Interviews at Microsoft

This is how my Microsoft paid room looked like at the 5 star Westin

Just this past week I got offered the chance to interview at Microsoft HQ in Seattle, Washington for a summer internship. I got admit, I was a tad bit nervous. I had never flown out to Seattle before, or was familiar with the area. I had never, either, been to this long of an interview process before. Most of my interviews consisted of simple phone interviews followed by either technical in person interviews or over the phone ones. I usually feel like I have much more game in my interviews when they are in person. I hate talking over the phone as for some reason, it taxes my mind more and causes me to relapse in my thinking when I'm talking to people. Truthfully, I didn't feel too scared about Microsoft just because it was going to be in person. The only thing that threw me off was that they were going to be three interview sessions, all of them back to back.

I've gotten a lot of questions about the interview with Microsoft and how I did. I'll answer what I legally can.

What did they ask?

Sadly, I can not answer this question. What I can say is that some questions were technical, others were not. When going into interviews like this, I would recommend just to brush up on what you already know and have done and make sure you can code in one language strongly (know all the library functions and so on). This will greatly help you in your interview process. 

How professional was it?

It was a professional interview. These were professional questions being asked by some of the top minds in Microsoft. They did not want to hear about one's private and social life. That is why I kept on topic with what was being addressed. The only thing I brought in was the different types of community service I do to give back to the community. I also bought up my love for being outside, the outdoors, and how I was interested in the Seattle area because they had a lot beautiful places to hike.

What did you wear?

They said to dress comfortably. By golly, I dressed comfartably. I wore some nice dark blue jeans and a striped blue v-neck shirt. I topped this with a red American Apparel sweater with a fashionable brown scarf. I also had my nice red converse. I looked underdressed compared to everybody else, but I also gave off an air of confidence and audacity just coming in like that. I looked like a CS major who was interested in some cool work at Microsoft and seeing what they had to offer.

How did you do?

I really don't know. If I do get an offer letter, I'll be getting it within the next few weeks. I am interviewing with other places right now, so there will be a little bit of a rush if letters come and go at different times. I already have turned down an early offer with GE Healthcare because I didn't find it to link my exact interests at the moment and because it was so early. I had asked to extend it, before I knew what my chances were this summer, but this was not able to be done.

Any tips on interviews in nature?

A good thing to remember is just to be yourself. Be comfortable, talk and be friendly. Be confident, and not afraid, you got this already! You are a beautiful person. If you weren't, why wouldn't you have been asked to interview. They're interested. They just want to see how you perform, and how well you perform. If you are having a technical interview, you should just talk through every problem that you're doing and make sure to ask them a lot of questions and clarifications. This shows that you want to understand the whole problem before you even attempt a solution. You don't want to make a half-baked solution!

I did all of these things while at Microsoft and I did feel like they really showed Microsoft what kind of a person I am and how I program. That's what really mattered in those whole interview.

-Tron