What are Recruiters at Microsoft Looking for?

When trying to fill a role, recruiters at Microsoft are seeking candidates with experience and skills that best match the job description. A genuine interest in Microsoft is also a plus–at the very least, the candidate should have researched the role and company.

What are the Different Types of Recruiters at Microsoft?

In general, recruiters at Microsoft you may consider reaching out to include:

• Recruiters
• Hiring managers
• Team members
• Leadership on the specific team you’re interested in joining

When do you meet with recruiters in the interview process?

The Microsoft interview process has 2 stages:

• Stage 1: Phone interview The phone interview includes a variety of behavioral questions/projects and technical and product questions. They might also include several "case-like" questions that analyze the candidate's logic, critical thinking, and analytical abilities.

• Stage 2: Onsite interview The in-person interview is an all day affair, including interviews with 4 product managers and they may even include a stress interviewer to see how the candidate reacts unders stress.

Since the hiring process begins with a phone screen with an Microsoft recruiter, connecting with a recruiter is usually the best way to start the hiring process. While team members may not be actively searching for talent like recruiters, they can still refer you for a role, increasing your odds of getting an interview. That makes connecting with team members a good place to start as well.

Which Recruiter at Microsoft Should you Contact?

Sending a cold email to a recruiter at Microsoft can triple your response rate, based on our fellow’s data. This is especially helpful when applying to big companies like Microsoft that can get thousands of applicants per job posting.

You may be tempted to search for recruiters at Microsoft and hiring managers directly on LinkedIn–but your odds of landing a job at Microsoft are best if you reach out to a recruiter who is searching for candidates like you. Recruiters are often seeking very specific talent for very specific roles.

You can start by searching for jobs at Microsoft on LinkedIn. The job posting will often include the recruiter who made the post. If there is no recruiter associated with the post, try reaching out to someone on the team or in a leadership position related to that team. For example, if your target role is on the Data Science and Solutions team in Cupertino, reach out to current members of that team.

If you can’t find any recruiters, team members, or hiring managers associated with the job postings, then try downloading our free Chrome extension, Career Connect. Our app automatically finds recruiters’ contact information and generates cold emails. Double your interview rate while saving 2 hours weekly by:

Track or Bookmark Applications

Generate Outreach Email Messages

Personalized AI email based on your resume and job description

Re-Generate and Edit Message

Use different resumes for different roles

Auto-send outreach via your personal Gmail

Auto-track your email outreach via the pipeline

Track Linkedin outreach via the extension

How to Find Recruiter's Email Addresses from Microsoft?

Once you’ve found a recruiter at Microsoft that’s the best fit for your desired role (and applied to the job!), it’s time to reach out. Both email and LinkedIn messages work fine, but recruiters often limit who can contact them via LinkedIn. Your LinkedIn account likely limits how many private messages you can send as well. Cold email has no such restrictions. The Microsoft recruiter probably receives far more cold messages via LinkedIn than email–a clear customized email can help you stand out. We’ve found that personalized emails to recruiters triple your response rate.

To find the Microsoft recruiter’s email from LinkedIn, you can use our Chrome extension Career Connect. This tool finds the emails of recruiters connected to a job post you’re applying to, then generates an optimized outreach email using AI.

To use Career Connect, just find a job posting you're interested in, then click the extension–you should see the best company insider’s email to contact, as well as a highly personalized email based on the job posting and your resume, ready to be sent.

The most common email format for Microsoft employees is "first name"."last name"@Microsoft.com–For example, Jane Doe would have the email janedoe@Microsoft.com. Other common email formats include f.last@Microsoft.com and first_last@Microsoft.com. If you can’t find a recruiter’s email from an extension like Career Connect, you can try manually entering their names into these 3 email formats, then bcc the email to all the potential addresses. An extension like NeverBounce can confirm which email is valid.

What are Recruiters Looking for in Terms of Company Culture?

Unlike companies like Amazon that emphasize company culture in the early stages of interviews, recruiters at Microsoft and hiring managers do not seem to assess candidates exclusively based on their culture fit. That doesn’t mean they’re not critical to understand. Letting recruiters know that you’re familiar and aligned with Microsoft’s values will still improve your odds.

Microsoft values:

• Citizenship

• Trustworthy Computing

• Innovation

• Diversity and Inclusion

• Environment

Once you’re familiar with Microsoft’s values, you can include a sentence or two about how you and your experiences might align with their values. Don’t force it–you’ll have time to demonstrate your culture fit in the interview. But if your experiences align with their values, you can show your recruiter that you did your research and could be a good fit for the culture.

To see interview questions and a more in-depth guide to the interview processes, in our How to get to a job at Microsoft guide.

How to Write Cold Emails to Recruiters at Microsoft and What to Say

Connecting with recruiters at Microsoft is not as easy as sending a generic networking email–effective cold emails should be highly personalized to the company and recruiter. For example, recruiters at Microsoft often look for candidates who align with their values of accessibility and inclusion.

If you are not sure what to say, don’t worry. You can use Career Connect to write the perfect email using AI. The tool generates outreach emails tailored to your resume and the job description, then sends them to recruiters. Each sentence of the email is optimized to stand out to recruiters and get you an interview.

If you prefer to manually write the email, we’ve also made you a template customized for recruiters at Microsoft. For other companies, you can check out this guide with our cold email template to help you.

When you reach out in your cold emails, you need to hit the right points for your role. Use these tips to ensure you are catching their eye so they move you forward.

• If you’re trying to get a software engineering job at Microsoft, make sure you research the programming languages that they use and highlight your expertise in each one.
• To become a UX designer at Microsoft, make sure your portfolio showcases all of your skills throughout the entire design process.
• When reaching out to get a data science job at Microsoft, make sure you mention relevant projects that match the goals of the company.
• If you are aiming to become a digital marketer at Microsoft, make sure you quantify the results in your background statements because it is more impressive.
• To become a product manager at Microsoft, make sure you research their products heavily and talk about how your background connects to their current work.
• If you’re reaching out to find a sales development representative (SDR) at Microsoft, make sure you focus on how you approach your funnels differently and why you are the right fit for this specific team.

Microsoft Cold Email Template

You can use our template to send strong cold emails along with your applications.

Hi [recruiter name],

[Personal greeting and intro]. [Include reason for reaching out].

[Insert interest in company’s product/values/mission and a follow up statement tying in your background]. [insert any other relevant background information - tie it into the job description]. [Tie interest in company and background into a closing statement]. [End with an ask to connect or to move forward in the process].

Best, [Your name]

Here is the template filled out so you can get a sense of how to do it yourself:

Hi Jane Doe,

I recently applied for the Data Scientist role on LinkedIn–I noticed you’re a recruiter at Microsoft seeking data talent. While I’m not sure if you are the right person to contact, I definitely have the experience and skills the team is seeking.

As a Math major, I’ve taken the time on the side to perfect my code to analyze data problems. I’ve worked on 10+ data projects focusing on data cleaning, visualization, and prediction models using machine learning, neural networks, and topic modeling.

My data cleaning as a Microsoft intern fixed 60+ cross-set errors and helped the strategy team make a marketing pivot–I can see myself leveraging those experiences to scale the data mountain at Microsoft. Working cross-functionally taught me to visualize data clearly and concisely, which I think makes the perfect fit for Microsoft’s culture of Citizenship

I’m sure you’re very busy, but I would appreciate the opportunity to hop on a quick call to learn more about the role and team. Would you be free for a 15-minute call on Monday after 10am or any day after Wednesday?

Best, John Doe

With recruiter email addresses and cold email templates at your disposal, you should be on your way to more application responses and interview requests.

AI Generated Cold Email

Our extension can write the email for you. Using your resume and the job description, our extension generates a personalized email to the recruiter. Not only does our app save time, but every sentence of our email is written based on our hiring data to be as effective as possible. Each email is tailored to the role and recruiter.