As readers have probably surmised, I’m flunking out at Microsoft. I’ve applied for around 50 positions on Monster, LinkedIn and the Microsoft site; located several people within Microsoft who were willing to route my resume to various marketing professionals; written to several recruiters on LinkedIn; submitted lengthy answers to questions that recruiters have posed;, and even had a three phone interviews. Strike two.
Knowing I had nothing to lose and perhaps something to gain, I signed up for virtual interview with Microsoft on Second Life. A week before, I created my avatar and started to do the tutorials in preparation for the interview. The evening of the interview, I felt somewhat ready; although, I felt my attire, especially my hair, could have been better along with my navigation skills.
Sure enough, I awkwardly navigated to the island where the interviews were being held and raced up the stairs and took a seat in the conference room before the recruiter. Because you have to type your responses – quickly – it’s easy to make mistakes and what would take seconds to speak, takes minutes to type. Within a few minutes, I set myself up for failure by typing that I’d started my MBA, many years ago. Even though I was able to transition to another subject, the recruiter kept coming back to my MBA.
Nervous and unable to come up with a quick response, I typed a bunch of gibberish. I could hear the recruiter noting, "Next candidate."
Near tears, I ended the interview as gracefully as I could. That evening, I sent a note to the recruiter, elaborating on my answers and providing additional information about my expertise. The next day, she sent what appeared to be a form email asking me to comment on my Second Life interview experience in her blog. I wrote a few humorous paragraphs about it being an enjoyable experience and how I neglected to shake her hand at the end… don’t even know if that’s possible in Second Life. Strike three.
Even worse, I mentioned to a friend the name of my avatar – Puttanesca Capalini. He said the puttanesca means "whore’s pasta." A quick peak at Wikipedia confirmed that my being clever choosing the name of my favorite pasta sauce to meld with the given last name "Capalini" was a dumb idea.
Rajalary 