How i got “that” job at Microsoft
What does the interview process look like at Microsoft India for a Senior engineer? What tips and approaches work well. In this blog, I’ll breakdown my interview experience and reflections.
Firstly, some news! 🎊 I recently started my new gig at Microsoft Bangalore as a Senior Software Engineer in Teams Mobile Engineering Systems team.
This team is focused on improving developer productivity by providing the tools, frameworks and infrastructure required by Teams mobile developers to land their changes in a safe and predictable manner and optimize the build test deploy loops.
In this blog, I demystify and give you an idea on how the Interview process was like at Microsoft and share my perspective on how to prepare well by offering your some tactical tips
I previously wrote a post about how I got a job at Meta London and this blog would mostly build on top of that, it may be a good idea to read that first and come back to get additional insights on how the process is different here. Go ahead, I'll wait.
The process as you may have already imagined is pretty standard in larger tech companies but I did notice some nuances that were unique to the Microsoft interview loop.
Broadly it looks like below:
Getting the interview
Coding round
Domain round
System design round
Behavioral/Leadership round
Let’s break it down a bit.
Disclaimer: This blog would give you a rough outline of the process, how to prep and the mindset to have as you approach the interview loop. Some of this is already published in the public domain by Microsoft How we hire and Interview tips. I will not be discussing any questions asked or answers given to respect the company NDA.
Getting that interview
How did I discover this position?
I mostly used LinkedIn search with a custom query to pick up roles/descriptions that seemed like a fit for my interests and skill set
You can paste a query like below in the search box under Jobs and replace it with keywords relevant to your specific industry
((SDET OR "Automation" OR "Test" OR "Quality" OR "QA") AND (Senior OR Lead OR Staff OR Principal)) OR
((Test OR Quality OR "QA" OR "Quality Assurance" OR "QE" OR "Automation") AND ("Manager" OR "Head" OR "Director"))As you can see, I cast a pretty wide net. One of the perks of being a senior engineer in the industry with decades plus of experience.
This query led me to this position on a fine day.
I could see some strong overlap with my past experience and skills and also felt there were few areas which were going to be huge learning opportunities for me so targeting this position was a no brainer.
I then used LinkedIn network to find 1st level connections in Microsoft and reached out to someone I knew and trusted for a referral.
I tailored my resume and sent it off to my contact
And then I waited …
After getting the referral, I did not hear back for a couple of weeks and reached out to my referrer. Luckily they were able to follow up internally with the hiring manager to try to get the profile prioritised.
It helped that this position was for the same team my referrer worked at so a direct line to the reporting manager did make it easier.
Your mileage really may vary here but having someone who can advocate for you internally helps a lot.
⚡Tip: The obvious tip is to invest in building your network. LinkedIn is a good place to do so and there are nuances on how to do this well. The potential gains are opportunities not just for your career growth but also learning and developing yourself as an engineer.