Re: Microsoft says it is hard to recruit coders in China

Hi Simon,

They have had to resort to this since we closed the list to crass 
commercial announcements seeking programmers and similar technical stuff :-).

I have also had to think laterally to get programming for my project. ;-)

I do not see this as a bad thing - there is a very real gap between the 
expectations of new graduates and what the market is offering.  It would 
help if what business is actually seeking was made clear well before 
graduation.

Their experience mirrors ours in recruiting talent (although the fields are 
totally different).  There are a lot of false expectations out there.

China has the particular problem that it is changing so quickly that salary 
and other expectations that were valid at the commencement of an 
undergraduate degree are likely to be outdated by graduation day.


At 07:38 AM 1/04/2004 +0800, you wrote:

>Well this is scary.  Microsoft threatening to deliver lectures at Chinese
>universities to "tell what kind of talents they want and how the students
>should improve".
>
>Pull-quote: "What we need most are engineers with abilities to transfer the
>demands of consumers into the functions of our products, not single-minded
>program writers," said Zhang.
>
>This is hypocritical and self-serving, and is exactly what will stifle
>innovation (which is MS's whole argument against Free Open Source Software).
>
>Just my shi kuai.
>
>/src
>
>---
>
>Microsoft says it is hard to recruit 100 software engineers in China
>
>Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, March 31, 2004
>People's Daily Online
>
>Microsoft has found it difficult to satisfy its goal of recruiting 100
>software engineers in China, sources with the Microsoft Research Asia
>Advanced Technology Center (ATC) said.
>
>To satisfy the demand of its ongoing ten programs, the ATC hoped that it
>could recruit about 100 software managers, architects and testers before
>this July. It has received more than 120,000 resumes, mainly from college
>students, after it released the advertisements through the media.
>
>After strict selections, the ATC only found 70 people who met the post's
>requirements, said Shang Xiaoli, public relations manager of ATC. She said
>that because there were too many candidates, only about 3,000 got the chance
>to take part in the preliminary exam, followed by a series of professional
>interviews.
>
>The outcome of the selection shows that most candidates are good at coding,
>but only a few of them have the abilities to transfer research innovations
>into products or incubate new innovative products, which are indispensable
>skills of software managers or architects, said Dr. Zhang Hongjiang,
>president of the ATC.
>
>"It is hard to find a qualified manager from those candidates. By now, all
>software managers in ATC are ones who once worked for Microsoft or from
>other Microsoft departments," said Zhang.
>
>He said the outcome, which has seriously delayed the ongoing research
>programs, shows that there are some erroneous ideas on the software industry
>in students' minds.
>
>"What we need most are engineers with abilities to transfer the demands of
>consumers into the functions of our products, not single-minded program
>writers," said Zhang.
>
>Zhang and his colleagues have planned to give lectures at more than ten
>universities, aiming to tell what kind of talents they want and how the
>students should improve.
>
>As one of the most well-known transnational companies, Microsoft attracts
>thousands of college graduates every year, who go after several hundred
>posts in its Chinese departments. The ATC, founded in Beijing in November
>2003, is a new division of Microsoft Research Asia that will focus on
>further development of innovations produced in the labs.
>
>Ends.
>
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Regards,

Graham Brown

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