bear - Free - iPhone	Resume - Free - Windows
Winning Resume - Free - Android	Every Day Resume - Free - Windows

I am also a technical recruiter working for OSD/Bing division and would encourage you to join our talent network to keep up with the latest Bing job opportunities, or apply for a specific job today.

To join our community, click HERE and look for the orange box in the upper right corner that says "Join Our Talent Network" to opt in. It's one of the best places to connect with recruiters and get noticed!

How to Network with Your Staffing Partner

BingJobs — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:50:00 GMT

First thing you want to do is evaluate what you current work is now. Or, if you are unemployed, look at the jobs you have really loved during your career and focus on the reasons why you enjoyed them. This will help you determine what your next role will be.

Second partner up with the recruiters who specialize in this area.

Here are some tips to find these recruiting partners:

1.) Search on LinkedIn by companies you may be interested in working for now or in the future. Each company has a team of recruiters who hire for full time employment.

2.) Reach out and start building the partnership with a few recruiters who will be your eyes and ears for new roles and advocate for you! I often talk with someone and might not have the right fit for them at that time, but I encourage them to keep in touch with me.

3.) Follow your recruiter on Twitter, or other social media avenues. We often post new positions via Twitter or LinkedIn. The days of finding a job through the company career site are still valid, but having the connection through social media avenues will also keep you updated even if you are not actively looking.

To learn more about roles at Microsoft please reach out to me, Mychelle Mason on LinkedIn and also join our Talent Community for updates!

Meet Omar from Social Search at Microsoft Silicon Valley

BingJobs — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:49:00 GMT

My name is Omar Alonso and I am a senior technical lead on Bing's social search team in Mountain View, CA. My interests are information retrieval, information access, human computation, crowdsourcing, and information visualization. I hold a PhD in computer science from the University of California at Davis. My team works on one of the coolest areas of the Internet today: how to leverage social data to help users find the most relevant information.

Social keeps evolving on a daily basis so an important part of our job is to mine the utility of social data and how it can benefit millions of users when they are searching on Bing. Between the requirements of "web search" and the amount of social data available to us, we have some pretty hard-core indexing and serving requirements, and a bulk of our research goes into determining the best ranking models to apply to the social data. Of course, not all of the features are behind-the-scenes - we have some prominent user-facing features as well.

What do I do exactly? I work on the relevance side of things trying to understand what users are looking for and how can we present the most relevant information we have available to users. More specifically, I analyze our query stream - millions of queries! -- to learn how users search and simulate improvements. I manage the experiments to collect labels that can be used later to train models for machine learning.

Microsoft is a great place to work. There are plenty of problems and challenges, great resources, lots of opportunities to collaborate, and a top research lab called MSR which is like a faculty but much bigger. Microsoft is also very open about participating in conferences and publishing papers even for product groups. In my case, I am involved in the information retrieval community (SIGIR) so these events are a great place to showcase what we do and interact with students and academics.

One last item: we are hiring! The Bing Social Search team is the only place on the planet where you can work with Web, Facebook and Twitter data. Enough said.

"Showing up" in your interview!

BingJobs — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:07:00 GMT

One of the perks of being a recruiter is meeting lots of new people, lots of new conversations and ideas sharing, it's fantastic! But the ONE thing that consistently comes up in my conversations with potential candidates before their onsite interview is "So what are they really looking for, what does a successful interview mean?" Well, there are many competencies that would make for a successful interview but in my opinion three really stand out and that is what I advise candidates on.

First is Technical Strength. This is the skill that you will use every day to do your job and it is the first thing that is evaluated. It is the know-how and the understanding of your body of work; the better the quality, the more successful you are. For example, simple, clean, optimized code is desirable, so you don't have to use ALL your knowledge to writes pages of it to be successful. (Yes: you can probably tell, I am a technical recruiter. J)

Second is Problem Solving. While this may sound cliché, you have to realize that companies do not get ahead if they aren't solving the right problems for their customers, providing the right solutions for their client. Be it retail, software, food, telecom, the list goes on. Now this is a tough one because it is hard to exhibit problem solving in the hour or so that you get during an interview with one interviewer. I agree that it takes an extended period of time working alongside to prove this ability but the good news is that there is a way you can exhibit this quality, it's called "Approach." The way you approach a given problem, situation or idea is the start of your problem solving, the more thoughtful and well laid out the structure, the better your chances of impressing the person across the table. Starting with data gathering is the first step, you may or may not have the entire information needed to solve the problem (the caveat is that this may be intentional or unintentional, and there may or may not be more information), but if you don't ask you will not get it. So don't hesitate to ask! Now the second step is analyzing the problem, most of us do it in our heads and like to just deliver the solution, remember this is all about approach so the interviewer wants to "see" that analysis process. Walk them through it, be vocal, weigh the possibilities out aloud and then settle on one solution that seems best to you and then only should you implement the solution. This way, you are exhibiting the ability to see the big picture, your knowledge base and the ability to make a decision. Sounds simple enough but believe me when it comes to actually carrying out this "operation" most people jump into delivering the solution right away.

The third for me is Passion. And frankly many people roll their eyes when they hear the word "Passion," (maybe because it's been overused) the first reaction I get is "that's so HR." J True, true but look at organizations/products around you and notice that the more successful ones are the ones that have passionate people behind them. You might be passionate about the product/offering, the industry, the company or the technology, but the key is to exhibit that passion in your conversation. It's not a "fake it till you make it" thing. Either you have passion or you don't. If you are passionate about any part of the work that you do, would like to do, then definitely don't hold it back. Bring yourself to the table!

Again, this is my individual opinion, based on my experience of many years and for you these are merely suggestions, perhaps filters that you can use in your next interview conversation. You may choose to use all, some or none of these but just remember your interview is your day to show up so be there with bells on! All the best!