I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Bellevue, WA) in Dec 2010
Interview
I was contacted by a recruiter after the hiring manager was forwarded my resume in response to an internal email he sent out.
Had a phone interview with the recruiter - basic questions on work status, do you need a visa, why do you want this job etc. I think this is meant to assess fit and the recruiter was very nice and gave me lots of information on the team etc. However, the role itself was not very clear.
I heard back within 2-3 days and she set up a phone interview with someone in the team for a week later.
The phone interview was fine. Again, seemed more like a 'get to know you' fit type of interview. He was very willing to answer my questions about the work they did in the team. He gave me some information on the role.
Heard back from recruiter in 2-3 days and she set up another interview, this time with the hiring manager for another week down the line.
More fit questions. A little more on my experience and some situational questions. The hiring manager gave me job information that was different to what I had got the first time. Nevertheless, it seemed to go well.
Recruiter again got in touch within 2-3 days and said she would arrange a full interview loop - supposedly 4 interviews over 5 hours.
I went in a week later for the in-person interviews. Ended up having 7 interviews over the entire day. The interview process was very disorganized. Half the people interviewing me didn't seem to know till that they were going to have to do so and didn't have my resume or know who I was and what role I was being considered for. Some of the interviewers were not even related to the team I was considering. All in all, a shambles.
The interviews themselves were a mixture of fit, experience and case-study type questions. I was glad to have read up on the industry and knowing about the company. It was important to be able to relate my experience to the role because I don't have technology experience. One thing that was strange was that the hiring manager's manager gave me a third job description. So, it seemed like no one knew what they wanted this role to do. Not impressed!
I didn't get an offer - the reason they gave was that they went with an internal candidate. So, that's that! Though I do wonder why they interviewed me if they had an internal candidate lined up?
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What woudl you do if you were a company about to launch a new electronic product and on the eve of the launch, you were told that there was an Apple product being releasted? You have no information on it except that it may be a competitor to yours?
Multiple interviewers who didn't connect prior to meetings, so a lot of repetition. Very smart questions and overall not an unpleasant process. Recruiters are overwhelmed so feedback takes a long time.
I applied through a staffing agency. The process took 5 months. I interviewed at Microsoft (Toronto, ON)
Interview
I had different 9 interviews that lasted over a number of months for a contract role. Most people asked the same types of questions. The process could have been cut in half had they spoke to each other.
The interview process was very straightforward. The interview process was very straightforward. First go through headhunter, then hiring manager, then someone in the peer level. All oral interviews... whole thing took only 2 weeks ....
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
It was a very specific and technical question... how do you drive participation
