Interviewing Zen
Posted Wednesday, September 17 2008 by The JobsBloggers
I can't stress enough that interviewing is a two way street. Team interaction and collaboration are a large part of any position here at Microsoft, just as they are a huge part of our interview process. As Matt mentioned, we like it when candidates ask us questions. Whether it’s to clarify ambiguity, satiate curiosity, or challenge ideas and preconceived notions, we can’t say it enough. Questions are good. :)
Of course, interviewing is also about balance. I try to have candidates keep the following tips in mind so that both they and the interviewer get what they need out of the interview experience.
Budget your time:
If an interviewer asks for a brief description of your current responsibilities, give just that. You can go into the details in response to later questions, as long as you give the interviewer time to get to them! (See my post on interviewing cues for more info).
Prioritize your questions:
You may not have time to ask everything you want to know. Ask the most important questions first and remember that you can spread them out over multiple interviewers.
Organize your thoughts:
Learn the art of the segue. (And no, I’m not talking about the personal transporter you might see on campus : )) It’s okay to ask questions off topic occasionally, but we like to see that you can focus on the interview.
I think this advice can really help your interview to be a collaborative and interactive experience that's rewarding for both you and your interviewer.
- Kenji
5 commentsTagged as: interviewing, kenji
Comments
I think having some well planned out questions based on your research of the company is essential.
You do no have to ask them all but if you have them in your arsenal it shows that you are interested in the company.
Please fix bad links in subj (candidates ask us questions. ). Thx
Alex - thanks for letting us know. fixed!
It's not been my experience that asking questions that "satiate curiosity, challenge ideas and preconceived notions" is a winning strategy for Microsoft interviews. In fact I've observed quite the opposite with regard to dev positions. These type of questions often elicit a defensive posture that quickly sours the interview. Even seemingly benign organizational questions like "how are QA resources requirements assessed and allocated on product/project basis?", which I view as valid and interesting question to ask when interviewing for a lead dev position, can trigger a negative reaction. In this case the interviewing QA lead took the question as disrespectful.
Interviewing is a two way street but that doesn't mean equal.
Full disclosure I'm batting 200 @ MS interviews. All SDE interviews fail with a PM success. Currently successfully self employed (and not interviewing).
Great tips and helpful comments posted also. I was curious if anyone had considered breaking down some additional tips by job role categories? I'm sure the interview scenario can play out differently between, say, a software engineering position and something like a TAM or STE position.