Noteworthy: Financial Times features Safiya Miller ’15, Microsoft’s MBA hiring spree

Despite significant layoffs over the past few years, tech giant Microsoft continues to hire large numbers of MBA graduates each year. In a recent article in the Financial Times, Johnson alumna Safiya Miller ’15 talks about why she chose to work for Microsoft after graduation and Microsoft’s head of global talent acquisition reveals what the company looks for in MBA candidates.

Key takeaways from the Financial Times’ article:

Microsoft is among the top-five tech hirers of MBA students from leading business schools.

The company hires several hundred MBAs a year from nearly 150 business schools in 40 countries, two-thirds of which are from the United States and Canada. This year, Microsoft hired about 30 percent more MBAs than last.

Many new MBA graduates are attracted to the company because of its history of innovation and its expansion into new tech areas, including cloud platforms, enterprise software, and artificial intelligence.

“I wanted to learn next to [people] who have not only been in the industry for years but were also experiencing this refresh, rebirth of the company,” says Miller, who took an account executive position with Microsoft’s Bay Area offices in 2015.

Microsoft’s expansion has created a demand for business school graduates who are technologically proficient and trained in data and analytics.

“With MBAs, we know what we’re going to get,” says Chuck Edward, Microsoft’s head of global talent acquisition. “Our demand [for MBA talent] has gone up significantly in the past two or three years.”

Many MBA candidates are recruited from Microsoft’s summer internship program and during the company’s business school visits.

“Our goal is to convert,” Edward says. “When we bring in an intern, [we want them to] become a full-time hire.”

Candidates who want to stand out should reflect Microsoft’s leadership principles.

Edward says the hiring process, which usually lasts three to four weeks, begins with a phone interview and those who make the next round are invited to meet current employees and have a full day of in-person interviews.

Read the entire article in the Financial Times to learn more to what Safiya Miller and others had to say about Microsoft and its recent MBA-hiring trends.