Pill people posit?

OK, thanks to some noted bloggers (Tim, Don, and Robert in particular) everybody knows that Chris Sells "took the red pill" and joined Microsoft. No doubt, this has caused some people to wonder about their chances of getting hired by Microsoft.

Well, if you work for Developmentor the chances appear pretty good: Tim, Don, and Chris all were associated with that company. I don't think Robert ever worked for DM, but I imagine he might have come close at least once during his peripatetic travels through the industry - and California - over the last few years.

What other associations stand out? Well, Chris is actually the third INETA Speaker Bureau (SB) speaker to be hired by Microsoft in the last few months (after Yasser and Asli Bilgin). Ironically, Chris is the guy who came up with the cute little "INETA Speaker" logo that a lot of us use on our sites. When you consider that there are only about 30 speakers in the SB, that's a pretty fair hit ratio considering the SB's been around for only 9 months or so.

Also, Chris was an MSDN Regional Director. Of course, lots of RDs do contract work for Microsoft. Chris Kinsman and I are right now working on the ASP.NET Hands-On-Labs for TechEd, for example. And the companies of RDs Tim Huckaby, Scott Stanfield, and Jon Rauschenberger (Interknowlogy. Clarity, and Vertigo respectively) have done tons of work for Microsoft over the years. Strangely enough, while all three of these guys were - collectively - featured in Microsoft's "Iron Developer" contest, none of them have a blog (perhaps "Iron" refers to the "iron age"? ). Are there other RDs who have been hired by Microsoft? There are around 150 of them worldwide, so you'd think there must be others.

So, speaking of the SB and RDs, what's the correlation between the two? Pretty high, in fact: of the current 29 members (subtracting Chris now, of course) of the domestic (US) SB, I count 10 of them as being RDs (though none of them, as far as I know, have blogs other than Chris Kinsman). And the proportion is actually much higher for LATAM: 3 of the 6 LATAM SB members are also RDs.In Europe, only 2 of the 11 SB speakers are RDs (both of them - Clemens Vasters and Christian Weyer - have blogs). Also, Bill Evjen - who runs INETA here in the US - and Christian Nagel (ditto Europe) are RDs (though neither have blogs). And I'm sure there are RDs - other than Scott Hanselman - who have blogs.

Hmm...looks like there's some interesting correlations between the INETA SB, MSDN RDs, blogging, and being hired by Microsoft. Especially if you work(ed) for Developmentor.

2 Comments

  • I think the link to DM is interesting.





    DM has always had a very high bar to get over to get in. The screening process ends with the infamous test teach, which more than once (regretably) resulted in a candidate being reduced to tears. When I left DM in 2001, I think the rejection rate was at least >95% of all applicants when I left.





    The implication is that yes, if you made it over the bar at DM, you were likely to be able to make it over the bar elsewhere, including MSFT.





    I'd be hard pressed to say which is a higher bar, MSFT or DM.





    I know of cases of DM guys not making it into MSFT.





    I also know of cases of MSFT guys not making it into DM.





    I hate to state the obvious, but ultimately it comes down to the individual and the particular set of people they encounter during the recruiting process. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone has figured out how to factor the human vaguaries out of the equation.

  • Wow, interesting!





    Yeah, I interviewed at DM (and I think I would have gotten hired if I didn't pull out after the interview).





    Both interviews were thorough and challenging. I'm not sure if there's one that was harder than the other.





    Hey, you didn't do a correlation of folks that I hired to speak at the VBITS/VSLive conferences or write for VBPJ. I bet that correlation would be pretty high too.

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