Microsoft Open Day success
By Jan Peters, on 11 July 2011
The feedback for the open day held at Microsoft Campus Reading showed what a great time the students had. The students really valued the chance to meet and talk to employees without the pressure of being there for an interview. Presentations from grad scheme entrants and students showed the variety of roles available. The HR team set up an assessment centre role play exercise with students playing assessor and assessed. Helen Duguid, the leadership coach working with Set to Lead, helped the students interview senior manager, Andrew Oliva-Hauxwell about his journey into leadership.
At one feeble answer from Andrew, Helen asked the interrogator if she was happy with the reply and she replied, “no, not really”. So Helen urged her to have another go until she got an answer that satisfied her!
The day was action packed with plenty of time for networking and chat – lunch was flooded with Microsoft employees to ensure that everyone got the chance to ask questions about being interviewed, how to choose a job and make general enquiries about what it’s like working in IT.
The video material of the project will be edited over the summer and we look forward to sharing it with you soon!
We are still looking for hosts for teh next two open days so do get in touch if you would like to learn more!