How to land a Software Engineer Management position in Microsoft?

Question

What are the skills and areas of interest I should study and practice to land a position as a SEM in MS?

After 10 years as a manger I was promoted to Director with 6 managers reporting to me and 50 people in total.

I have people management under my belt and I'm applying DevOps practices. What else would be needed to land a job offer?

Edit: grammar and typos

So93108 · Accepted Answer

Some things to think about after being in the role for 12 years now-

Be prepared to fail. It's part of the journey. When one door closes, search for another door. When you are led by the RIGHT things, I have always found that things will come together. Life is pretty simple. The older I get the more I realize that I was the one making things more complicated. Trying to salvage this or piece together that by trying to cover up mistakes or hiding insecurities or weaknesses. If the thing will fail, let it fail (within reason). Then discover the reasons WHY and solve THOSE problems to ensure success in the future.

Good luck!

bfahi · Answer

Take your time in your new role. Resist moving too fast. There is a desire to make a name for yourself quickly and that usually is the first mistake new SEM make. Focus on building relationships- with your direct reports, other managers, and adjacent teams. The  more time you spend building trust in each other, the more effective your decision making will be. The key to high performance is the ability to anticipate mishaps and forge ahead. Coffee chats, lunch, beers, whatever it takes to make friends with everyone...

jf1308sYDndq98 · Answer

You must have a strong sense of why you want to lead teams at Microsoft. What is your personal mission? Microsoft is very keen on how to make the world a better place through technology. It's on the back of our ID cards. You must be able to articulate why you are the best candidate for the role and how you will make an impact both internally and beyond. Your genuine interest in the technology must shine through!

integrated · Answer

I built services for 7 years now and grew from a tech lead to manager of a services team. I enjoy the integration and people challenges that come with coordinating more and more engineers' work. Being able to demonstrate that value is key for an SEM role. The people skills are hard to quantify but you know it when you hear how someone talks and the way they think through problems

How to land a Software Engineer Management position in Microsoft?

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