Challenges of Testing Data - Is it Really 73°F in Seattle right now? – by Cyril Bouanna

Cyril Bounanna is a Senior Development Lead for the Bing Data Quality and Measurement Team.  Today he presents to us a real-life scenario that software engineers and testers encounter when they are building Bing. *** Software engineers have developed a lot of expertise and solutions to assess code quality. From static analysis to E2E automation, performance benchmarks, or search relevance, we know how to verify if our code does the right...
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Why Should You Talk to a Recruiter, You Ask? I’ll Tell You - by Andrea LaCoy

I think that everyone would agree with the statement that we live in a world that is ever changing and always evolving. The standard way of doing things in the past are being replaced with the better, faster, more efficient versions and this can been seen in almost everything we do. Making a career change is no exception. Gone are the days of reading the ‘Want Ads’ in the newspaper, or dropping off your resume to that potential...
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Scouting For Talent - by Brian Christensen

Working as a Staffing Consultant within Online Services Division here at Microsoft, I am constantly reminded that my job has a lot of similar aspects to sports and trying to put together a team that is set up to win. While watching the NBA Eastern Conference Finals this past weekend, I noticed the intricacies of what it took to put a winning team on the court. Even before teams come together, there is a lot of behind the scenes work that...
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Management Excellence - by Eugenia Sawa

As we head into the NBA Finals, my mind turns to Erik Spoelstra and the unique situation he is in.  With the finals starting tonight, I think about how Erik Spoelstra’s role as head coach of the Miami Heat, a team of very strong individual players each with their own strengths translates to the world of high technology and people management. Understand your players – Understand your team – how they operate as a team, their...
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Sit with Me: Bing sits in the red chair to support women in technology

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...
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Meet Dr. Ying Li, Partner Engineering Manager

  Dr. Ying Li is the Partner Engineering Manager responsible Online Services Division Privacy and Ads Technology Security and Compliance. Prior to her current role, Dr. Li was responsible for building Audience Intelligence and ad targeting for Microsoft’s Online Service Division, had established the data mining services to MSN businesses worldwide, and was a key founding member of Microsoft’s adCenter business. Dr. Li had built...
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Meet Michele Banko!

Michele Banko, Senior Research Software Development Engineer.   Michele is part of the Query Understanding team within Microsoft Advertising Research and Relevance.  This team develops models and algorithms that reflect user intent of Bing queries in the context of advertising. By doing so, they aim to make advertising more efficient for both advertisers and consumers.   Michele’s team consists of nine applied scientists and...
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Meet Megan, Criminal Compliance Manager and GFS new hire!

I moved to the Bay Area from the Midwest after I graduated from college hoping to pursue a career in a more expanded job market. I have a degree in Business-Sociology from a small liberal arts college and I had originally planned on going into Human Resources. Shortly after I arrived in Silicon Valley my career path changed when I found a vendor position at Microsoft with the Global Criminal Compliance Team. Global Criminal Compliance is a team...
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Diversity In Sourcing and Recruiting: The Truth Behind the Questions That Rarely Get Asked By Kay

Diversity is defined by a single word: variety – which basically means different. But very few people follow up with the question: “Different in what way?”  The next question we all want to ask, and don’t, is this: “How and why is diversity important in the workplace?” We can all agree that we really just need to find the right skill, the right talent for our companies and clients. But I really want to...
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Balancing work and kids: real advice for real life

Anshu Khurana gives us a glimpse of what her life is like with 2 children under the age of 4 while she balances a successful career as a Sr. Product Marketing Manager in advertising with the Online Services Division (OSD).  Many of us in OSD know what it’s like to balance our professional and personal life.  Read more about Anshu’s story here on Microsoft’s JobsBlog. 
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