Initial communication: referred by an employee and got word from a staffing agent that they were looking for a match. Once I was in the system, it took about 2 weeks for me to hear from the interested groups. Phone screen: "Tell me how you would do this" kind of interview questions. All phone interview questions were pertinent to the work that the group did...no oddball questions. After 2 days, I was invited for an onsight interview. On-site interview: I interviewed with two groups. Started at 8am, and it lasted through dinner (taken out by prospective manager) until about 9pm. The interview process was done in famous Microsoft style: the applicant visits various future colleagues in their offices, they ask questions to probe your intelligence, they make a decision, and when handing you off to the next interview, inform that interviewer of what they asked along with their initial impressions. There were no "why are manhole covers round" type of questions. Most were coding questions (boring & don't measure intelligence in my opinion), and there were a few math questions (probability & statistics). I observed that the work environment really depends on the team dynamics. Each group is a little fiefdom that competes with other groups. Of the 2 groups, I had no interest in joining one of them, and was very attracted to the other group. Unfortunately, the group that I wanted to be in deliberated, but decided not to extend an offer. The final process took 2 days. I had initial salary negotiations with the hiring agent: ballpark of 100K salary (I have a PhD) and up to 20K bonus per year...plus the fabulous Microsoft benefits package. In the end, I got a more family friendly (and more lucrative) job elsewhere.