Read Part One: Learn how to put together and what to expect right here.
Browse Element Two: The anatomy of the giant day here. a few of the feedback we’ve seen, as well as your prior questions to the JobsBloggers, I suspect this may be one for the more popular segments in the three part series. I’ve tried to think of the various things I bring up when preparing candidates for the interview at Microsoft. If there are other things you’re curious about, please ask in the comments section and I’ll do my best to answer them.
Nerves
Interviewing can be nerve wracking. I’ll share with you some insight I received on being nervous from a facilitation training program I’ve taken. “You’ll either be nervous, or you won’t.” To expand on that, if you’re nervous during an interview, that’s ok,
buy win 7 serial key! It’s expected even. I find that beating myself up for being nervous, or trying not to be nervous, makes it worse. If you notice you’re nervous… great… notice it and move on. You can answer questions, and be nervous at the same time. If you start to worry about being nervous, instead of focusing on what the interviewer is asking, things could go downhill. So remember… you’ll either be nervous, or you won’t. I’ll be the first to admit I can be a frequent interrupter. I’m much better than I used to be, but sometimes I get so excited by an idea I have or an answer to a question that I cut off the person I’m speaking with in order to share what I’m thinking. In such an instance,
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As an interviewer, it’s extremely frustrating to be interviewing a candidate who answers a question before you’re done asking it. Not only am I now irritated that you’ve cut me off, but you’re likely going to give me an answer I didn’t ask for.
1 thing I’ve done when interviewing, or am in a meeting, etc., is if I think of something I want to add or a question – I jot it down and save it for when it’s my turn to talk.
Be careful not to assume you know everything already. I’ve had a candidate interrupt just about everything I was saying as I was preparing him to interview here. He came across as impatient and that he felt I had nothing to offer him. It didn’t leave me with a good impression. Even if you do know it all, try not to let it show.
Ambiguity
A key quality we look for in all of our positions, regardless of discipline is the ability to manage ambiguity.
I’m going to use our engineering disciplines as an example. A single for the ways we will investigate your skill in this area is to give you a coding or testing problem that may seem obvious learn how to proceed, but upon further investigation, the answer may be far from what you thought.
A testing question could be, “How would you test a soda machine?” While it’s certainly easy to come up with several test cases by making assumptions,
windows 7 key sale, you don’t have the information you need to effectively answer the question. What do I mean? Some questions you might ask before providing test cases are: What country is the machine going to be used in? Does it dispense cans or bottles? Does the machine accept credit cards? Does the machine accept cell phone payments? Does it have buttons or a touch screen? that you gather all the necessary information before you start listing out test cases for an interviewer. Failure to do so will almost always result in an incorrect assumption about what you’re testing.
Another example of managing ambiguity could be in the form of a coding or development question. If you were asked, “How would you develop a survey for employees in a company?” a few of the questions you might ask could be: How many employees are in the company? Are all the employees participating? Will this be online or via email or other technology? Could this survey, or a similar survey, be used again in the future? Are there multiple answers to the questions? jump in to your solution, you may describe an online survey that is valid, but is not what the interviewer is looking for.
The ability to gather requirements and understand the problem is critical in all of our positions. In marketing, you want to have as much details on the audience or product as possible. When you’re asked a, “how would you…?” type question, pause and ask yourself if you have all the information you need.
Who’s right?
There are often many ways to solve a problem – and sometimes there may be more than 1 optimal solution. This scenario will often come up around coding problems, either a verbal walk through, or coding on the whiteboard, but could come up in other scenario-based questions as well. I’m mentioning this because as you start to think of a solution for a problem you’ve been presented with in an interview, it could be a valid solution, but it may not be the a person the interviewer is looking for.
Bear in mind, that the interviewer likely believes they have the ideal answer for the problem they gave you. As you read through the rest of this section, consider the interviewer is looking for you to come up with their ideal answer – any hints or suggestions you get while you’re coding, are likely to assist you in arriving at their solution. I’ve had more than 1 candidate tell me the interviewer’s answer wasn’t the best – theirs was. This can be a fine line in an interview.
It’s important that you express your ideas and thoughts throughout the interview, but there comes a time when it may be wise to give your opinion that your answer is better than what they’re looking for, and give them the answer they want to hear.
I’ve had candidates argue with interviewers that their answer was the right just one – and those candidates are not often hired. As you might imagine,
microsoft windows 7 pro product key, someone who goes at a problem this way, can raise a number of concerns such as the ability to work with others, ability to listen to others’ points of views, ability to learn and receive feedback, etc.
What I tell candidates is if you find yourself in that situation – do bring up your thoughts, but do so in a way that fosters conversation. You could say something like, “I hear what you’re saying, and the reason I was going at this way is X…” and back it up with why you think your way is ideal. This gives the interviewer an opportunity to consider your solution by understanding your reasoning. If they still are prompting you to go another direction in your solution… ask yourself, would you rather be right about your idea, or would you rather do well in the interview?
Coding on the whiteboard
For you technical folks, if you’re interviewing for a SDE or SDET role, and sometimes a PM or other roles, you will need to be able to code on the whiteboard. This can be pretty intimidating for a lot of people. If you’re positive you will be unable to come up with a good solution on a whiteboard, ask if you can use a piece of paper instead.
Of course, the first thing you do when given a coding problem is to gather all on the requirements and make sure you’ve not made any assumptions. Before you start coding, let the interviewer know how you’re going to approach the problem and what language you’re going to use. Generally, the preferred language is C#, but most interviewers will let you use the language with which you’re most comfortable.
When you start writing your code, talk your way through it. I suggest this for a couple reasons. As you’re talking your way through the code, you may hear yourself make a mistake or realize there may be a better solution to the problem. You’re not expected to get it perfect on the first pass, just mention that you’ve caught a mistake or have thought of a different approach, and make any changes as necessary.
Secondly, as I mentioned before, your interviewer probably has a particular solution in mind to the problem they gave you. If, as you’re describing your code as you go, the interviewer may hear you heading towards a solution that would work, but may not be the just one they’re looking for. If that’s the case, because you’re talking as you go, they have the opportunity to steer you another direction.
An interviewer’s attempt to guide you to a different answer can sound a couple different ways. It may be a straight-out suggestion like, “Try using an array instead of a Linked List.” It could be a question like, “What happens if your code uses a null value?” If it’s a question like this, it likely means that if your code uses a null value, it will break. Take some time to go back through your code and check. A hint could also be, “Tell me why you’re doing it that way?” Perhaps you’ve come up with a great solution and the interviewer wants to hear more about what you’re thinking, or perhaps the interviewer is confused by your approach and wants to understand your reasoning so they can help point you in the right direction.
Receiving feedback and criticism can be hard enough in your regular life. With the added pressure of an interview, such feedback can be even more difficult. Remember that a suggestion or criticism is often just a hint. Don’t think, “I just failed the interview!” Don’t do that! A hint is just that, a hint.
Be curious
I touched on this in 1 of my earlier posts, but it’s important to show a passion for technology and be curious about the position and group for which you’re interviewing. Do your homework – know about the product and show up with questions that will give you some insight in to the position and the group.
Additional Resources
Here are some additional resources I’ve recommended to candidates in the past.
Add some pow to your resume
This is an article I wrote for JobsBlog. It talks about your resume – but it will give you an idea of the right way to think of what you’ve done in past positions that you will want to call out during an interview.
Workplace Coach: Interview 101
This has some good general interview tips.
Top 10 Interview Blunders
How not to interview on about.com.
Behavioral Based Interviewing
I guarantee you’ll get a few of these questions – take a look to find out more about them.
Phone Interview Tips
While focused on phone interviews,
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Programming Interviews Exposed
For those of you wanting sample questions our interviewers ask here at Microsoft, while this will likely not have the exact questions – it will give you some good sample ones to practice with.
The Seven Deadly Sins of Interviewing
This is one particular of my favorite sites – it has some extreme cases of interview mistakes, but has some valuable information as well.
Bing
Do a number of your own research! I’ve found in the past articles of current and former Microsoft employees offering their thoughts on our interviews, as well as blog posts of people’s experience interviewing here as well.
I hope you’ve found this three portion series helpful and look forward to seeing your feedback!
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