
How I was rejected at Microsoft - matheusalmeida
http://mbalmeida.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/how-i-was-rejected-at-microsoft/
======
biobot
I think you left the interviewers some bad impressions about your technical
skills.

Blame the interviewers throw easy questions at you and think that it's all
they get is blatantly wrong. Most Microsoft's devs are better than that!

Based on my experience, the fact that you did not get harder questions show
that they thought you did not sail through the easy ones as they expected. And
believe me, knowing the answer is one thing, explaining it clearly is another
thing.

When I interviewed in Redmond last year, I got 5 interviews total. The first
one is easy with all similar questions you got. The second was harder as the
guy asked me a problem that starts off easy but when you add more data to it,
it becomes more like an open problem. The third one is a OOP design question.
The fourth one I met an engineer that joined MS from 1992 and he asked me only
one algorithmic question that I have never seen before (Believe me, I read all
those 'interviews' books and I know many ). It was very strange tree structure
that I did not remember. I spent about 20 minutes stared at it and I got the
first part after 35 minutes and then he asked me to explain how I finish the
problem. He seemed to be OK with my answer. The last interviewer is a manager.
He did not ask me anymore technical question but focus mostly on my
preferences, experiences, previous jobs and some behavioral questions.

I think the interviews are on par with other top companies like Google ( but
Google focus much more on scale ), Facebook and Amazon ( focus more on design
and scale ).

In conclusion, rest assure that your interviewers are much smarter than you
think. Hope you do better next time!

~~~
matheusalmeida
I'm absolutely positive that Microsoft Devs and Testers are top notch. That's
why I wanted to work there and why I was sad about the result of the
interview. It was not me that didn't get harder questions. The other 3 that
were interviewing at the same time said exactly the same thing (they gave the
same problems to everyone). In each interview, with the exception of the
second one that I solved two coding problems, I was asked a lot of behavioral
questions before like 10minutes of the end, where I have to code.

~~~
biobot
For every open position, they will bring in onsite about 10 people. And most
of those 10 are pretty good too. So you had to make a very good impression
with the interviewer to make the cut. And of course, a some luck won't hurt
too.

Again, I reiterate my point : knowing the answer to a coding question is one
thing, explaining it to others is the other thing. They won't hire anyone
cannot explain such easy questions clearly. It needs some practice!

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renegadedev
Reminds me of mine at MS over a decade ago. Breezed through the first two and
I was starting to think I had this nailed. In the third one they took me to
this older guy's office and he sat in this weird contraption looking chair.
Details are fuzzy maybe because it was perhaps the most traumatic interview
I've ever had. He dived right into Windows Kernel and I knew I was in trouble
5 minutes into the interview. They sent me back to my hotel after that one and
I knew I was done for. A week later the rejection came by mail. Anyway overall
good experience except for those harrowing 45 minutes.

------
ctide
In my experience, Microsoft interviews tend to build off of each other. You
start off with a fairly simple interview, and the things you mess up (or that
the interviewer didn't feel you were especially strong on) are the things they
probe deeper on further into the interview. I'm not at all surprised that you
felt it was pretty easy if you only met with 3 interviewers, considering a
full loop is ~6 real interviews with a fluff interview at the end if you've
'passed'.

------
Jun8
"Are you fucking serious? Probably HR persons do not know what a compiler is"

This is actually common. You're right, the HR person wouldn't know what a
compiler is, she is following a script with admissible answers to the problems
and just listening for keywords that show you have the bare knowledge to pass
the screening interview.

From the tone of your comments about the interview, it sounds like you seemed
shocked at some questions, thought they were simplistic, etc. and probably let
this show. _This_ , I think, was the biggest factor why you didn't get it.
Many interviewers have no idea how to interview, and they ask pet questions
culled from online sources and friends. If they get the idea that you find
some question simple or "beneath you" they take it personally.

So, lesson for next time: React to all interviewer questions equally and
control your frustration.

~~~
matheusalmeida
I understand your point. But, for instance, the first interviewer said : "if
you've already solved this problem, please say it and we change it". I think I
didn't do anything bad when I said it was pretty common and the solutions are
X and Y... I'll not lie and say that's the first time I have to code a
solution to reverse words in a String and dealt with it like it's an NP
Problem...

------
jsnell
Surprising that they gave such detailed feedback. That's usually a big no-no.
And for a good reason as we can see here. If the candidate disagrees with the
feedback, he will get angry. But good luck with the search.

~~~
bjg
I interviewed with one of the bigger org's at MS in Seattle about a month ago,
they told us that they would be unable to give us feedback if we didn't
receive an offer. I suppose different branches of MS could do things
different?

Fortunately I didn't have to worry about that, starting this summer :)

~~~
matheusalmeida
I was also surprised about the detailed feedback. I was not expecting that. It
was too superficial to help you to improve. I can say that I interviewed for
Microsoft Dublin.

~~~
bjg
As a fellow new grad, good luck man!

I have also felt the hurt of rejection.. I got in a few stages at Google, got
dumped. I made it to a final interview at Apple, and they bailed. Applied to
Pixar, Mozilla, 10gen, twitter, etc... also with little to no word back at
all.

Honestly I feel like the #1 thing I learned from my job search is that the
interviewer you get has a insane impact on the outcome. This is especially
true of technical phone interviews, I felt like I was literally unable to
communicate with some of the interviewers at google because of a language
barrier. The whole process seems heavily based on luck.

------
sbochins
I get the impression that you weren't really interested in working at
Microsoft. I personally wouldn't bother working there, mostly because I would
have to program in Windows. I think if you got hired there you would probably
less happy than you are today. Getting stuck working at a company you despise
is one of the worst things you can do to yourself.

------
kenjackson
It sounds like they may have thought you struggled more on the reverse list of
strings question than you thought you did. I think its something they expected
you to just crank out.

With that said, implementing a heap with two stacks seems pretty good. That's
something that certainly doesn't just jump to the front of my mind at all.

You'll do fine. You seem like a bright kid.

------
px
I wonder if the green usernames may actually help posts by new users gain
traction. I found myself more likely to take a look--curious to see what sort
of submissions new users are offering.

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josefresco
Did I miss the memo on green usernames?

~~~
andrewcooke
both accounts are very recent. so i suspect (see my other comment) that new
users are "green" and that this post is spam that is being pumped by a
sockpuppet (posted by a green user with, initially, a single reply from
another green user). nice :o)

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somersault_07
That's too bad. Good luck finding a new job.

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andrewcooke
what are green links? spammers? recently registered users? or both?

~~~
matheusalmeida
I'm a new user.. I only registered today but I read HN for a long time.

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holdupadam
Why is your name green?

