Inclusive Hiring for People with Disabilities
From the very first days of our company, Microsoft has sought to enable individuals and organizations around the world to do great things.
Our Mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. One of the ways we will fulfill this ambition is through an unwavering commitment to a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture.
We are on a journey to leverage the strength of our diverse workforce through greater inclusion. Being inclusive is not something we simply do, but rather, it stands for who we are. In other words, where we are along our journey determines who we are as a company and gives meaning to the culture we are building at Microsoft.
The diversity of our workforce and inclusion of talented people from different backgrounds is the fuel that keeps the engines of innovation and growth running. This is essential to our long-term success. In order to build the best products for everyone, we need to have a diverse and inclusive workforce across all abilities. For example, in the case for autism, we know there is an untapped pool of talent with skills aligned to the work we are doing every day at Microsoft.
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We are looking for highly motivated and passionate data scientist to apply rigorous scientific methodology and algorithms to data in order to improve Microsoft devices, operating systems, and services. More...
Software engineers dive deep into code and work with fellow programming experts to solve problems and build powerful new tools. More...
As a Service engineer you will be responsible for planning, project management, documenting processes, developing specs, and providing status updates on all release-to-web activities. More...
Program managers are the in-house advocates for millions of people worldwide who predict and research how software is used and work closely with software engineers to ensure our products exceed people’s expectations. You drive the technical vision, design, and implementation of software solutions. More...
If the roles posted are not a match for your skill set, please submit your resume, cover letter and let us know your strengths.
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My Personal Journey
Meet with Microsoft: Upcoming Events
Inclusive Hiring Virtual Career Fair for People with Disabilities
October 19, 2017
Autism Hiring Cohort
October 23-27, 2017
Redmond, WATo apply please send us your resume: [email protected]
Ability Hiring Event
November 15, 2017
Redmond, WATo apply please send us your resume: [email protected]
Autism Hiring Cohort
January 22-26, 2018
Redmond, WATo learn more: [email protected]
About Our Autism Hiring Program
Our vision is to partner across Microsoft to build a recruitment and onboarding model that increases the percentage of employees with disabilities at Microsoft.
Audio described version of this video
The goal of this program is to attract talent and build an inclusive approach to support individuals on the autism spectrum that will contribute to the way we work as a company in building and servicing our products.
The Hiring Program is a multiple-day hands on academy that focuses on workability, team projects and skills assessment. The event gives candidates an opportunity to showcase their unique talents and meet hiring managers and teams while learning about Microsoft as an employer of choice.
- What is the Microsoft Autism Hiring Program?Microsoft believes that diversity enriches our performance and products, the communities where we live and work, and the lives of our employees. This program is part of our recruitment, retention and career development strategy related to diversity and inclusion, and ultimately increase the percent of employees with disabilities at Microsoft.
- Are there other disability hiring programs like this one at Microsoft? Why only autism?We are continually looking to increase the diversity of our workforce and this is one of our many diversity efforts. However, this program is geared for people who are on the autism spectrum. For more information on Microsoft’s diversity efforts, please visit our Global Diversity and Inclusion site.
- Why have you created this program?This represents one of the ways we are evolving our approach to increasing the diversity of Microsoft’s workforce. We believe there is a lot of untapped potential in the marketplace, and potential roles that would set future employees up for success.
- How does someone apply? Interested candidates with autism may email their resumes to [email protected].
- What roles at Microsoft are best fits for an individual with Autism?While any role at Microsoft is a potential option for the Autism Hiring Program, we have found that these roles are most often a good fit for candidates and employees on the autism spectrum; Software Engineer, Service Engineer, Build Engineer, Lab Engineer, Data Analyst or Data Scientist.
- Where can I learn more about Diversity and Inclusion at Microsoft? For more information about Microsoft’s commitment to Diversity and Inclusion, please visit our Global Diversity and Inclusion site.
- What is the interview process? Resumes are screened for the skills and qualifications necessary in the identified open roles. A set of eligible candidates will be asked to complete and online technical assessment. Candidates may also be invited for a pre-screening interview to gauge their interest, skill and experience for the position. You may then be invited to a multiple-day skills assessment program covering workability, team building, and technical skills on Microsoft’s Redmond campus. The hiring teams will meet and engage with the candidates during program exercises and job interviews. Based on the skills assessment and hiring manager feedback, the candidate could be offered a full time job as a Microsoft employee.
- What Locations are the roles based?Roles are based in Redmond and other US cities with Microsoft offices (including Mountain View, Fargo, Cambridge and Raleigh). Our international expansion plans are still being designed.
- Are there internships available through this program?Yes, for specific hiring events focused on university talent. To learn more about Microsoft’s internship program, visit Microsoft Careers. You can apply by sending your resume to [email protected]
Success Stories
Microsoft wants Autistic Coders
Can it find and keep them?
Chris Schlechty
Helping make products better for people of all abilities
Stuart Pixley
Working for change from inside Microsoft, How one attorney manages dual roles
Ryan Asdourian
Meet Microsoft's master of high-tech showmanship
Kyle Schwaneke
Unique Microsoft hiring program opens more doors to people with autism
Jenny Lay-Flurrie
Talk to the hand!
How disAbility works at Microsoft
- AccommodationsIf you would like to request reasonable accommodation on account of a disability, our Benefits department makes it easy. Examples of reasonable accommodation include (but are not limited to): modifications to a physical work environment, assistive devices and software, modified schedules, service animals, services of a Sign Language Interpreter (SLI) or captioning assistance, Autism/ABA benefits, professional job coaches, and assistance when traveling with a medical condition or disability.
- OnboardingThe goal of onboarding at Microsoft is to enable every individual to be successful. To do that, Microsoft provides core resources across the company. This starts with building awareness around disability inclusion during the hiring process and equipping each recruiter with the resources to best support their candidates. Upon hiring, we provide individualized, disability-specific training for teams and individuals to learn how to most effectively work together. Online trainings are also available for all employees to further the awareness of meaningful disability inclusion.
- Disability CommunityInternally, we have a vibrant and active disability community of over 1,000 members worldwide. The community, established over 15 years ago, expanded to over 12 groups including ‘parents of children with special needs,’ people with MS, PTSD, ALS, as well as some of our oldest groups for employees with deafness or sight loss. Each group is actively managed by teams of Microsoft employees.
- Inclusive DesignIn an effort to go beyond “meeting accessibility standards” in our products, the Design team gathered insights around the true meaning of universal design that is intentionally inclusive of people with disabilities from the beginning. The Design Team met with the disability community both internally and externally and used their insights to create a booklet as the start of a journey to shift our mindset about inclusive engineering practices. The team has shared these learnings internally (with other engineering teams) and externally with students. We are now delivering inclusive design workshops (internally and externally), as well as creating a documentary film capturing the influence on the future of interaction design. For more information on Inclusive Design, visit our Microsoft Design page.
- AccessibilityMicrosoft has a long standing commitment to accessibility and aims to enable people of all abilities to realize their full potential. Accessibility can empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Microsoft creates technology that is accessible to people around the world—of all ages and abilities. We have developed a Microsoft Accessibility Standard to guide internal teams toward building accessibility into all our products and services. We empower employees, ensuring that events like monthly town hall meetings are captioned both in the room and on demand. We strive to deliver solutions across our product portfolio that will enable people and our customers to do more with their devices such as inbox screen reader, magnifier, high contrast and speech recognition
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