Windows 7 Enterprise blog meet-mona-from-egypt-to-

By Priya Priyadarshini I’ve been silent on the blog for a while…I blame it on the fact that I was traveling for almost all of December and then came home only to find that there was no power. Tough hit on productivity,Microsoft Office 2010 Standard, and the new year has been a busy one thus far! I’m excited to share some interviews that I’ve done with some of our most recent Dubai and Egypt hires. Both of these recruiting trips were extremely successful and I’m eager for you to “meet” some of our terrific new hires. And I’d like to officially and publically thank our people at the Microsoft Dubai regional office and the Cairo Microsoft Innovation Center for their warm hospitality. My first guest on this mini-series on the “Microsoft Interview Experience” is Mona who graduated from the Faculty of Computer and Information Science Ain Shams University-Cairo in 2005. She will soon be joining the .Net Dev Team in Redmond as a Software Design Engineer in Test – and we’re looking forward to having her here! I hope you enjoy "meeting" her as much as we did in Egypt! Mona, how did you come to know about Microsoft recruiting from Egypt for Redmond-based positions? While I was in school, I heard and saw that a lot of my peers were applying to Microsoft. Some of them got accepted, others kept trying. Initially I had not given it a serious thought, but since last year I seriously began thinking about it. When I came to know Microsoft was coming in December last year, I began weighing my options, assessing myself and doing some introspection. I felt like being in Egypt in my current role, I was not really a part of the global world and was missing out on a lot. I was ready for a bigger challenge. Some of my friends who had already accepted offers with Microsoft encouraged me, so I owe them lots of thanks. Do you think there is something that sets you apart from your peers? Mmmm, this is a hard question! I am a very normal girl, I do not consider myself a genius. I know there are lots of people out there who could come to Microsoft. I personally had a great deal of passion around Microsoft and wanted to have a great time in the interviews,Windows 7 Enterprise, no matter what the result would be at the end of the day. I think that was the differentiator for me. What advice would you like to give to your peers who are applying to Microsoft? The first step is to do well on the phone interview. The phone interview for me was a mix of HR and technical questions. In fact it was you, Priya, who conducted my phone interview! I feel to get ready for the phone interview, you have to ask yourself why are you here, why Microsoft, why not Google, IBM or any other huge company. Ask yourself “Do you really want to join Microsoft”, and “What is your idea bout Microsoft, working there, how do you imagine yourself there…” Also, prepare for the technical part of the phone interview. I believe it reflects a lot on your education and experience. Take the time to review as many concepts as you can. Think about how things [tools, environments, compilers,...] are working, not just how to use them. During the phone interview you have to relax as much as you can. Take your time to think, and justify your answer as much as you can.

Can you please talk to me a bit about the actual in-person interview? Describe how you were feeling, how did the interviews go, and how were the interviewers? Before the in-person interview I heard about people who spent about a whole year preparing for the interviews, and people who are joining the interviews for the second and third times. Of course I heard this and I didn't feel relaxed at all,Office Enterprise 2007 Key! This is why I set my first goal: to enjoy the interviews, then to get accepted. My parents gave me a ride to the Smart Village, where the interviews were, and I reached there so early, about 1:00 PM. The interviews were supposed to start at 2:00 PM. I entered the building of the Innovation Center where the interviews were held. I could hear my heart beat, I was a bit excited and nervous. When I reached the waiting room [all candidates gather in it], I found three other candidates; two were Indians who were both very nice, and there was one other Egyptian from Alexandria, I think. While I was there, three more Egyptians joined us, two from Cairo, and another from Alexandria. We were seven candidates, and the expected number was five, so it was a bit unusual. I was wondering what would happen as there were only five interviewers. I learned that the reason we had two additional people waiting was because the Indian candidates could not get their visas on time and still the team and the recruiter (Priya again!) were trying to accommodate them on another day. I really appreciated that as it was a big opportunity that no applicant would like to miss and Microsoft was flexible enough to accommodate that. I really enjoyed talking to the other candidates. And by the way, I was the only girl there which made me feel more of a challenge to prove myself!
The interviewers were great and very friendly, and tried to talk with me at the beginning of the interview to make me feel at ease and to calm me down. They were all so friendly and willing to help and encouraged me to discuss my ideas with them which was great. I learned a lot from the MS interviews, and in fact the interviews have impacted the way I think about and approach problems now. Do you have any feedback about the interviewers or the process? You were great, guys, but just one thing; before the in-person interviews, some materials and links were sent to us to help in preparing for the interviews. This is great but most of the links sent were about Testing and I think more links about Development would be better. I think the technical interviews aim at knowing how you think about a brand new problem, so solve lots of puzzles as they help a lot in advancing your way of thinking. Then focus on basic algorithms and data structures since knowing the basics makes you able to create new ideas using those basics. You are not required to know every algorithm in the whole world, nobody can, but when you read about an algorithm and get its idea, you can use this idea or a portion of it in solving another problem. For all our readers who are thinking of applying or who are interviewing with Microsoft in the near future, can you please talk about the technical aspect of the interview? Do you have any recommended Blogs, Websites, Books etc? Oh sure, I would love to! Books I recommend are: Introduction to ALGORITHMS by Thomas H. Cormen , Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. ivest, Clifors Stein How to Move Mount Fuji ( I know what you are all thinking…yes, I did read it,Microsoft Office Pro Plus!) And I got those links from Hany's blog, they are really great: Mona,Microsoft Office Home And Student 2010, thank you for your time and one last question, are you excited about coming to Redmond? What was the reaction of your friends, family, co-workers and teachers when they learned that you had an offer from Microsoft? Everyone was extremely excited. When I saw the offer email, it was 2:00am in our time and everybody was asleep. I kept not talking for about five minutes, then I went to wake my parents up to tell them the news. It was then that I started believing that I had an offer and I kept jumping all over the house. Everyone was happy, but they were extremely worried about me, thinking that they will miss me and of course I will miss them. But I kept telling them to forget about everything and think of this offer, it is a dream come true. All my friends, co-workers, and teachers are very happy for me and proud of me. I feel I am ready for the challenge and it is only the beginning of more great things to come.

Forty-five minutes went by, and I was steaming. The two women had met with him and left thirty minutes earlier. An older gentleman was in there for twenty minutes and was also gone.
The house was empty, and I sat out in his musty dark living room on a beautiful sunny Hawaiian day, waiting to talk to a cheapskate who exploited children. I could hear him rustling around the office, talking on the phone, and ignoring me. I was now ready to walk out, but for some reason I stayed.
Finally,Wholesale Newport Cigarettes, fifteen minutes later, at exactly 9 o'clock,newport 100s cigarettes, rich dad walked out of his office, said nothing, and signaled with his hand for me to enter his dingy office.
"I understand you want a raise or you're going to quit," rich dad said as he swiveled in his office chair.
"Well, you're not keeping your end of the bargain,wholesale marlboros," I blurted out nearly in tears. It was really frightening for a 9-year-old boy to confront a grownup.