I applied through university. The process took 7 months. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA)
Interview
Got in contact at a Microsoft recruiting event at an university in town. Handed in my resume the same evening and got an on campus interview the next day. Problem was to convert an integer into Excel-like column headers (A,B,C,...,AA,..AAA,...). Got an email with an invite to Redmond a few weeks afterwards. Do not worry when they take more than two weeks, but kindly ask whether they have news to share.
In Redmond I spoke to about 6 employees, including HR. They were all nice and did their best. They want to interview you and get you into the company. I had the feeling that all questions I asked related to travel, process etc were thought about and solved before I asked them.
During my interviews I went with the Microsoft Connector shuttle several times. As they have meetings and other candidates that get further in the process it can happen that your meeting gets delayed one or two hours. I got a chance to visit the Microsoft Visitor center (that I contacted the week before to make sure they are open at that time) as well as the Microsoft Store on campus. One of the employees went to lunch with me at one of their awesome cafeterias. The food was delicious but I didn't have the chance to look over the whole menu - they offer way to much. When you arrive at Microsoft you get a voucher that's to be used by you and your interviewer, so you don't have to pay. The food is cheap so you can take a lot.
My last interviewer told me he's very positive and will let the HR contact let me know asap (and not after two weeks) whether I got the position. At the end of your interview day when you go back to the recruiting building, they'll help you to visit sightseeings in town.
Unfortunately I was contacted a few days later by my HR contact telling me I didn't get the position. The contact didn't tell me why, especially sad because of the positive statements of the last interviewers I had. Usually having 6 interviews is a very positive sign, regardless of whether they tell you their positive feeling or not. Could be related to a candidate that was better, could be related to some management/HR decision.
Interview questions [4]
Question 1
Problem: Array of 100 integers between 0 and 100. One integer is doubled, find out which. Question: Which methods exist and how do they compare?
Describe current projects, what do you DO, what do YOU do? Why You? Why Microsoft? Which courses at university? You can improve any MS program, which and how? What is the best/word program Microsoft ever developed? General small talk questions suited for interviews..
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Microsoft
Interview
First interviewed on university campus, then flown out to Seattle for a day of interviews at Microsoft location. The initial interviews help narrow down which position they will consider you for. The initial process usually takes two days, for me it took one day with notification that afternoon that I performed well enough that Microsoft would fly me out to the Seattle area for additional interviews. The interviews at the Microsoft location took half a day and were very technical in the questions and problems presented. The type of hiring process I was in included an offer by the end of the interview day.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Very technical questions primarily based around programming topics and marketing topics.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Microsoft (Mountain View, CA) in Feb 2011
Interview
The interview was short -- about 30 minutes -- and seemed to be judged on two main things:
1) Basic Java skills. The question I got was about taking out duplicate characters in a string of lowercase letters. Then, once I gave an answer, the followup question was how I would make it more efficient. Then, I was asked about 6 different test cases I would use to see if the code was correct, and the outcome of those test cases based on my code.
2) In-depth questions I asked about Microsoft.
For 1), you really do need to talk out your thought process. I'm not excellent at coding, but by talking about my code and showing that I understand the concepts/coding paradigms/security risks, I was able to show that I have a solid understanding.
For 2), really research Microsoft's lesser known products...beyond Microsoft Office Suite. Look at Photosynth, their web security Sandbox technology, etc etc. Try looking around TechCrunch and find some current info to bring up with your interviewer, too. They really like to see that you have a wide range of knowledge about all the cool things Microsoft is doing.
In the end, I got a final round interview...but they took an extremely long time to schedule it (we're talking over a month) despite my emails in between. I ended up taking an internship position elsewhere.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Here is a string with duplicate characters in java. Remove the duplicate characters. Return value is a string
