The COVID-19 pandemic drove companies all over the world to embrace cloud platforms and collaboration tools, which profited Microsoft enormously. As a result, the company needs technologists who can help it build and maintain a wide array of products, from cloud infrastructure (Azure) to productivity apps (Office). But where is it actually hiring?
For an answer, we can turn to Burning Glass, which collects and analyzes millions of job postings from across the country. As you can see from the below chart (collated from Microsoft’s job-posting data over the past 90 days), it’s clear that the company is hiring aggressively around its headquarters in Bellevue, as well as Washington, DC, Silicon Valley, and Atlanta.
One interesting thing to call out: A burst of hiring at Microsoft’s 20-year-old Fargo campus, which is actually quite large. This office, which hosts a number of sales and marketing employees, was hit by an unknown number of layoffs in September 2020; evidently, a new hiring cycle has started.
It’s also interesting how Microsoft’s hiring patterns mimic that of the tech industry at large. Cities such as Charlotte, Atlanta, and Washington, DC/Virginia have enjoyed spikes in tech hiring over the past few years (along with an accompanying rise in salaries), giving them a reputation as emerging tech hubs. And even as those cities enjoy a burgeoning tech presence, “older” tech hubs such as New York, Boston, and San Francisco continue to draw their share of technologists.
According to Burning Glass, Microsoft is primarily on the hunt for software developers and engineers at the moment; in addition, there’s a heavy emphasis on hiring various kinds of managers. The company’s hiring managers especially desire technologists with a grasp of Microsoft Azure, SQL, and the principles of software engineering and design.
Microsoft plans on letting more of its employees work from home, even after the COVID-19 pandemic ends, and despite CEO Satya Nadella’s very public dislike of remote work. If you’re aiming for a job at Microsoft, keep its new affinity for remote and hybridized work in mind when you’re applying.
