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Unpublished Microsoft Interviewing Tips
A friend of mine is going for an Microsoft interview next week and he IM'd me asking for any "unpublished tips" for interviewing at MS (apparently he'd already read all my published tips). Frankly, I don't know if these are published or unpublished, but these were the ones that I thought were most important:
- Your interviewer cares most about 1) how you think and 2) what you feel, so be vocal about both. You might not get the job, but if you do, it'll be a better fit than if you'd have kept your mouth shut.
- Don't be afraid to ask clarifying questions. This is more detail on the "let 'em know what you're thinking" point above. If you don't understand the problem fully, don't jump in to solve it before you do. Or, if they ask you something potentially scope-less, e.g. "Tell me about yourself," feel free to ask for a scope, e.g. "I'm 38 years old and a lot of stuff has happened. : ) Would you like to narrow that question down a bit for me?" (or something less smart-ass-like if you're not able to carry off smart-ass-ness with a smile).
- Let the interviewer know how you feel about the job. At Microsoft, you'll have quite a bit of latitude in how you do your job, so they want to know that you care about the same things they care about so they can set you loose and know good things are going to happen.
Think about the job before you show up so that you have an agenda. It often helps if you can list a bunch of reasons Microsoft is currently screwing the pooch in your area. I can't tell you how many times I've heard about someone railing against Microsoft because of something we're not doing right and that person gets a job offer to go fix the thing they were complaining about ("Put up or shut up" is a big part of the Microsoft culture).
One thing to watch out for: if you do have an agenda, make sure it's something in your proposed job scope. If you're hiring as a mid-level Program Manager, you're not likely to have much impact on how MS builds software all up, but you can definitely work to fix how your group-to-be is doing it.
- Answer questions from your own experiences. If someone asks, "How do you deal with conflict," don't give them the stock, pat answer. Instead, reach into your experiences and pull out a specific example. This will give your answer more credibility. This technique runs the risk of the interviewer not liking how you handled the issue, but again, do you really want a job where you're not a good fit, but nobody knows 'til you've sold your house and put the kids into a new school?
- You have to like us, too. When Microsoft is interviewing you, remember that you're interviewing them, too. Make sure you're going to like the work you'll be asked to do and the people you'll be asked to work with. It's not good for *anybody* if you show up for work and don't fit in because you didn't ask questions. Plus, when the interviewer says "Do you have questions for me?" you better have some, or you're not going to come across as someone that actually cares about the position.
- Don't talk about money during the interview. There'll be a short window between the time they offer you the job and the time when you accept it that you'll be able to discuss compensation frankly. If you do it at the interview, you'll look like you're after the job for the money and not because you have a burning desire to fix something Microsoft is currently doing wrong or not doing at all.
Bottom line: your interviewer wants make sure you're a fit for Microsoft, a fit for their team, that you're smart and that you've got passion to do the work that they want you to do.
Good luck!
Chris Sells
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Saturday, July 14, 2007 10:33 PM
Oh dear. Perhaps in an ideal world the interviewer cares.
Having gone through the external hire process (3 rounds of interviews, 1 full day process) with 6 other people, twice, only to discover that it was an exercise to justify an internal hire I ca tell you that interviewers didn't care about how any of us thought (and gave us obviously bogus rejection reasons).
Sure, in an ideal world, maybe the process would be as you suggested, but as an application we have no idea if it's a real interview or not.
Maybe the most important tip is "Say no". After my last run through the process I've refused every advance ever since. And I feel happier for it. My viewpoint is anyone that treats applications like dirt isn't somewhere for me. Whereas I've seen friends go through it over and over and over again, for *any* borg job. If more people actually said "no" to either unsuitable jobs or a process that is insulting then maybe everyone would be better off.
Anon, for obvious reasons,
Saturday, July 14, 2007 11:36 PM
Any part of the org that interviews you w/o taking you seriously is busted. I'd like to apologize if that's how you were treated.
And yes, you should absolutely say "no" to any job you don't want, ideally before you waste your time interviewing for it in the first place.
Chris Sells,
Sunday, July 15, 2007 8:33 AM
Well I would hope the US process is better, this was a European branch. But it's happened to a few people I know, due to the way internal processes work (it didn't stop me applying to Redmond for example, the lack of degree put paid to that, but it has stopped locally).
It doesn't help the HR functions are outsourced to a 3rd party, so 4 weeks between each stage are pretty much normal.
Anon, for obvious reasons,
Sunday, July 15, 2007 10:39 PM
"If you do it at the interview, you'll look like you're after the job for the money" -- now _THAT'S_ funny. Anyone going to MSFT looking for "money" is severely misguided as MSFT is notorious for bottom feeder pay scales. Which is why they do much better in Canada and India than the US, notwithstanding mr. Gates' lamenting of talent lack in the nation :)
jonathan,
Monday, July 23, 2007 9:10 AM
Wow! Great advice for keeping the passion to create and build in mind when interviewing. It rekindled my own passions in my daily job, something that can easily suffocate under the daily crush of deadlines and other priorities. Thanks for posting!
Craig Boland,
Monday, July 30, 2007 10:45 AM
I interview technical personnel all the time (probably have done 500 interviews over the years). If I were a band leader, and you were interviewing to play trombone in my band, I would throw in front of you a challenging piece of sheet music that I think you have never seen before and I would say "lemme hear you play." Then I would listen carefully for precision, style, technique, and courage.
This is exactly what I do with programmers. I give them a specification that I'm pretty sure they have never seen before and say "design the solution." Then I listen:
* style: if there is a provably correct elegant solution versus a complicated intricate solution, I want awareness of the elegant one.
* precision: can you recognize threads, events, regular expressions, whatever?
* technique: do you "miss notes?" Can you fix them and stay on track?
* courage: If the problem weren't difficult, it wouldn't be worth giving you. You don't have to be perfect, you just have to try it. If you sit there in vapor lock in my office, then you'll do that in your office alone.
LorentzFrame,
Friday, August 17, 2007 9:35 AM
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