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Tips for interviewing at Microsoft

Thursday, June 15 2006

Do a search for interviewing at Microsoft, Microsoft interviews or tips for interviewing at Microsoft and you'll get a plethora [yes, I actually used the word plethora] of information. Examples of the infamous brainteaser interview questions, personal stories from interviewees, open position announcements, schedules for recruiting/interviewing trips and more. The subject of Microsoft interviews has been discussed wide and far across the internet and by people much smarter and more experienced than I, but I'm about to throw in my own 2 cents. I have a friend interviewing for a position and I wanted to give him some tips [even though he didn't ask for them ;-)]. Then I thought why not make a post out of it and bada-bing, bada-boom, here ya go.

Show Passion
This is one of the most frequent things I see reported in candidate feedback. Something to the effect of "good technical skills and personable, but lacked passion." According to Dictionary.com, passion is defined as "a powerful emotion, such as love, joy, hatred or anger" and "boundless enthusiasm." It's the second one that interviewers are looking for. We want people who live, breath, eat and feed on technology...or coding...or project management...or recruiting...or people interaction...or usability...or whatever it is that ties in closely with the position being hired for. Maybe you're passionate about gaming and have played video games your whole life, I'm sure that would shine through if you were interviewing for a position with Xbox or Bungie. Find a connection between your passions and the job your interviewing for, then talk about it in your interviews...a lot!

Interview the interviewer
Remember, it's a two way street so ask questions! Not only is Microsoft interviewing you to see if you are a fit for their open position, but you are interviewing Microsoft! More specifically, you need to know if the team you're interviewing with [versus Microsoft the big corporation] will be a good place for you to work. There are hundreds of groups [maybe even over 1,000] and they all have their own idiosyncracies and differences...no two groups will be the same to work in. Ask the interviewers about workplace issues that are important to you. Work/life balance might be important if you have a family. Project scheduling could be pertinent if you go to the Tour de France every single year. Willingness to dogfood the latest operating system or version of Office could be pivotal. I'm sure you get the picture. ;-)

Know the group you're interviewing with/for
Microsoft is a very public company. Official press releases, industry reporters, employee & team blogs, team & product websites, financial news, techie stuff and many other types of information are just a search away. Use that information to your advantage in the interview process! You should know [or find out] from your recruiter what group or product you are interviewing for and then do some searches online for tidbits specific to them. Some groups [like mine, Windows Live Security] are less public and you won't be able to find much information online...in those cases be prepared with general Microsoft information. At a minimum, I expect candidates to be able to discuss some [but not all] current events and technologies that Microsoft is involved in publicly.

Say "I don't know" the right way
First of all, I won't hire [or give a hire recommendation to] anyone who isn't willing to admit when they don't know how to do something. Period. Secondly, there are good and bad ways to say "I don't know." In my opinion, the right way to say "I don't know" is to focus on what you do know about the topic/subject/question. Think out loud. I cannot emphasize this enough. Interviewers want to know how you think and see the process you go through. You might not know the answer, but a good interviewer can glean your potential by listening to you discuss the parts of the topic you are familiar with. What if you don't know anything about the topic? Believe it or not, that's fine. In that case I recommend you say exactly that and then ask a little bit about it. Just don't expect a large dissertation by the interviewer because they have very little time to ascertain your qualifications and you don't want them spending 30 minutes out of their hour teaching. If you really want to go above and beyond [and this should probably be considered a personal preference of mine], then I would be impressed with someone who made a note of the "I don't know" topic and followed up with me within a few days via email. Never, I repeat, never just say "I don't know" and then let the issue drop.

Don't fake it
This ties in closely with saying "I don't know" the right way. If you don't know the answer then don't try to fake it. You will know you're faking it and trust me, the interviewer will know it too. You will do way more damage to your credibility than is worth the exhausting effort of lieing.

What should you wear?
I find this question kind of funny because in almost all other white-collar industries a suit and tie is the norm [and I come from the accounting industry which is one of the stuffiest of them all]. The software industry is infamous for being founded by guys in their garages which for the most part has translated to a pretty casual work environment. Our senior VP of Human Resources, Lisa Brummel, proudly announced at last years company meeting that she wears shorts to work as often as possible. Which begs the question...what should I wear for my interview? Honestly, there is no easy answer...it depends on the group and the position you're interviewing for. My quick take on it is this:

• If the position/group doesn't have a lot of customer (internal and external) interaction then pretty much anything [within reason] goes. This would be for developers (SDE), testers (SDET), lab managers, system engineers (SE) and some program managers (PM). Just don't dress down too much!
• If the position/group has a lot of customer interaction (internal and external) or has a high public profile then you should dress professionally. Go ahead and wear the suit if that's what you prefer, but business casual should be good. This would apply to sales, marketing, recruiting, higher level management and some program managers (PM).

• Go with business casual. Dockers [or your favorite brand of casual pants] and a polo or button-up shirt will carry you through 99% of the groups/positions without a hitch.
• If you're uncertain always default to the more professional level of attire. A suit might be over the top for some groups/positions, but I would rather see someone in a suit versus an old Motley Crew t-shirt full of holes. ;-)

Expect a long day (or 2)
The interview process at Microsoft is long. You will interview with 3-8 people and each one is at least an hour long. Sometimes they are all packed into a single day while other times schedules dictate the interview to be spread over 2 days. The first time I went through a loop I was extremely stressed and tired by the end of the day. I was so mentally exhausted that I could barely drive home. Mostly this was due to my inexperience with the Microsoft interview process and not having the right expectations. I was used to a single hour long interview with a possible hour long follow up, but this was a different beast. There are all kinds of suggestions online for how to deal with the long day (carry Power bars, lots of sleep the night before, avoid caffeine, etc.), but I just want to warn you that it will be a long day and to do whatever you need to do to get through it.

I realize that I didn't touch on any 'technical tips' and I did that for a reason. There aren't any golden goose answers. You either have the skills/knowledge/ability for the position or you don't. Hopefully that will be discovered in your interview, but quite honestly it might not. It can be very frustrating when you have it and they don't see it, but that's an unfortunate reality. That's a topic for another post though.

Here are a few other resources I recommend:

• What is it like to interview at Microsoft? (part 1, part 2 & part 3) - Channel 9 video with Zoe Goldring and Gretchen Ledgard (of JobSyntax now).
• Interview Tips category at Technical Careers @ Microsoft (aka: JobsBlog)
• Heather's "Marketing at Microsoft" Blog - Lots of good recruiting information specific to Microsoft.
• JobSyntax - Although Zoe and Gretchen aren't with Microsoft anymore they are still the same knowledgable, helpful, interesting people that focus on recruiting in the software industry.
• Interviewing at Microsoft by Chris Sells - informative and entertaining all at the same time. :-)

tags: interview microsoft+interview+tips