MS Interview
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I took an interview with Microsoft a number of years ago and was very surprised by the childishness of it. At the time it was obvious that Microsoft had implemented a prepackaged method of interviewing candidates no matter what the position was. In my case it was for an application engineer. One of the first questions I was asked was, "Where do you hope to see yourself in 5 years?"... Wanting to end this nonsense quickly, I told the interviewer that I simply hoped to be still alive...
Steve Naidamast Black Falcon Software, Inc. blackfalconsoftware@ix.netcom.com
It wasn`t Microsoft, but I was asked that question and my answer, after a few seconds of pondering was "Well, in the best possible scenario, I`d be rich and retired in between 5 and 10 years." (I was 25 yrs old at the time.) Surprisingly, they hired me anyway, but I missed my retirement goal.
The PetroNerd
Walt Fair, Jr. Comport Computing Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
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Be prepared for the stupid questions masquerading as "we want to know how you think." And whatever you do, if asked what the best feature would be for Word, don't answer "a button to turn off all the automatic shit." (A friend did that on purpose.) As for an offer, be prepared to be low balled on salary (my brother.) Odds are they won't pay your move (if required.) [EDIT: Apparently, Microsoft has greatly improved the relocation package in the past few years.] I almost got an interview there--I fit the [obscure] job description exactly--but was given the brush off. I highly suspect it was an obligatory H1B job posting, which nobody but one person was supposed to actually match. I didn't really want to move to Seattle so it didn't bother me.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
modified on Thursday, July 31, 2008 9:33 PM
I work for MS, I'll put that up front - I just started March 08, graduated with my bachelors in Comp Sci in December 07. I scored an interview with both the HD DVD guys, and then the Mac BU, got offers for both, and picked one. If you get multiple offers, you don't get numbers on them - the Mac BU offer was in mountainview CA, HD DVD in Redmond - I was not told numbers, but I was told that the two offers were garaunted to be on the same skill level, and would compensate for the cost living for each region. I won't say which I picked, but I *will* say the offer was very good - I know for a fact I had the highest salary of all people who graduated in my class. Furthermore, (John Woodbury) MS pays the move completely - they pay for United to move you, if you want to fly out and have a car, they pay for it to be moved, they pay for you to fly to Redmond, they give you temp housing until you find permanent housing. If you want to drive to redmond, they pay you a certain amnt per mile. As for benefits, I think the only company that even comes close is Google, and I think MS is superior. As for advice, be prepared. Depending on the group, the format of the interviews varies; some do a panel, some just rotate you through different people. The interviews usually take a whole day, and include lunch. If you're going to be a coder, then be ready for code questions. They will try to challenge you, see how you reason it out. Don't do I what I did (and I still got offers for both interviews) and be silent. I stood at a white board and thought...I didn't talk out loud...they WANT to know what you think - so let them hear your thought process. Also, they tell you they don't care what you wear...I'd wear a suit anyway (I did). Finally, don't worry about impressing the guys here...rather, show them what you can do, have intelligent questions ready for them. This is as much a chance for MS to evaluate you, as it is a chance for you to evaluate us. Find out if you like it here (do sighseeing!) talk to the group, find out as much as possible. And lastly, enjoy it, and congrats on getting the interview. PS: I didn't think I'd get the job - my view was "Its MS, no chance in HELL I can get this"...I went in with low expectations, but high hopes. I was somewhat nervous, but confident in what I did. Now that I'm here, I'm proud to be at such an amazing company. I can't help but feel really good about making it into such an amazing company straight out of college - the people here are truly amazing, helpful and fri
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I work for MS, I'll put that up front - I just started March 08, graduated with my bachelors in Comp Sci in December 07. I scored an interview with both the HD DVD guys, and then the Mac BU, got offers for both, and picked one. If you get multiple offers, you don't get numbers on them - the Mac BU offer was in mountainview CA, HD DVD in Redmond - I was not told numbers, but I was told that the two offers were garaunted to be on the same skill level, and would compensate for the cost living for each region. I won't say which I picked, but I *will* say the offer was very good - I know for a fact I had the highest salary of all people who graduated in my class. Furthermore, (John Woodbury) MS pays the move completely - they pay for United to move you, if you want to fly out and have a car, they pay for it to be moved, they pay for you to fly to Redmond, they give you temp housing until you find permanent housing. If you want to drive to redmond, they pay you a certain amnt per mile. As for benefits, I think the only company that even comes close is Google, and I think MS is superior. As for advice, be prepared. Depending on the group, the format of the interviews varies; some do a panel, some just rotate you through different people. The interviews usually take a whole day, and include lunch. If you're going to be a coder, then be ready for code questions. They will try to challenge you, see how you reason it out. Don't do I what I did (and I still got offers for both interviews) and be silent. I stood at a white board and thought...I didn't talk out loud...they WANT to know what you think - so let them hear your thought process. Also, they tell you they don't care what you wear...I'd wear a suit anyway (I did). Finally, don't worry about impressing the guys here...rather, show them what you can do, have intelligent questions ready for them. This is as much a chance for MS to evaluate you, as it is a chance for you to evaluate us. Find out if you like it here (do sighseeing!) talk to the group, find out as much as possible. And lastly, enjoy it, and congrats on getting the interview. PS: I didn't think I'd get the job - my view was "Its MS, no chance in HELL I can get this"...I went in with low expectations, but high hopes. I was somewhat nervous, but confident in what I did. Now that I'm here, I'm proud to be at such an amazing company. I can't help but feel really good about making it into such an amazing company straight out of college - the people here are truly amazing, helpful and fri
rampantandroid wrote:
Furthermore, you're (John Woodbury) a bloody fool for talking about MS offers when you don't have a clue.
I do because I know many people who have been given offers and others who have turned them down. They don't move everyone [EDIT: nor did they always cover the full expenses of others.] Don't be an ass by assuming that your experience is reflective of everyone else's. (You may not have been given exact numbers, but people I know were given very exact numbers. Perhaps because they were senior engineers with families and weren't about to consider a position without every bit of information possible.) And the name is "Joe Woodbury". You can now take your foot out of your mouth. [EDIT 2: I must now remove my foot from my mouth and apologize to rampantandroid: according to some links rampantandroid had, Microsoft does appear to have become more generous in the past few years with moving expenses. That is good to see.]
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
modified on Thursday, July 31, 2008 9:28 PM
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rampantandroid wrote:
Furthermore, you're (John Woodbury) a bloody fool for talking about MS offers when you don't have a clue.
I do because I know many people who have been given offers and others who have turned them down. They don't move everyone [EDIT: nor did they always cover the full expenses of others.] Don't be an ass by assuming that your experience is reflective of everyone else's. (You may not have been given exact numbers, but people I know were given very exact numbers. Perhaps because they were senior engineers with families and weren't about to consider a position without every bit of information possible.) And the name is "Joe Woodbury". You can now take your foot out of your mouth. [EDIT 2: I must now remove my foot from my mouth and apologize to rampantandroid: according to some links rampantandroid had, Microsoft does appear to have become more generous in the past few years with moving expenses. That is good to see.]
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
modified on Thursday, July 31, 2008 9:28 PM
Sorry for getting the name wrong; misread while quickly typing. MS benefits state (I'd link, but I don't have the doc anymore, though it may be on the MS career site) that you get moved, so long as you currently live X amount away from MS. That is about the only case in which they won't move you - or if the group you are moving into does not have the bugdet to move you. In all other cases, you will be moved. People outside the US also get greater benefits, with a longer period of time to stay in temp housing. So, I should correct myself: 99.8% of the time, the move is payed for. I know my experience is very reflective of other people's, because I've talked to those other people. The standard package includes a move, 1 month of temp housing, assistance finding housing and so forth.
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rampantandroid wrote:
Furthermore, you're (John Woodbury) a bloody fool for talking about MS offers when you don't have a clue.
I do because I know many people who have been given offers and others who have turned them down. They don't move everyone [EDIT: nor did they always cover the full expenses of others.] Don't be an ass by assuming that your experience is reflective of everyone else's. (You may not have been given exact numbers, but people I know were given very exact numbers. Perhaps because they were senior engineers with families and weren't about to consider a position without every bit of information possible.) And the name is "Joe Woodbury". You can now take your foot out of your mouth. [EDIT 2: I must now remove my foot from my mouth and apologize to rampantandroid: according to some links rampantandroid had, Microsoft does appear to have become more generous in the past few years with moving expenses. That is good to see.]
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
modified on Thursday, July 31, 2008 9:28 PM
I'll back up what I am saying with links; the doc I had seems to be available to new hires only. http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/archive/2005/12/06/moving-on.aspx[^] http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/archive/2004/12/08/relocation-relocation-relocation.aspx[^] More info can be found if you search. (I'm not posting this to prove Joe Woodbury wrong, rather I am posting for general info of the OP. Its useful to know that you don't have to worry about the expense of moving.)
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I'll back up what I am saying with links; the doc I had seems to be available to new hires only. http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/archive/2005/12/06/moving-on.aspx[^] http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/archive/2004/12/08/relocation-relocation-relocation.aspx[^] More info can be found if you search. (I'm not posting this to prove Joe Woodbury wrong, rather I am posting for general info of the OP. Its useful to know that you don't have to worry about the expense of moving.)
Please note the comment in the second article: "I want to stress that this is a gross generalization," and "Also, there are groups and positions outside of the core technical roles that may not have the same relocation budget." Nevertheless, I will stand corrected since it appears that Microsoft has changed their approach in the last few years.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
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Please note the comment in the second article: "I want to stress that this is a gross generalization," and "Also, there are groups and positions outside of the core technical roles that may not have the same relocation budget." Nevertheless, I will stand corrected since it appears that Microsoft has changed their approach in the last few years.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
As I posted the articles, I noticed the date on the first one as 2005, and wondered if you were referring to people who recieved offers before 2005 (but who knows what the policy was before 2005, it might have been the same, and only got posted in 2005...)
modified on Thursday, July 31, 2008 9:40 PM
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Sorry for getting the name wrong; misread while quickly typing. MS benefits state (I'd link, but I don't have the doc anymore, though it may be on the MS career site) that you get moved, so long as you currently live X amount away from MS. That is about the only case in which they won't move you - or if the group you are moving into does not have the bugdet to move you. In all other cases, you will be moved. People outside the US also get greater benefits, with a longer period of time to stay in temp housing. So, I should correct myself: 99.8% of the time, the move is payed for. I know my experience is very reflective of other people's, because I've talked to those other people. The standard package includes a move, 1 month of temp housing, assistance finding housing and so forth.
I stand corrected and have modified my other postings to reflect this change in corporate behavior. (And I'm now removing my foot from my mouth. :) )
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
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The MSDN JobsBlog website has some archived videos that do a walkthrough of what to expect the interview process to be like for development positions. It gives a good idea of what to expect in your interview. Best advice I can give is to bring your own water bottle to stay hydrated through the day and if you do well it will be a long day. Also, take some energy bars to keep up your energy level throughout the process. https://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/default.aspx[^]
I never had a problem getting water - great if you bring your own - but if you forget, just ask. Every building has kitchen(s) with water, tea, soda, coffee and so on...no more orange styrofoam cups though, we've moved to biodegradeable cups now. :p
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I stand corrected and have modified my other postings to reflect this change in corporate behavior. (And I'm now removing my foot from my mouth. :) )
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
Changed my initial one as well. Have a good friday? :p