For those of you who cannot attend the ERE conference in San Diego next month to attend the Master Sourcing Session that I will be co-presenting with Shally Steckerl and Dave Mendoza there, you should like this event. This is an updated and expanded version of the short presentation under the same topic name I've been presenting occasionally over the past year. I will be sharing quite a bit of what I will cover at ERE... and thanks to the MetroWest HRMA, it's dirt cheap (they keep all the $ -- help support a good non-profit)!

TUESDAY, APRIL 10: The MetroWest Human Resource Management Association (HRMA) presents "Internet Recruiting at LightSpeed: Free Methods to Put Your Sourcing Productivity on Steroids" featuring Glenn Gutmacher of Microsoft from 7:45am to 10:40 am at Clark U. Graduate School of Management, 1671 Worcester Rd. (Rt. 9), Framingham, MA (get directions). Cost is $20 for members; $40 for non-members. To register, email metrowesthrma{at]Verizon[dot}net or call 508-429-2424.

P.S. If you mention that you're a guest of speaker Glenn Gutmacher (and if you read my blog, then you're a friend in my book!) and remind them that this qualifies you for the member rate, it will only cost $20.

By Glenn Gutmacher

Q: I saw your posting on ERE and thought you may be able to help. I am coaching a talented developer in the midwest who works for a small Microsoft partner. She aspires to work at Microsoft one day, but realizes she needs to get more experience and find a stronger partner that can expose her to more full cycle .NET development (she is a jack of all trades in her current position). Any advice where she could get experience, or what Microsoft likes to see on resumes? She is finishing up her bachelor's degree, worked in accounting for a few years before making this job transition a year ago. She realizes she is tapping out at this small partner and is creating a plan for her next steps. Any advice is surely appreciated.

A: Thanks, and it's nice to hear how you help candidates develop and not just look for the next placement! A BSCS degree (Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science) combined with full software development life cycle (SDLC) experience is ideal. She should apply to larger partners in her area who are involved in more of the key verticals where Microsoft is experiencing big growth (medical, finance, manufacturing, etc.) – she can find these using the advanced partner search on the MS website. Using the .NET platform in the context of Microsoft Dynamics is probably a good way to go. Being a female candidate for a software development job at MSFT (or a partner) doesn't hurt, either. Also recommended:

• Spend time on the MSDN technical forums, both in asking questions and answering them.
• Have the goal of earning MVP status in mind (regardless of whether she earns it, she'll be on her way to writing her own ticket career-wise).
• Other great ways to network are the MSFT-sponsored developer community events (typically held on the US east and west coasts, but increasingly elsewhere). Two big ones coming up later in 2007 are PDC and MIX but there are plenty that you can attend virtually (see full list) and check Channel9 podcasts as well for who and what topics are hot.
• Check out Microsoft's Tech JobsBlog, which is a recruiter-driven site dedicated to answering to questions about technical careers at Microsoft. Your question has probably been asked and answered there many times before in different ways.
• Last but not least, reach out to actual MSFT developers found on the forums (also, here's a public list of employee bios by technology. Once she's spent a little time on the forums, she'll find people open to sharing feedback on career and skill-development topics. This will also get her on the radar of people on the dev teams who can influence employment decisions, sometimes more than recruiters can. ;-)

Best of luck!